Healthcare AI Guy Weekly | 6/17

Subscribe | Advertise | AI Startup Database | Feature AI Jobs

Our Picks ✨

Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

1/

The year of AI agents

Y Combinator dubbed 2025 the “year of AI agents,” and leaders like Bill Gates and Jensen Huang are calling it the biggest shift in computing since the graphical interface. Unlike chatbots or copilots, AI agents don’t just respond, they take action. They follow loops: think, plan, execute, reflect. And healthcare is becoming a proving ground.

Epic and Oracle are embedding agents in their EHRs to flag care gaps and handle documentation. MUSC’s agents (via Notable) now complete 40% of prior auths, book appointments, and send reminders. Cedar’s voice agent resolves billing issues. Hippocratic AI and Tucuvi are deploying nurse-level voice agents to handle post-discharge care. VoiceCare’s agent even waits on hold with insurers and files claims. Microsoft, Salesforce, Athelas/Commure, Innovaccer and others are building multi-agent orchestration platforms.

As adoption accelerates, so does demand for compute. Multi-agent systems use 15x more tokens than standard AI chat. That’s Jevons paradox: efficiency gains lead to bigger, more complex tasks. The agent wave isn’t just hype: it’s a new software paradigm. And with its labor gaps and broken workflows, healthcare might be the ideal place for agents to take root first. We’re only at the beginning. (link)

2/

AI in drug R&D

Billion-dollar R&D costs are forcing pharma to rethink how drugs get developed and here comes AI. As spending balloons (now ~25% of pharma revenue), companies are turning to AI to streamline everything from target discovery to clinical trial execution. A new CB Insights market map highlights 200+ companies applying AI across the drug development lifecycle. Key takeaways:

• AI tools for clinical development are more commercially mature than preclinical tools. 37% of clinical AI companies are scaling or established, compared to just 7% of preclinical ones.

• Funding trends reflect this gap. Since 2023, 9% of clinical AI funding went to late-stage companies, versus only 3% in preclinical.

• AI funding rebounded in 2024, hitting $3.8B. Discovery engines led the way, with AI-derived biologics and small molecules pulling in over $2B combined.

• EHR-based recruitment platforms and trial management systems are seeing the fastest growth, with the latter up 150% in deal volume year over year.

Companies that move quickly to adopt AI will be better positioned to lead the next wave of breakthrough therapies. (link)(tweet)

3/

Sam Altman’s AI future

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, one of the key faces on the Mount Rushmore of the AI revolution, says we’ve already passed the AI event horizon, just more quietly than expected. Tools like ChatGPT are already outperforming humans at many tasks and are used by millions every day. In 2025, agents that can reason and write code arrived. By 2026, Altman predicts AI systems generating novel insights. By 2027, robots could be handling real-world jobs. AI is speeding up scientific progress, especially in healthcare, where doctors report being 2-3x more productive, with tools helping diagnose disease, summarize research, and more. As intelligence and energy become more abundant, work will change, but society will adapt. The biggest challenge isn’t technical, it’s making sure AI stays “aligned” with human values and that its benefits are broadly shared. If we manage it well, the upside is massive. (link)

Tools & Partnerships 🔧

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

TOOLS

• Apple unveils AI-powered ‘Workout Buddy’ for Apple Watch: Debuting with watchOS 26, Workout Buddy uses Apple Intelligence to track workouts, give real-time encouragement, and personalize music and feedback. It supports multiple exercise types and requires a nearby AI-enabled iPhone. (link)

• AI foot scanner predicts heart failure up to 13 days in advance: UK-based Heartfelt Technologies developed a wall-mounted device that uses AI to track ankle swelling, identifying signs of worsening heart failure before emergency care is needed. (link)

• Brooklyn Health modernizes mental health assessments with AI tools: NYC-based Brooklyn Health is piloting AI-assisted assessments to streamline mental health screening in clinical trials, aiming for faster, more standardized patient evaluations. (link)

• OpenAI releases o3-pro, its most advanced reasoning model: The new model improves performance in coding, science, and education, and is now available via API and for Pro users with integrated tools like web search and Python. Pricing starts at $20 per million input tokens. (link)

• New AI model boosts skin diagnosis for non-dermatologists: Developed by researchers at Monash University, PanDerm was trained on 2M skin images and can analyze multiple modalities to support diagnosis, risk assessment, and lesion tracking, making it useful for both specialists and general clinicians. (link)

• FutureHouse launches ether0, an open-weights chemistry AI model: The new model delivers strong reasoning performance on scientific tasks and is freely available, outperforming existing top models in chemistry benchmarks. (link)

• Amwell co-founder launches Aileen, an AI companion for aging adults: Dr. Roy Schoenberg’s new venture, Aileen.ai, aims to support older adults with AI-powered companionship and caregiving tools, following his departure as Amwell CEO in 2024. (link)

