Healthcare AI Guy Weekly | 10/14

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Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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Trends shaping the health economy

Trilliant Health’s 2025 ‘Trends Shaping the Health Economy’ report is a great read and paints a data-rich picture of a system in financial and structural strain. US healthcare spending hit $4.9 trillion last year (17.6% of GDP) and continues to outpace other sectors as medical prices rise faster than general inflation. Administrative costs are growing even faster than direct patient care, while affordability and access keep falling. The share of “cost desperate” adults has reached 11%, up sharply since 2021.

The report also shows mixed progress for healthcare AI. Investment more than doubled to $10.8 billion in 2024, yet over 1/3 of organizations report unclear or negative ROI from genAI use cases. The overarching takeaway: the U.S. healthcare system delivers poor value for money, and without bold internal reform, outside forces will drive the change instead. Many of the industry’s biggest challenges - affordability, access, rising admin costs - are exactly where AI could make the most impact. (link)(tweet)

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Healthcare joins the trillion-token club

OpenAI’s DevDay this week revealed which companies are pushing massive volume through their models, and healthcare made a strong showing. Abridge topped the list in medicine, ranking among the global top 10 users of OpenAI and processing over 1 trillion tokens (roughly equivalent to 100M medical visits worth of conversations analyzed by AI). For context, a token is every word a user sends or receives through OpenAI. It’s a massive leap for a startup focused on turning clinician-patient dialogue into structured medical notes.

Other healthcare names also cracked the leaderboard: Whoop (wellness and performance), Maven Bio, Doximity, Hugging Face health AI, McKinsey’s healthcare AI division, Pfizer, and Elise.AI all processed tens to hundreds of billions of tokens. The scale shows just how fast AI is being embedded across the healthcare ecosystem. For a little context: Google processes around 12 quadrillion tokens a year, ChatGPT users about 1 quadrillion, and all of humanity speaks roughly 50 quadrillion tokens annually. So total generative AI tokens are probably 17 quadrillion a year, a third of all human words spoken a year! (link)(linkedin)

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State of AI report

The famed State of AI Report just released its 2025 edition and paints a picture of a maturing field that’s moving from hype to real-world reasoning. The past year saw massive advances as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and China’s DeepSeek all rolled out models that can plan, verify, and self-correct. AI is no longer just generating text; it’s starting to think. Business adoption exploded too: nearly half of U.S. companies now pay for AI tools, average contracts top $500K, and AI-first startups are growing faster than everyone else.

Healthcare was one of the biggest bright spots. Google’s AMIE outperformed primary care doctors in diagnostic reasoning and medical note-taking, while MedGemma boosted understanding across text, images, and X-rays. Epic’s Comet improved EHR accuracy, and OpenAI’s AI Consult, tested on 39,000 patient visits in Kenya, significantly raised care quality and cut diagnostic errors. (link)(linkedin)

Tools & Partnerships 🔧

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

TOOLS

• TIME names top health AI inventions of 2025: Winners on TIME’s “Best Inventions 2025” list include RapidAI’s Lumina 3D for stroke detection, Columbia’s STAR fertility tool, Abridge for Nurses, January AI’s glucose monitor, and others advancing medical research, OR efficiency, and scientific writing. (link)

• Pennsylvania moves to regulate healthcare AI: Lawmakers introduced House Bill 1925 to require human oversight in AI-driven patient assessments and mandate proof that healthcare AI systems minimize bias and discrimination. (link)

• Duke debuts AI platform for smarter drug delivery: Duke researchers unveiled TuNa-AI, a robotics-powered system that designs nanoparticle drug carriers, boosting success rates by 43%. The platform improved delivery of a difficult leukemia drug and reduced toxicity in cancer treatments, pointing to AI's growing role in therapeutic design. (link)

• Oracle Health launches Connection Hub for data sharing: Oracle debuted Connection Hub, a unified console for managing patient data exchange across hospitals, payors, and government agencies. The tool streamlines interoperability and audit tracking, and integrates with Oracle’s Clinical Data Exchange and other networks. (link)

• Microsoft launches free AI claims denial tool for rural hospitals: Microsoft released an open-source AI navigator to help hospitals tackle insurance denials, aiming to improve reimbursements. Built in its Rural Health AI Innovation Lab, the tool is free on GitHub and available to all providers, rural or urban. (link)

• Athenahealth goes all-in on “AI-native” EHR: Athenahealth embedded agentic AI into athenaOne (no extra cost) to automate prior auth, claims, and billing. The system now achieves 98.4% clean claims, 70% less manual work, and faster payments. (link)

