Welcome back, readers —
Let’s get to it:
Consumers are leaning into AI for health
AI is now prescribing psychiatric meds
Health AI’s most innovative companies
22 new tools/partnerships, 11 funding updates, new AI jobs & link-worthy content
Read time: 6 minutes
Our Picks ✨
Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…
1/
Consumers are leaning into AI for health
Consumers are moving faster than the healthcare system when it comes to AI. A new Rock Health survey found that 32% of U.S. adults have used AI chatbots for health questions, 2x last year, with 64% using them weekly or more. A separate KFF poll shows similar adoption, with 1 in 3 adults now turning to AI for health advice, including 29% for physical health and 16% for mental health.
Usage spans the full care journey, from symptoms and diagnoses to medications and treatment options. Around 59% search treatment options, 56% ask about symptoms, and 55% explore medications. Speed and access are key drivers, with 65% citing instant answers and nearly 1 in 5 pointing to cost or access barriers. The appeal is clear: speed, convenience, and access. Many users turn to AI before deciding whether to see a doctor, and some because they cannot afford care or get an appointment.
What happens next is just as important. Over 80% take action after using AI, including 40% consulting a provider, while others change behaviors or continue researching. The shift is already underway. Consumers are not waiting for AI in healthcare, they are bringing it with them. (linkedin)
2/
AI is now prescribing psychiatric meds
AI is starting to cross a new line in healthcare. Legion Health, a YC-backed telepsychiatry startup, is launching a program in Utah where AI can handle psychiatric prescription renewals, marking one of the first real-world use cases of AI directly participating in medication management.
The model is intentionally narrow. The AI only renews lower-risk medications like SSRIs and runs a quick safety check for side effects, interactions, and warning signs, with any issues escalating to a human clinician. Patients opt in and pay about $20 per month for faster, more accessible care in a state where provider shortages are widespread. This builds on earlier momentum in Utah, where Doctronic was already allowed AI to autonomously renew a broader set of medications under a regulatory sandbox.
Long wait times and high costs have made even routine care difficult to get. If AI can safely handle repeatable, lower-risk tasks, it could become a meaningful lever to lower consumer burden and expand access at scale. (link)(tweet)
P.S. Our Healthcare AI Guy Company Deep Dives have proven to be a strong early signal for emerging winners in the space. All of the companies we’ve featured have meaningfully accelerated growth, including Legion Health, which we covered in November 2025. More to come 👀
3/
Health AI’s most innovative companies
Fast Company just dropped its 2026 Most Innovative Companies list, and healthcare AI made a strong showing. Four health or health-adjacent companies cracked the overall top 50: Abridge (#3), Lila Sciences (#9), OpenEvidence (#12), and Hume AI (#18). Not bad company, sitting alongside names like Google and Anthropic.
Beyond the top rankings, the broader list highlights how widely AI is reshaping healthcare. Companies like OpenEvidence and Mendel are advancing clinical intelligence, while Rad AI, Overjet, and VideaHealth are transforming imaging and diagnostics. On the care side, players like K Health, Lyra, and Hello Heart are rethinking how patients access and manage care.
AI is becoming foundational across the healthcare stack, and these are some of the companies pushing the frontier. (link)(linkedin)
Tools & Partnerships 🔧
Latest on business, consumer, and clinical healthcare AI tools and partnerships…
TOOLS
OpenEvidence adds AI medical coding: OpenEvidence launched Coding Intelligence, automatically generating CPT, E/M, and ICD-10 codes from clinical visits to reduce admin burden and improve reimbursement accuracy. (link)
Neuralink enables speech from brain signals: Neuralink demonstrated its implant translating brain activity into speech for an ALS patient, allowing communication without physical movement. (link)
Meta open-sources AI model of the human brain: Meta released TRIBE v2, a model trained on brain scans from 700+ people that can simulate neural activity across vision, language, and hearing - sometimes outperforming real fMRI data while enabling virtual neuroscience experiments at scale. (link)
Study flags risks in AI responses to psychosis: A JAMA Psychiatry study found multiple versions of ChatGPT gave inappropriate or incomplete responses to psychosis-related prompts at rates considered unacceptable for clinical use, raising concerns about reliance on chatbots for mental health support. (link)
Novo Nordisk deploys AI across trials: Novo Nordisk is rolling out AI agents in clinical trial operations to speed approvals and reduce reliance on contractors. (link)
Curai Health reports high diagnostic accuracy in real-world testing: Curai Health says its system achieved 91.3% top-1 diagnostic accuracy across ~2,400 patients and outperformed comparable systems from Google and OpenAI with significantly lower disposition error rates. (link)
