Healthcare AI Guy Weekly Newsletter | 11/7

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Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

1/

Biden issues executive order on AI regulation

We previewed this in last week’s issue and here it is… Biden’s executive order on AI. This marks the US government's first regulations on AI systems and includes several healthcare-specific initiatives:

• HHS to create an AI task force within 6 months to assess new models before they go to market and oversee their performance once they do

• Requiring that task force to build a regulatory structure that can “maintain appropriate levels of quality” in AI used for care delivery, research, and drug development

• Healthcare AI developers are required to share their safety testing outcomes

• Standing up AI.gov to serve as the go-to resource for federal AI standards

There has been heavy debate among the AI community on whether to accelerate or decelerate. Many seem to think these guardrails are too early, stating that AI has been convicted of a pre-crime and that the technology needs time to develop before we can regulate effectively. We tend to agree and have doubts that the administration is properly educated on the technology to do it the right way. Overall, regulation can potentially help adoption in some industries (hopefully that is the case with AI in healthcare) but it’s important these regulations don’t hinder progress and innovation nor allow other countries to get ahead. (link)

2/

Apple bets on AI for next-gen health monitoring

Apple reportedly plans to launch advanced health monitoring powered by AI for its Apple Watch and AirPods, as well as paid health coaching services in 2024. High-level details:

• Apple Watch will gain sensors and algorithms to detect conditions like hypertension and sleep apnea without dedicated devices.

• Apple aims to leverage AI speech analysis and audio tuning to enable AirPods to serve as hearing aids and provide hearing tests.

• A new subscription service will offer personalized workout and nutrition recs, powered by users' health data and AI models.

AI healthcare tech is advancing at an astonishing rate and we are seeing more and more device companies integrating AI with health, such as the recent WHOOP Coach announcement. News like this is exciting for consumers and will hopefully allow them to have more agency over their health. (link)

3/

Olive AI shuts down

Revenue cycle automation startup, Olive AI, sells off business units and winds down after raising $900M and being previously valued at $4B. The company was backed by notable investors including General Catalyst and Oak HC/FT.

Olive was initially developed to automate high-volume, repetitive tasks in healthcare. The company expanded its capabilities through acquisitions, including AI software provider Verata Health and AI-powered clinical analytics company Empiric Health. However, due to shifts in the industry landscape, evolving customer expectations, and challenging market conditions Olive had to shut down. The company has been slowly shedding assets to other players and just recently sold its patient access software product to Waystar and its prior authorization business to Humata Health.

Other health tech "unicorns" have also shut down this year, including Babylon Health and Pear Therapeutics and more could follow. This highlights the worsening environment and the difficulty in managing fast-paced growth with focus. It seems that we are now officially in a ‘buyers market’. (link)

Tool Box 🧰

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

🔧 DeepMind: DeepMind just revealed an update to AlphaFold 2, which can now predict structures of diverse molecules beyond proteins — unlocking new drug discovery capabilities. (link)

🔧 LLMs in MSK Care: Mount Sinai researchers demonstrated that publicly trained LLMs can accurately identify the pain location and acuity of certain musculoskeletal conditions. (link)

🔧 AI diagnoses diabetes by voice: Researchers trained an AI to spot type 2 diabetes from subtle vocal clues, analyzing pitch and intensity to diagnose patients in just seconds. (link)

🔧 AI tool to grade severity of rare cancer: Researchers used an AI tool to analyze scans and grade the severity of a rare abdominal cancer, sarcoma, providing significantly more accurate diagnostic results than current biopsy methods. (link)

🔧 Docus AI: Diagnose fast with AI, verify with top human doctors. (link)

🤝 Emory + DrFirst: Emory Healthcare partnered with DrFirst to assist patients with medication adherence and cost barriers. Emory will have access to DrFirst’s Fuzion platform which uses clinical-grade AI to streamline clinical workflows like medication reconciliation while offering analytics on drug fills, patient engagement, and improvement areas. (link)

🤝 Suki Expansion: Suki expanded its ambient AI platform to over 20 new independent practices across a wide range of specialties. The Suki Assistant is uniquely positioned with ambient note-generation capabilities, separate dictation and command modes, and wide EHR integrations. (link)

🤝 Cedars-Sinai + K Health: The recently launched Cedars-Sinai Connect app co-developed with K Health has been able to provide any-time virtual access to its physicians, which takes pressure off of brick-and-mortar locations while giving patients more self-serve options to meet their needs. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

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

📈 Covera Health: an AI diagnostics platform focused on reducing medical errors based in New York raised up to $50M in Series C extension funding. Covera also acquired CoRead, an AI quality assurance company. (link)

📈 Engine Biosciences: a machine learning drug discovery platform focused on cancer that is based in Singapore and Silicon Valley raised $27M in Series A extension funding. Polaris Partners led and was joined by Coronet Ventures, Seeds Capital and insiders ClavystBio, Invus and EDBI. (link)

📈 Betteromics: an analytics company for life science data based in Redwood City, CA raised $20M in Series A funding. Sofinnova Partners and Triatomic Capital led the round and were joined by SHAKTI. (link)

📈 Jona: a startup that uses AI to analyze gut microbiome based in Stamford, CT raised $5M in seed funding co-led by Breyer Capital and Meridian Street Capital. (link)

📈 Yuzu Health: an AI-powered platform to build health plans based in New York raised $5M in seed funding. Lachy Groom led and was joined by Neo, Day One Ventures, Altman Capital, WndrCo and Browder Capital. (link)

📈 LighthouseAI: a maker of pharma supply chain tools based in Los Angeles raised $4.6M in seed funding. Healthy Ventures and BluePointe Ventures co-led, and were joined by Eileses Capital, Bertelsmann Next and the Legal Tech Fund. (link)

📈 Clearblow: a company developing AI-powered respiratory health solutions, raised undisclosed funds in a pre-seed round led by Global Venture Capital Partners. (link)

✅ IKS + AQuity Solutions: IKS Health, a clinical documentation, coding and revenue tech company, acquired AQuity Solutions for $200M. IKS Health sells a platform solution that automates administrative, clinical, and operational functions for providers. It will add AQuity’s technology to bolster its care enablement platform, which uses AI to help clinicians document care. (link)

✅ Commure + Rx.Health: Commure, a leading healthcare technology company, acquired Rx.Health for an undisclosed sum. Rx.Health, now Commure Engage, uses AI/automation to streamline clinical care coordination for payors, providers, and life science orgs. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• Ex-Google CEO Schmidt bets big on AI scientists (link)

• UK government has launched a £100M AI Life Sciences fund (link)

• AI will become ‘increasingly meaningful’ for GE HealthCare’s growth (link)

• Experts say Olive AI will not be last digital health startup to fail (link)

• Survey: Majority of physicians concerned about AI’s influence on diagnoses (link)

• What the executive order means for openness in AI (link)

• How former Googlers’ VC firm invests in everything from LLMs to AI doing drug discovery (link)

• Roundtable discusses how wearables, VR could engage neurodiverse populations (link)

• New rules for health agencies that use AI (link)

Visuals of the Week 📸

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