• Notable launches Flow AI for no-code automation: Notable unveiled Flow AI, a conversational assistant inside its Flow Builder platform, enabling healthcare teams to design and debug AI workflows using natural language and reusable automation patterns. (link)

• Incredible Health introduces AI voice agents Gale & Lyn: The staffing platform launched Gale, an AI career coach used by 1M healthcare workers, and Lyn, an AI interviewer for employers, co-built with Johns Hopkins, NYP, Baylor Scott & White, and Sutter Health. (link)

• Artera doubles down on AI patient comms: Health tech firm Artera is investing heavily in AI to “rewire” patient communications → automating outreach, routing, and personalization across its 700+ hospital partners to boost engagement and reduce no-shows. (link)

• Digital twins outperform traditional care: A Validation Institute report confirmed Twin Health’s AI-powered digital twins beat both legacy digital health tools and standard care in controlling A1C, deprescribing GLP-1s, and sustaining weight loss. (link)

• Infinitus launches MCP server for AI agents: Prior auth automation startup Infinitus unveiled a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to standardize interoperability across healthcare AI agents, streamlining data exchange and agent collaboration. (link)

PARTNERSHIPS

• Microsoft + Harvard: Microsoft will enhance its AI assistant’s medical answers by integrating licensed content from Harvard Health Publishing, aiming to improve accuracy and reliability for consumer health queries. (link)

• Nabla + Epic: Nabla joined Epic Toolbox for Ambient Voice Recognition, integrating its AI assistant directly into the Haiku app for mobile-first documentation. The rollout enables seamless use across emergency and inpatient settings and enhances collaboration within Epic’s infrastructure. (link)

• AstraZeneca + Algen Biotechnologies: AstraZeneca signed a licensing agreement worth up to $555M with Algen Biotechnologies to develop drugs using Algen’s AI-driven gene-editing platform. (link)

• OhioHealth + Aidoc: OhioHealth integrated Aidoc’s aiOS platform and Mobile Care Coordination for Acute Stroke workflows across its health system. (link)

• Infinitus + Outshift by Cisco: Infinitus partnered with Outshift by Cisco to advance interoperability and trust among AI agents. (link)

• RSNA Ventures + Heels + Rad AI: RSNA Ventures launched Heels in partnership with Rad AI to develop generative AI tools for radiology workflows. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

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

FUNDING

• DUOS, an AI benefits platform for seniors, announced a $130M strategic growth equity investment. The investment was led by FTV Capital, with participation from Forerunner Ventures. (link)

• Sensi.AI, an Austin, Texas-based AI-powered copilot for senior care, raised $45M in Series C funding. Qumra Capital led the round and was joined by Insight Partners, Zeev Ventures, Entrée Capital, Flint Capital, and Jibe Ventures. (link)

• Simple Life, a London-based AI health coach, raised $35M in Series B funding. Hartbeat Ventures led. (link)

• MediView, an augmented reality software developer, raised a $24M Series A funding round that included investments from GE HealthCare, Cleveland Clinic, and Mayo Clinic. (link)

• Foundation Health, a San Francisco-based developer of AI technology for pharmacy operations, care coordination, and direct-to-patient delivery, raised $20M in Series A funding. Define Ventures led the round and was joined by Vanderbilt University, Intermountain Ventures, and existing investors. (link)

• Attuned Intelligence, a developer of hospital call center agents, raised $13M in seed funding led by Radical Ventures and Threshold Ventures. (link)

• Peer AI, a provider of FDA drug approval documentation software, raised $12.1M in pre-seed and seed funding. Flare Capital Partners and SignalFire led, joined by Greycroft, Atria Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Gaingels, and Mana Ventures. (link)

• Onos Health, an SF-based behavioral health cost startup, raised $6.3M in seed funding led by Haystack and Pathlight Ventures. Bertelsmann Healthcare Investments and Nebular joined. (link)

• Hipp Health, an AI-native platform that streamlines administrative work, clinical documentation, and compliance for behavioral health practices, raised a $6.2M seed round. RTP Global led with participation from others. (link)

• Alleviate Health, the AI recruiter to accelerate patient recruitment for clinical research sites, announced a $4.3M seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. (link)

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

• IQVIA + Cedar Gate: Iqvia, a healthcare data and analytics company, is acquiring value-based care analytics platform Cedar Gate Technologies for $750 million. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• Rock Health digital health Q3 2025 market overview (link)

• Health systems report multimillion-dollar returns from AI (link)

• DiMe debuts the playbook: implementing AI in healthcare (link)

• Cross-industry AI Call Report with healthcare data (link)

• Survey shows providers bet on AI to fix prior auth pain (link)

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Visuals of the Week 📸

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