Healthcare AI Guy Weekly | 5/6

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Our Picks ✨

Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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AI 100: The most promising AI startups of 2025

CB Insights just released the 2025 AI 100, highlighting the world’s top private AI companies. This year, vertical AI is in the spotlight, especially in healthcare. Eight standout startups are advancing clinical documentation, imaging, and more, showing how specialized AI is transforming care delivery. Here are the healthcare winners:

• BrainSightAI — AI for brain mapping

• Atropos Health — AI-powered real-world evidence platform

• Hippocratic AI — healthcare LLM and AI agent provider

• Ferrum Health — vendor-neutral AI deployment platform

• Delfina — AI-powered personalized pregnancy care platform

• Overjet — dental AI platform

• Clarium — AI-powered supply chain for healthcare

• Ambience Healthcare — AI ambient scribe

  (link)(tweet)

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Trump’s first 100 days review: AI in healthcare

President Trump’s first 100 days have brought sweeping changes to federal healthcare, with a sharp focus on AI-driven “efficiency” efforts. The newly created DOGE, led by Elon Musk, has embedded itself within HHS and other agencies to automate operations, restructure oversight, and accelerate AI adoption. Initiatives include centralized decision-making systems, machine learning audits of healthcare contracts, and AI-powered grant reviews. The administration claims over $67 billion in healthcare savings as a result. Critics warn that relying on AI to cut grants, reduce staff, and replace human oversight could widen inequalities and impact scientific integrity. Still, the administration is calling it a tech-enabled revolution. With over 3 years left in this term, its full impact remains to be seen. (link)

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Function Health acquires Ezra

Function Health, the a16z-backed lab testing platform reportedly generating over $200M in ARR since launching in 2023, has acquired Ezra, an AI-powered full-body MRI startup. The deal brings together comprehensive lab testing and AI-enhanced imaging into a single preventive health platform. The new service offers a 22-minute full-body MRI for $499, compared to the typical 60-minute, $1,500 scan, lowering the barrier for annual imaging. Combined with more than 160 lab tests, Function aims to provide a longitudinal view of health that supports earlier detection of disease. The companies believe their integrated dataset could help AI move toward more predictive care. Scans are currently available at around 100 locations, with plans to expand to over 1,000. It will be worth watching how the preventive care space evolves as Function, Prenuvo, Biograph, and others continue to scale. The competition is heating up. (link)(tweet)

Tools & Partnerships 🔧

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

TOOLS

• Pathway’s medical AI tops USMLE benchmarks with 96% accuracy: Pathway’s “Deep” model achieved 96% accuracy on USMLE-style questions, the highest publicly reported score among medical AI systems. It outperformed tools like GPT-4, Med-Gemini, and OpenEvidence, highlighting progress in AI-based clinical reasoning support. (link)

• Google DeepMind adds vision to AMIE, its diagnostic AI agent: Researchers unveiled a multimodal version of AMIE that can interpret both text and images during diagnostic conversations. The update explores how LLMs might support richer clinical dialogue by integrating test results, scans, and other visual data into real-time consultations. (link)

• Zocdoc launches Zo, a voice AI agent for 24/7 appointment scheduling: Zocdoc unveiled Zo, a conversational AI that books doctor appointments by phone, reducing call wait times for patients and freeing up front desk staff. Zo handles unlimited inbound calls and schedules visits around the clock. (link)

• Medtronic’s surgical robot Hugo tops expectations in real-world trial: In a 137-case study, Hugo assisted in prostate, kidney, and bladder surgeries with complication rates as low as 1.9% and a 98.5% success rate—far surpassing its 85% safety benchmark. Only two cases required conversion to traditional surgery. (link)

• Cedar debuts Kora, an AI voice agent to handle medical billing calls: Built with Twilio and trained on proprietary billing data, Kora automates patient billing support with personalized answers and payment options. Cedar says it's the first AI voice agent purpose-built for the patient billing experience. (link)

• DiMe releases toolkit to eliminate race-based bias in clinical algorithms: The Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) launched an open-access toolkit to help health systems identify and remove biased algorithms. Co-developed with NYC health systems, it includes five de-implementation steps, leadership engagement tools, and clinician-patient education resources. (link)

• Smart insoles flag early signs of dementia and joint issues: A new solar-powered insole system uses 22 pressure sensors and ML to detect changes in gait that may signal cognitive or orthopedic decline. The insoles transmit real-time data to a smartphone app, enabling personalized care and remote monitoring. (link)

PARTNERSHIPS

• Cleveland Clinic + Akasa: Cleveland Clinic is deploying Akasa’s generative AI tools across its U.S. locations to streamline mid-revenue cycle operations and enhance accuracy in medical coding. (link)

