Healthcare AI Guy Weekly Newsletter | 11/14

Our Picks ✨

Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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AI in behavioral health — Eleos Series B

Israeli startup Eleos Health raised $40M in Series B funding (total raised $68M) to help more behavioral health providers quantify their sessions and make more data-informed decisions with AI voice analysis.

Eleos Health's technology analyzes data parameters during therapy sessions to track changes in commonly used words and log the time clinicians spend listening versus talking. The company reports tripling its revenues year-over-year, and a four-fold increase in organizations worldwide using its platform, which is now in 23 countries around the globe. In 2023, the company analyzed approximately 3 million minutes of therapy sessions, to reduce documentation times and provide insights to therapists.

The fresh funding will be used to develop new tools for case management and other back-of-office tasks. Bringing AI capabilities into behavioral health will allow clinicians to quantify their sessions and allow them to scale their time much more effectively — a much-needed boost given the lack of supply in the space. (link)

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Hims & Hers testing AI clinical decision support program

Telehealth and supplements company Hims & Hers ($HIMS) is testing an AI and machine learning clinical decision support feature that could suggest treatments for some mental health conditions.

Him & Hers new AI clinical decision support tool, MedMatch, will tap into the data from millions of visits to help its providers identify the best medication and dosage for each patient, starting with those suffering from anxiety and depression. The service is initially deployed across its mental health service line, but the intention is to roll it out across the entire Hims & Hers platform.

Hopefully, MedMatch will help improve remission rates, time to remission and customer satisfaction for the now 1.4 million online subscribers that use Hims & Hers. (link)

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ChatGPT upgrades

Sam Altman and co. just reminded the world why ChatGPT sits on the AI throne. OpenAI announced another round of upgrades for ChatGPT, including a new GPT-4 Turbo version that supports longer prompts and has an updated knowledge base through April 2023 (vs. previous cutoff was Sept. 2021).

More importantly, users now have the ability to create their own custom ‘GPTs’ without prior coding experience. Little agents that can do whatever you dream up. These customized models for specific tasks can be created using only prompts and will be available via a digital marketplace for other users to share and use.

All the buzz has been around these custom GPTs. What custom healthcare ‘GPTs’ will be created? One to help navigate open enrollment would be useful… lol (link)

Tool Box 🧰

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

🔧 Ask Ellyn: Conversational AI based on the lived experience of a breast cancer survivor Ellyn Winters-Robinson. (link)

🔧 Microsoft: Microsoft has patented an AI therapist that can offer emotional care. (link)

🤝 Artera + Hyro: Patient communication platform Artera is teaming up with Hyro to launch Artera Care Assist, an AI-powered virtual assistant that can be easily embedded into provider websites to answer common patient questions. Artera Care Assist instantly surfaces information already available on the website, such as office hours or parking information, with the goal of streamlining navigation without creating additional workload for staff. (link)

🤝 Woebot Health + Virtua Health: Academic health system, Virtua Health, is adopting an AI-enabled chatbot from Woebot Health to provide care to behavioral health patients. The chatbot “is being referred by primary care physicians to an initial cohort of up to 1,000 Virtua patients with mild-to-moderate signs of depression or anxiety. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

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

📈 Elucid: a provider of AI-powered imaging software for heart disease based in Boston raised $80M in Series C funding led by Elevage Medical Technologies. (link)

📈 Eleos Heath: a provider of AI voice analytics for therapy raised $40M in Series B funding. Menlo Ventures led, and was joined by F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads, Arkin Digital Health, SamsungNext and Ion. (link)

📈 AdaptX: a developer of AI-powered clinical management software based in Seattle raised $10M. Cercano Management led and was joined by Memorial Hermann Health System, Morningside Ventures and insiders Founders' Co-op, Fortson VC, Star Equity and WRF Capital. (link)

📈 Cercle: an AI-enabled women’s health startup Cercle raised $4.2M in funding led by former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg. Cercle’s platform organizes unstructured data such as medical records and test results into a standardized format to help clinicians develop personalized fertility plans and accelerate research. (link)

📈 Kento Health: a cardiac rehabilitation and healthtech startup using AI and based in Montreal raised C$4.1m in pre-seed funding. Boreal Ventures and N49P co-led, and were joined by Broom Ventures and Graphite Ventures. (link)

📈 Heali: a food-as-medicine startup with an AI-driven app offering personalized nutrition plans for chronic conditions raised $3M in seed funding. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• Amid concerns about claims denials, Democrats seek greater oversight of MA plans' use of AI (link)

• Opinion: AI’s rise emphasizes need for national data privacy standard to be passed (link)

• Some hospital leaders optimistic AI could address staffing shortages, burnout (link)

• Using voice biomarkers for early disease detection spurs several startups (link)

• Opinion: AI can improve quality of patient care, save lives (link)

• Americans rank AI regulation below other priorities, poll shows (link)

• Researchers release new framework outlining possible harms from, benefits of AI (link)

• Comic strip: Is AI more empathetic than your doctor? (link)

• Healthsystem AI startup market map (link)

Visuals of the Week 📸

Funny memes, cool pics, and interesting data from around the web…