New benchmark tests medical AI agents: Researchers introduced MedAgentBench, a virtual EHR environment with 300+ clinical tasks to evaluate how well LLM agents handle real-world medical workflows. Top models still show significant room for improvement. (link)
LLMs vulnerable to clinician influence: A Stanford study found that clinician input can steer AI toward incorrect diagnoses, reducing accuracy across leading models and raising safety concerns. (link)
AI-generated images fool radiologists: Radiologists struggled to distinguish real from AI-generated scans in a study, highlighting risks of deepfakes in medical imaging. (link)
Medicare faces lawsuit over AI prior auth pilot: The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing CMS for transparency into its WISeR program, which uses AI to review certain Medicare treatments, raising concerns about potential bias, denials, and financial incentives tied to reducing care. (link)
AI assistant advances cancer care support: Reimagine Care upgraded its Remi assistant to better interpret complex patient symptoms and guide oncology care between visits. (link)
Rush Health eyes $5.9M from AI coding: Rush University System expects millions in new revenue and major labor savings by automating coding for infusion services. (link)
Viz.ai launches care pathway builder: Viz.ai introduced Agent Studio, enabling health systems to build and deploy AI-powered care pathways in days instead of months. (link)
Roche builds massive AI factory: Roche is scaling drug discovery with an AI “factory” powered by 3,500+ GPUs to accelerate research and manufacturing. (link)
Wearables predict patient engagement: A Mayo Clinic study found sleep data from wearables can improve predictions of which patients will stick with rehab programs. (link)
PARTNERSHIPS
Eli Lilly + Insilico Medicine: Eli Lilly partnered with Insilico Medicine in a deal worth up to $2.75B to develop AI-designed drugs using generative models for target discovery and molecule design. (link)
Hartford HealthCare + K Health: Hartford HealthCare launched PatientGPT with K Health, an AI assistant embedded in the EHR to provide personalized patient guidance and care navigation. (link)
KeyCare + NVIDIA: KeyCare deployed NVIDIA’s Nemotron model to power an AI intake agent embedded in its Epic-based virtual care workflows, improving documentation and provider efficiency. (link)
NYC Health + Hospitals + Palantir: NYC Health + Hospitals will end its $4M contract with Palantir, discontinuing use of its software for billing and data analysis following public scrutiny. (link)
Viz.ai + Alnylam Pharmaceuticals: Viz.ai partnered with Alnylam to expand AI-enabled detection and care pathways for cardiac amyloidosis. (link)
Your Health + Fathom: Your Health deployed Fathom’s autonomous coding platform across service lines to automate documentation and billing workflows. (link)
Owensboro Health + Optum + Microsoft: Owensboro Health is piloting an AI platform from Optum and Microsoft to reduce billing gaps and streamline documentation, coding, and claims processes. (link)
Deal Desk 💰
Spotlight on latest capital raises, M&A, and investments…
FUNDING
Qualified Health, an AI platform for health systems, raised $125M in Series B funding. NEA led, joined by Transformation Capital, GreatPoint Ventures, Cathay Innovation, Menlo Ventures and insiders. (link)
Stedi, a healthcare transactions clearinghouse, raised $50M in Series C funding. Addition led, joined by Stripe, Ribbit Capital, USV, First Round Capital, and Bloomberg Beta. (link)
Thesis Care, an NYC-based clinical care platform, raised $45M in Series A funding. Oak HC/FT led, joined by CRV and Black Opal Ventures. (link)
Adonis, an NYC-based orchestration platform for healthcare RCM, raised $40M in Series C funding. Quadrille Capital led, joined by General Catalyst and Bling Capital. (link)
Clasp, a Boston-based medical student loan repayment platform designed for doctor retention, raised $20M in Series B funding. Crosslink Capital and Digitalis Ventures led, joined by Juvo and Strada Education. (link)
Blossom Health, a NYC-based psychiatry platform, raised $20M in Series A and seed funding from Headline, Village Global, and TA Ventures. (link)
Dimer Health, an AI-centric post-discharge platform, raised $13.5M in Series A financing. Team8 and Table Management led the round. (link)
Certuma, a startup building an AI doctor, raised $10M at a $60M valuation. 8VC led the round. (link)
MERGERS & ACQUISITONS
Chartis + Leap AI: Chartis acquired AI venture studio Leap AI to expand its capabilities in genetics, longevity, and clinical trials and accelerate development of AI solutions for clients. (link)
Vitality + Ramp Health: Vitality acquired Ramp Health to combine AI-driven behavioral health with workplace safety and clinical services for employers and health plans. (link)
GRANTS
The OAI Foundation: The OAI Foundation committed $1B this year across disease, job displacement, and AI safety research. (link)
as of 3/29/26
Other Relevant News 🔍
News, podcasts, blogs, tweets, resources, etc…
AI Job Opportunities 💼
Explore our AI Job Board or contact us to feature roles in our newsletter…
Visuals of the Week 📸
Funny memes, cool pics, and interesting data from around the web…
That’s it for this week friends! Back to reading — I’ll see you next week.
Stay classy,
PS. I write this newsletter for you. So if you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to reply to this email and let me know
How was this week's newsletter? Tap your choice below👇
