Healthcare AI Guy Weekly | 9/2

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Highlights if you’ve only got 2 minutes…

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The healthcare AI landgrab

In a great new report by Flare Capital Partners, they highlight how AI in healthcare has moved from experimentation to execution. Adoption is accelerating, 2/3 of physicians already use AI, and budgets continue to grow (especially in hospitals). Investors are following the signal: nearly 58% of 2025 healthcare deals involve AI, and valuations are sitting about 50% higher than last year. Value is also consolidating in a few breakout companies. At least 10 companies have crossed the $1B valuation mark in the past year, and five multi-billion-dollar exits have already been announced.

Near-term winners cluster in “administrative” work (RCM, coding, contact centers, and ops) where LLMs help turn messy, unstructured data into action and measurable ROI. Clinical AI still trails, but decision support built on structured chart and literature data is starting to gain traction (ex., OpenEvidence).

Top players share a common playbook and value metrics: 75–90% automation, ≤6-month integrations, 5x+ ROI (often within 1–2 months), and smart distribution via EHR partnerships and contingency pricing. The battlefield now is horizontal expansion as startups and incumbents (Epic, Doximity, R1/Waystar, etc) race to own the clinician-assistant stack. In the healthcare AI world, expect bigger budgets, faster consolidation, and distribution to remain the decisive moat. (link)

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OpenAI’s new healthcare team

OpenAI has been assembling a rockstar healthcare team as the company expands from the foundation model layer to building its own health products. The company hired Nate Gross, MD (Doximity cofounder) to lead healthcare go-to-market and Ashley Alexander (former Instagram co-head of product) as VP of health products. With unmatched direct distribution (~700M weekly users) and a track record of being world-class at product, they are well-positioned to build something great here and are reportedly working on a standalone health app outside of ChatGPT.

Recent signals point to a broader vertical strategy: GPT-5’s strong health performance claims and May’s release of HealthBench, an open benchmark for evaluating clinical AI. Sam Altman also mentioned that health queries are one of the biggest categories of ChatGPT usage, making a first-party product a logical next step. OpenAI says it will continue partnering with providers like Penda Health and companies such as Summer Health and Oscar Health while it builds. The move fits a strategy to own models, infrastructure, and applications in verticals like education and healthcare. This is a massive chance to turn AI progress into everyday health benefits and accelerate safer, simpler, and more equitable care. (link)

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The healthcare C-Suite’s take on AI

A new report from Sage Growth Partners reveals a widening gap between healthcare’s enthusiasm for AI and its ability to implement it. While 83% of hospital and health system execs believe AI can improve clinical decision-making, only 13% have a clear strategy for integrating it into workflows, and just 10% are aggressively pursuing solutions. The report highlights both optimism and caution: leaders see AI as key to reducing costs, boosting efficiency, and addressing workforce shortages, but cite major concerns around data quality, bias, and regulatory risk. Notably, AI now ranks as the top tech trend for the next two years (outpacing even remote care), yet nearly half of execs list “appropriate use of AI” as a top-three challenge. Still, we view this as bullish. As trust improves, governance matures, and tooling becomes more accessible, AI adoption in healthcare is likely to accelerate meaningfully over the long term. (link)

Tools & Partnerships 🔧

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

TOOLS

• AI stethoscope spots heart issues in 15 seconds: Researchers from Imperial College London tested an AI-powered stethoscope across 12K+ patients, finding it detected heart failure and atrial fibrillation at 2–3.5x higher rates than traditional exams by analyzing heartbeat and ECG data in seconds. (link)

• FDA clears first AI-powered OTC glucose app for weight loss: Signos received FDA clearance for an over-the-counter app that uses Dexcom CGMs to deliver real-time glucose tracking and personalized weight management guidance. It’s the first OTC clearance of its kind. (link)

• Mount Sinai debuts AI to assess genetic disease risk: Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine built a machine learning model trained on 1M+ EHRs to estimate risk from rare genetic variants. The tool helps reclassify “uncertain” mutations using real-world clinical data. (link)

• Artera Flows Agents now power 1,000+ automations across 135 orgs: Artera’s agentic messaging tools let providers automate routine patient comms with 70+ proven templates. Its Template Library is helping drive scaled adoption across health systems. (link)

• Hello Patient expands into vet clinics with AI messaging tools: The company is bringing its conversational AI to veterinary practices, aiming to reduce missed calls, ease staff workload, and help clinics re-engage pet owners and fill overdue appointments. (link)

