Healthcare AI Guy Weekly | 10/28

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Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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HLTH 2025 recap

More than 12,000 healthcare leaders gathered in Las Vegas for HLTH 2025, where AI and automation took center stage again, but this year’s focus was on how “agents” are beginning to take action across workflows vs just assisting with them. Here are some of the top AI announcements from the week that we haven’t yet covered:

• Hinge Health launches AI-powered movement analysis: Rolled out a computer vision tool to measure MSK outcomes & an AI care assistant for 24/7 triage. (link)

• Optum introduces Optum Real: Rolled out a real-time multi-payer claims system delivering instant coverage validation at the point of submission. (link)

• GE HealthCare expands AI hospital ops: Partnering with Duke Health and Queen’s Health Systems to enhance insights and optimize patient flow. (link)

• Suki launches nursing AI consortium: Suki, AvaSure, and health systems to co-develop Suki for Nurses and bring ambient AI into virtual care. (link)

• Abridge + Wolters Kluwer: Abridge is embedding UpToDate insights into clinical conversations to streamline decision-making. (link)

• Spring Health unveils ethical AI benchmark: Introduced the first open-source framework to validate safety and ethics of mental health chatbots. (link)

• UPMC + Penguin AI: UPMC partnered with Penguin AI to validate new AI models in a secure environment using its Ahavi data platform. (link)

• League introduces Agent Teams: Multi-agent system guiding users through complex health journeys via its AI-first platform. (link)

• Lorikeet brings Team of Agents to healthcare: Deploying multi-agent suite to manage vendor calls, provider messaging, and patient engagement. (link)

• Arbital Health debuts Merlin AI: Introduced a value-based care assistant that interprets complex risk data and suggests next best steps. (link)

• IntelePeer launches SmartAnalytics Starter Pack: Lowered the barrier to AI adoption with real-time dashboards and agent-driven automation. (link)

• Vital unveils AI-powered urgent care platform: Offered real-time updates, wait times, and personalized guidance. (link)

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The state of AI in healthcare

Healthcare has officially taken the lead in enterprise AI adoption, according to Menlo Ventures’ 2025 State of AI in Healthcare report. Historically a digital laggard, the $4.9T industry is now deploying AI at more than 2x the rate of the broader economy. Adoption jumped from just 3% to 22% in two years, with health systems leading at 27%, ahead of outpatient providers at 18% and payers at 14%. What’s driving the surge for providers is a mix of labor shortages, administrative waste, and mounting financial pressure that make automation a real need.

Investment has followed the urgency. Healthcare AI spending hit $1.4 billion this year (~3x 2024’s total) with startups capturing 85% of that as providers move fast on ambient documentation, billing automation, and patient engagement. Sales cycles are speeding up too, with health systems buying in 6.6 months on average and outpatient providers in 4.7. Giants like Kaiser, Mayo Clinic, and Advocate are already deploying AI at scale, marking a decisive shift from experimentation to execution. Healthcare’s AI moment has arrived, but with 80% of the market still untapped, the next wave is arriving fast, and it’s leading the industry forward. (link)(linkedin)

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The digital health 50

CB Insights just released its 2025 Digital Health 50, highlighting startups selected from more than 12,000 contenders that reflect where digital health is heading, from preventive care and workflow automation to AI infrastructure. 47 of the 50 are building with AI, showing the continued shift from reactive, paperwork-heavy systems to proactive, tech-enabled care for patients and clinicians. Key takeaways from this cohort:

• Preventive care goes mainstream: Startups like Anumana, Function Health, and Teal Health are using AI to enable earlier disease detection, continuous monitoring, and at-home diagnostics, shifting care from hospitals to homes.

• Automation tackles burnout: Companies such as Ambience, Freed, and Nabla are streamlining documentation and hospital workflows, helping reduce clinician burnout and staffing shortages.

• AI purpose-built for healthcare: New infrastructure players are addressing safety, compliance, and trust, critical for regulated clinical environments. From data governance and consent management (Qualified Health, HealthEx) to clinically validated language models (Hippocratic AI).

• Voice AI becomes healthcare’s front door: Tools like Hyro, Kouper Health, and Assort Health are automating patient calls, scheduling, and insurance verifications, cutting costs and freeing staff for higher-value care.

