Healthcare AI Guy Weekly Newsletter | 10/17

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Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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HLTH23 — the era of AI

As many of you know, this past week was the annual HLTH conference. One of the leading conferences for innovation in healthcare. As expected, AI was a dominant theme. Some of the top AI-related announcements below:

• Microsoft: unveiled new AI and data products to help healthcare organizations easily access and learn from the mountains of information collected by doctors and hospitals

• Google Cloud: announced healthcare-focused search capabilities that connect clinical data to the Vertex AI algorithm development platform

• Clear: Clear, the biometric airport security provider, partners with Verato, b.well to scale up digital identity tech in healthcare

• DrFirst: unveiled its Fuzion platform that uses “clinical-grade AI” to streamline clinical workflows such as medication reconciliation

• PEP Health: released a report using AI-powered natural language processing on over 25M patient comments across 8.5M unique web pages to benchmark US hospital patient experience trends

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AI can help diagnose brain tumors during surgery

Researchers in the Netherlands have developed an AI system that can rapidly analyze DNA from tumors during surgery — providing diagnostic details to help guide the operation.

• The AI scans tumor DNA modifications to classify the type and subtype in under 90 minutes

• Quick diagnosis aids decisions on how aggressively to remove tissue near the tumor

• In tests, the AI matched standard pathology methods and provided actionable insights during live surgeries

• The tool works faster than sending samples for genetic sequencing — which can often take weeks

This innovative AI-based method could be a game-changer for surgeries — contributing to more tailored, precise, and safer therapies. (study)(link w/out paywall)

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AI predicts future viral mutations

Researchers at Harvard and the University of Oxford developed an AI system that can forecast new variants of viruses (e.g. SARS-CoV-2, HIV, etc.) and thus ‘future-proof’ vaccines against mutations.

• The tool, EVEscape, uses evolutionary data to predict mutations that viruses may develop — also incorporating biological details like specific regions targeted by the immune system

• In tests, EVEscape accurately predicted major COVID variants and antibody treatment susceptibility

• It scans tens of thousands of variants to identify the most threatening — sharing predictions with the hope of designing vaccines resistant to future strains

AI systems like this can hopefully boost our preparedness for viral outbreaks going forward, helping reduce the impact and duration of future pandemics. (link)

Tool Box 🧰

Latest on business, consumer, and clinical healthcare AI tools and partnerships…

🔧 NextGen Healthcare: NextGen Healthcare launched its own AI-backed notetaking product. NextGen Healthcare’s Ambient Assist tool listens to conversations between patients and providers and summarizes appointments and care plans. (link)

🔧 NuraLogix: NuraLogix announced its ‘Anura telehealth platform’, allowing physicians to monitor a wide range of patient vitals during video calls using analysis of patients’ faces. The platform analyzes facial blood flow data and then applies AI to estimate over 100 health parameters (e.g. pulse, respiration, blood pressure, cardiac workload) and make risk assessments (e.g. T2D, CVD, heart attack, stroke, hypertension). (link)

🔧 RetiSpec: RetiSpec, a Toronto-based AI company focused on early detection of neurodegenerative diseases through eye exams, has developed an AI algorithm that it says can analyze results from an eye scanner and detect signs of Alzheimer’s 20 years before symptoms develop. (link)

🔧 DUOS: DUOS, a tech-enabled service provider that helps older adults age independently, introduced an AI platform helping match seniors with primary care, transportation, and more. (link)

🤝 Atrium + Nuance/Microsoft: Atrium Health, based in Charlotte, NC, plans to expand the use of Microsoft-owned Nuance’s AI Copilot — Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Copilot — across all 40 of its hospitals. 92% of clinicians said the automatic documentation solution was “easy to use” and 84% reported an overall improved documentation experience. (link)

🤝 Cedars-Sinai + K Health: Cedars-Sinai, based in Los Angeles, and K Health, a digital primary care startup, launched an AI-driven virtual care app for new and existing patients in California. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

Spotlight on latest capital raises, M&A and investments…

📈 Orbem: a startup paring AI with MRI scans based in Munich raised $32M in Series A funding. The round was led by 83North, with participation from La Famiglia, The Venture Collective, Possible Ventures, and others. (link)

📈 Optimize Health: a provider of remote patient monitoring software based in Seattle raised $18M in Series B funding. Foundry Group and Escalate Capital Partners co-led and were joined by others. (link)

📈 FluidAI: a startup using AI for postoperative patient monitoring raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by SOSV and Graphene Ventures with participation from several other investors. (link)

📈 Arctop: a developer of cognition software based in LA raised $10M in Series A funding co-led by Fifth Growth Fund and Supermoon Capital. (link)

📈 Leucine: a company using AI to digitize pharmaceutical manufacturing processes based in NYC raised $7M in Series A funding. Ecolab led the round and was joined by Pravega Ventures, Axilor Ventures, Techstars, and others. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

News, podcasts, blogs, tweets, resources, etc…

• Predictive AI models can become a victim of their own success (link)

• Opinion: sharing datasets will help advance AI health tech (link)

• Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals chiefs to advise generative AI startup, Hippocratic AI (link)

• The AI-empowered patient is coming: Are doctors ready? (link)

• ChatGPT: physician’s friend or foe? (link)

• General Catalyst announces new healthcare company, intent to purchase health system (link)

• Air Street Capital: State of AI Report 2023 (link)

• AI FAQs you need to know (link)

AI Images of the Week 📸

Funny memes and pics from around the web…