• NCQA launches AI working group to assess high-risk use in healthcare: The National Committee for Quality Assurance has formed a multi-stakeholder group to define and measure the performance of high-risk AI deployed by health plans and providers. The focus is on post-deployment monitoring, quality, and patient safety. (link)

• AI2 unveils Asta, an agentic AI ecosystem for science: The Allen Institute for AI launched Asta, a suite of agentic tools to support scientific research, including intelligent research assistants and evaluation frameworks designed to streamline discovery and analysis. (link)

• CZI debuts rbio1, a biology-specific AI model for research: Researchers from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative unveiled rbio1, a domain-specific reasoning model built to support scientists in conducting and interpreting biological studies more effectively. (link)

• Innovaccer launches Flow Auth to automate prior auth workflows: The new AI-powered tool handles prior authorization end-to-end, from detection to appeals, and integrates with major EHRs and payers to streamline approvals. (link)

• Komodo Health unveils Marmot, an AI engine for healthcare analytics: Komodo’s new AI platform accelerates insights across life sciences and provider analytics use cases, offering a unified suite of applications built on its real-world data cloud. (link)

• CMS launches ‘Chili Cook-Off’ AI competition to detect Medicare fraud: The agency is calling for explainable, human-in-the-loop AI models that can proactively identify fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare claims. Finalists get access to real data and a shot at shaping policy. (link)

PARTNERSHIPS

• Inovalon + Google Cloud: Inovalon is partnering with Google Cloud to build an AI-powered prior authorization agent that reviews insurance benefits, scans EMRs, and auto-generates paperwork to ease one of healthcare’s most burdensome administrative tasks. (link)

• Cleveland Clinic + Dyania Health: Cleveland Clinic is deploying Dyania’s Synapsis AI across its research enterprise to accelerate trial recruitment, after pilots showed the platform could identify eligible patients in minutes with high accuracy. (link)

• Endeavor Health + Northwestern: Endeavor Health is piloting an AI tool co-developed with Northwestern to detect acute respiratory distress syndrome, after tests showed 93.5% diagnostic accuracy with a 17% false-positive rate. (link)

• Fujitsu + NVIDIA: Fujitsu unveiled a new AI agent platform for healthcare in Japan, using a central AI orchestrator to coordinate tools from Fujitsu and partners, with development support from NVIDIA. (link)

• Johns Hopkins Health System + Talkdesk: Johns Hopkins is modernizing its contact center with Talkdesk AI for self-service, intelligent routing, and Epic integration. (link)

• Tift Regional Medical Center + RapidAI: Tift Regional adopted RapidAI’s Deep Clinical AI to enhance stroke care with imaging-based decision support. (link)

• Moffitt Cancer Center + PathAI: Moffitt is partnering with PathAI in a multi-year deal to deploy AISight Dx in pathology and collaborate on AI diagnostics research. (link)

Deal Desk 💸 

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

FUNDING

• OpenEvidence, the ChatGPT for clinicians used by 40% of US doctors, is reportedly eyeing a $6B valuation investment. (link)

• Assort Health, a patient communications automation startup, raised $50M in Series B funding at a $750M valuation, per TechCrunch. (link)

• Eyebot, a Boston-based maker of vision test kiosks, raised $20M in Series A funding. General Catalyst led, joined by insiders AlleyCorp, Baukunst, Village Global and Ubiquity Ventures. (link)

• Blossom Health, a vertical AI copilot for psychiatry (~$5M RR, first 9 months of GTM) just closed an unannounced $15M Series A at $80M led by HeadlineVC. (link)

• Sarborg, an AI drug development platform, raised $10M in seed funding led by Corvus Capital. (link)

• Therna Biosciences, a San Francisco-based company using AI to design new RNA medicines, raised $10M in seed funding. AIX Ventures, Pear VC, and Fusion Fund led the round. (link) 

• ALIGNMT AI, an NYC-based AI compliance platform for healthcare, raised $6.5M in seed funding. AIX Ventures led the round and was joined by Sancus Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Dent Capital. (link)

• Sleep.ai, a sleep intelligence platform, raised $5.5M from Treasure Coast Ventures, Nurture Ventures, and others. (link)

Other Relevant News 🔍

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

• Mark Cuban’s war on America’s $5 trillion healthcare machine (link)

• Trump’s proposed AI sandboxes face industry hurdles (link)

• AI agents are rewriting biopharma’s $140B playbook (link)

• a16z Top 100 genAI consumer apps (link)

• TIME releases 2025 TIME100 AI list (link)

Visuals of the Week 📸

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