  (link)(linkedin)

Tools & Partnerships 🔧

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

TOOLS

• Nucleus Genomics unveils Origin AI for embryo screening: The company launched Origin, a suite of AI models that predict genetic disease risks from embryonic DNA, analyzing 7M markers to assess likelihood of Alzheimer’s, cancers, and diabetes. Nucleus also open-sourced the tech. (link)

• Oscar unveils Oswell AI for member guidance: Health insurer Oscar introduced Oswell, an AI assistant built with OpenAI tech to help members check symptoms, find in-network doctors, estimate costs, refill prescriptions, and get post-visit coaching. (link)

• Anthropic adapts Claude for biotech research: Anthropic is customizing its Claude model to integrate with biomedical databases and lab workflows, aiming to streamline drug discovery for partners like Novo Nordisk and Sanofi. (link)

• USC unveils AI for rapid rare cancer cell detection: USC researchers developed “Rare Event Detection”, an algorithm that identifies cancer cells in blood within 10 minutes, detecting 99% of cases and cutting review time 1,000-fold. (link)

• Mount Sinai tests GPT-4 to flag bias in clinical notes: A Mount Sinai study found GPT-4 detected biased language in 50K ED notes with 95.5% sensitivity and 85.7% specificity, identifying bias patterns linked to shift timing, high ED use, and substance-related visits. (link)

• Yale launches AI to catch pathology report errors: Yale School of Medicine developed an AI tool that cross-checks pathology reports with medical records to flag discrepancies in diagnosis site or laterality, helping pathologists correct mistakes before finalization. (link)

• Stanford debuts AI to monitor other AI systems: Stanford researchers introduced the “Ensembled Monitoring Model”, which tracks confidence in commercial AI outputs in real time, without ground truth data or internal model access. (link)

• Health systems see ROI from Abridge AI scribe: Sharp HealthCare, MaineHealth, and others reported time savings and higher patient throughput as Abridge’s new ROI framework tracks efficiency, revenue, and clinician retention. (link)

PARTNERSHIPS

• Mass General Brigham + K Health: MGB partnered with K Health to launch Care Connect, an AI-driven virtual primary care service that shortens PCP wait times. The app collects patient info and generates physician-ready charts to streamline visits. (link)

• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia + Epic: CHOP is piloting Epic’s phenotyping AI, which extracts structured data from patient notes to accelerate genetic diagnoses and advance precision medicine. (link)

• Cohere Health + Microsoft: Cohere Health is integrating Microsoft’s Dragon Copilot to deliver real-time prior authorization approvals at the point of care. (link)

• Hackensack Meridian Health + Cadence: Hackensack Meridian partnered with Cadence to expand remote care for older adults. Cadence’s AI platform monitors chronic conditions via connected devices, alerting clinicians to intervene when needed. The program already tracks over 1,000 patients. (link)

• UC San Diego Health + GE HealthCare: UCSD Health is collaborating with GE HealthCare to modernize imaging operations with AI tools that enhance workflow efficiency and turnaround times. (link)

• Sutter Health + Ferrum Health: Sutter Health expanded its use of Ferrum’s AI model evaluation platform to assess and optimize mammography algorithms across the system. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

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

FUNDING

• Periodic Labs, an AI startup working to speed up scientific research, has raised $300M in funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the seed investment with participation from Nvidia Corp., Accel and DST. (link)

• OpenEvidence, the AI medical assistant for clinicians, raised $200M in Series C funding at a $6B valuation led by GV. Existing investors Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, Thrive and Coatue backed the series C. New investors BOND, Blackstone and Craft also joined the round. (link)

• Chemify, a Scottish AI drug synthesizer, raised over $50M in Series B funding. Wing VC and Insight Partners led, joined by 8VC and insiders Triatomic Capital, Blueyard, Rockspring, and Eos. (link)

• Expedition Medicines, a Cambridge, Mass.-based AI drug discovery startup using quantum covalent chemistry, raised $50M in Series A funding from Flagship Pioneering. (link)

• Hyro, a New York-based developer of call-center agents for healthcare, raised $45M. Healthier Capital led, joined by Norwest, Define Ventures, Bon Secours Mercy Health, and ServiceNow Ventures. (link)

• Knownwell, a virtual obesity and metabolic healthcare company, raised $25M in funding. CVS Health Ventures led the round with participation from MassMutual Catalyst Fund, Intermountain Ventures, a16z, and Flare Capital Partners. (link)

• Generation Labs, a provider of personalized epigenetic testing, raised $11M in seed funding. Accel led, joined by Samsung Next, Steve Aoki, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Simu Liu. (link)

• Ampa, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based brain stimulation startup, raised $8.5M. Nexus NeuroTech Ventures led. (link)

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

• Machinify + Performant Healthcare: Machinify, a portfolio company of New Mountain Capital, took Performant Healthcare, an NYC-based healthcare analytics company, private for approximately $670M. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• Ensemble Health eyes $13B IPO or sale in 2026 (link)

• Epic winds down startup investment program that Abridge was a part of (link)

• AI adoption in healthcare is surging, new report shows (link)

• Younger patients skip doctors, turn to AI for health advice (link)

Visuals of the Week 📸

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