• Neighborhood Healthcare + Nabla: After a successful pilot, Neighborhood Healthcare expanded Nabla’s ambient AI scribe to all 220 clinicians, supporting personalized notes and multilingual documentation across its FQHC network. (link)

• MetroHealth + Pieces Technologies: MetroHealth is rolling out Pieces Technologies’ EHR-integrated AI platform across the enterprise to automate clinical workflows like progress notes, discharge summaries, and utilization reviews. (link)

• OneMedNet + Protege: The two companies are partnering to make real-world, longitudinal patient data more accessible to AI developers via the Protege platform, accelerating AI model training and research. (link)

• Lumeris + Wolters Kluwer: Lumeris integrated UpToDate into its Tom AI-powered primary care platform, delivering real-time clinical guidance and enabling autonomous next steps like screenings, medication monitoring, and patient outreach. (link)

• Epic + Wolters Kluwer: UpToDate Enterprise is now integrated into Epic’s EHR and MyChart, giving clinicians and patients direct access to multilingual patient education materials at the point of care. (link)

• Houston Methodist + Ambience: Houston Methodist is expanding use of Ambience’s AI scribe and CDI tools into ED and inpatient settings, bringing ambient AI to high-acuity care and marking the general release of Ambience’s ED and inpatient solutions. (link)

• Commure + HealthTap: The partnership enables health systems to instantly expand virtual care capacity by integrating HealthTap’s clinician network with Commure’s AI platform, offering 24/7 coverage and new service lines with no upfront cost. (link)

• Atropos Health + Ontada: Atropos Health and Ontada are partnering to enable real-world evidence generation and new care protocols across Ontada’s oncology network. (link)

• Sentara Health + Andor Health: Sentara is expanding its partnership with Andor Health to launch a unified virtual command center, building on its virtual nursing rollout with AI agents for patient monitoring, care transitions, and digital front door access. (link)

• Vanderbilt University Medical Center + DAX Copilot: VUMC is rolling out Nuance’s DAX Copilot for specialty-specific clinical documentation, advancing ambient AI adoption in academic medical settings. (link)

• Emory Healthcare + Virtusense: Emory is integrating Virtusense’s AI sensing into its virtual nursing program, with Epic MyChart Bedside TV access and fall prevention capabilities. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

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

FUNDING

• Persivia, an AI-driven digital health solution provider, completed a $107M recapitalization with Aldrich Capital Partners. (link)

• Plenful, an SF-based AI-powered healthcare and pharma workflow automation platform, raised $50M in Series B funding. Mitchell Rales and Arena Holdings led the round and were joined by Notable Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, TQ Ventures, Susa/Kivu Ventures, and others. (link)

• Blooming Health, a New York-based social services and health care coordination network, raised $26M in Series A funding. Insight Partners led, joined by insiders Afore Capital, Crossbeam Venture Partners, and Metrodora Ventures. (link)

• HealthPlan Data Solutions, a Columbus, Ohio-based pharmacy analytics startup, raised $15M. MK Capital led, joined by Tamarind Hill, JobsOhio, and Rev1 Ventures. (link)

• Stately Bio, a Palo Alto-based regenerative medicine machine learning developer, raised $12M in seed funding. AIX Ventures led the round and was joined by Dimension Capital, Foothill Ventures, Village Global, and others. (link)

• Trek Health, a San Mateo, Calif.-based health-care payments accuracy startup, raised $11M in Series A funding led by Madrona. (link)

• Basil Systems, a Boston-based AI-powered life sciences product lifecycle intelligence platform, raised $11.5M in funding. Golden Ventures led the round and was joined by Hearst Ventures and Argosy Capital. (link)

• Axiom, an AI-powered drug toxicity testing solution, raised a $15M Seed from Amplify Partners, Dimension Capital, and Zetta Ventures. (link)

• AMPLY Discovery, a Belfast-based AI-powered drug discovery technology company, raised $1.8M in seed funding. Twin Path Ventures led the round and was joined by Venture Science, Co-fund NI, British Business Bank, and QUBIS Limited. (link)

• Pallie AI, an SF-based AI-powered companion developer, raised $2M in pre-seed funding. True Ventures led the round and was joined by Palta. (link)

MERGERS & ACQUISTIONS

• Function Health + Ezra AI: Function Health has acquired Ezra and is launching a Full Body MRI with an FDA-cleared AI that cuts scan time from 60 minutes to 22 minutes, and $1500 to $499. Financial terms were not disclosed. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• Hinge Health is hoping AI can help turbocharge telehealth (link)

• Healthcare's billion-dollar AI challenge (link)

• DeepSeek’s “low-cost” adoption across China’s hospital systems (link)

• US AI czar David Sacks projects that AI will undergo a 1,000,000x increase (link)

Visuals of the Week 📸

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