PARTNERSHIPS

• MD Anderson + HealthEx: Cancer research leader MD Anderson is partnering with health data startup HealthEx to develop an AI-driven platform that simplifies patient consent and gives patients more control over how their data is used in research and care. (link)

• Ensemble Health + Cohere: RCM leader Ensemble partnered with enterprise AI company Cohere to launch an agentic AI platform for end-to-end RCM. The platform leverages Ensemble’s operational data and Cohere North infrastructure to automate and optimize workflows across the full revenue cycle. (link)

• Los Alamos + Meta + Berkeley Lab: The trio released Open Molecules 2025, a public dataset of 100M+ molecular simulations to accelerate AI research in chemistry, drug discovery, and materials science. (link)

• Atropos Health + Databricks: AI-powered evidence generation platform Atropos is teaming up with data infrastructure leader Databricks to accelerate real-world evidence research at scale. (link)

• CHAI + The Joint Commission: CHAI is partnering with The Joint Commission to co-develop AI best practices and launch a certification program for medical AI to boost trust and oversight across the industry. (link)

• Southwest General + Notable: Southwest General Health Center is deploying Notable’s AI platform to automate admin workflows like scheduling, intake, and care gap closure, reducing burden on staff and improving patient access. (link)

• TeleTracking + Palantir: TeleTracking and Palantir are teaming up to deliver real-time hospital operations intelligence, helping health systems optimize capacity, staffing, and patient flow with AI-driven decision support. (link)

• AstraZeneca + CSPC: AstraZeneca signed a $5.3B AI research deal with China’s CSPC to co-develop new oral therapies for chronic diseases using AI-driven drug discovery. (link)

• Isomorphic Labs + OpenBind Consortium: Isomorphic Labs is joining the UK-led OpenBind initiative to generate 500,000 protein-ligand structures and binding affinity measurements, creating a massive public dataset to accelerate AI-driven drug discovery. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

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

FUNDING

• Ellipsis Health, building an AI care manager for patients with complex physical & behavioral health, raised a $45M Series A funding round, led by Salesforce, Khosla Ventures, CVS Health Ventures and previous investors. (link)

• Autonomize AI, an Austin, Texas-based provider of AI agents to health systems, raised $28M in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Valtruis, Cigna Ventures, and Tau Ventures co-led, joined by Asset Management Ventures, ATX Venture Partners, and Capital Factory. (link)

• Parallel Bio, a Cambridge, Mass.-based drug discovery company, raised $21M in Series A funding. AIX Ventures led the round and was joined by Amplo, Marc Benioff, and existing investors Metaplanet, Humba Ventures, Atypical Ventures, and others. (link)

• Arketa, a NYC-based business platform for fitness and wellness studios, raised $15M in Series A funding. Inspired Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors First Round, Y-Combinator, Amity, and Velvet Sea. (link)

• Guidehealth, a Dallas-based AI-powered health care services provider, raised $10M in funding from Emory Healthcare. (link)

• Somnee, a Berkeley-based AI-powered sleep technology developer, raised $10M in seed extension funding. Khosla Ventures led the round and was joined by TIME Ventures, LEAD VC, the NBA’s Orlando Magic ownership group, and others. (link)

• Tombot, a California-based company building robotic companion animals for seniors with dementia, raised $6.1M in Series A funding. The round was led by Caduceus Capital Partners with participation by new and existing investors. (link)

• Ryght AI, an Anaheim, Calif., clinical trial automation startup, raised $3M in seed funding, per Axios Pro. Foothill Ventures led, joined by LDV Partners. (link)

• Hellocare.ai, an ambient clinical AI startup, raised an undisclosed amount from Mayo Clinic. (link)

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

• Capital Rx + Amino Health: Capital Rx has acquired Amino Health to power its new care navigation platform, Judi Care, expanding its enterprise capabilities to serve nearly 60 million covered lives. The integration combines AI-driven patient navigation with unified claims processing to help employers offer more transparent, effective, and holistic benefits plans. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• Majority of diagnostic laboratory leaders bet on digital pathology & AI (link)

• The FDA plans to use AI in drug approvals to "radically increase efficiency” (link)

• How healthcare CIOs are shaping AI’s role in patient care and ops (link)

• AI x care delivery: healthcare services as software (link)

• Anne Wojcicki just bought back 23andMe for $305M (link)

AI Job Opportunities 💼 

Contact us to feature roles in our newsletter…

• Lead Product Designer at Counsel Health, an AI primary care company

  $150 - $190K | NYC / Remote (link)

• Product Ops, GTM at Commure, an enterprise health AI platform

  $125 - $150K | Mountain View (link)

• Founding Engineer at Autoblocks AI, an LLM proactive testing startup

  $NA | NYC (link)

• Founding GTM/Growth at Oncare, an AI clinical ops platform for cancer care

  $NA | Remote (link)

• Health AI Researcher at OpenAI, an LLM foundation model company

  $245 - $440K | San Francisco (link)

Visuals of the Week 📸

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