Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• Count the nonprofit National Academy of Medicine among the organizations seeking to steer healthcare AI toward ethical and responsible development and use. NAM has launched a three-year project in which it will bring together leaders from relevant fields to set forth a code of conduct. Announcement here.
   
• The World Economic Forum asked a handful of tech leaders how they expect emerging technologies like AI to change global health outcomes. The exercise yielded some well-grounded responses. Example: “Being able to read and examine [health] data when it’s needed most instead of just starting a series of tests when it may already be too late will significantly impact people’s health across the world.” Read the rest.
   
• Johns Hopkins is splitting more than $1 million among five grant winners working on AI that can help the elderly live independently. This is the second round given through the institution’s Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratory for Aging Research. The new awardees hail from clinical practice as well as academia and industry. The first round doled out almost $3 million for 14 pilot projects earlier this year. Second round announcement with link to the first here.
   
• Investment intelligence firm CB Insights (New York) is out with its annual list of the world’s 100 ‘most promising’ AI startups. Selection details are only available to CB clients, but the full list is available in infographic format here. Look for eight outfits specific to healthcare.  
   
• Touchlab (Edinburgh, Scotland) has installed its e-skin technology in a Finnish hospital. When placed over the hand of a robot, the device transmits a sense of touch to clinicians seeing patients remotely. It can convey pressure, motion and other sensations. Meanwhile Touchlab has joined the National Robotarium, a research facility with backing from the U.K. and Scottish governments. Robotics 24/7 has the story.
   
• Pathology AI supplier Mindpeak (Hamburg, Germany) and digital pathology platformer Proscia (Philadelphia) are partnering on cancer diagnostics. The companies say the collaboration will produce “tightly integrated, AI-powered workflows that enable pathologists to provide more efficient, informed and reproducible clinical decisions.” Announcement.
   
• Healthtech entrepreneurs Renee Dua and Nick Desai have introduced an app that uses generative AI to assist patients and caregivers. Called Together by Renee, the app is aimed at individuals dealing with aging issues and chronic conditions. In lieu of tapping keys, users snap photos with smartphone cameras. That’s all the app’s AI needs to take care of prescription refills, doctor appointments, insurance forms and so on. Announcement here.  
   
• Alpha Nodus (Sunrise, Fla.) has updated its AI software for prior authorization. The company says the new version automates 80% of PA processes in just a few seconds. Announcement.
   
• Could generative AI help humans talk to denizens of the animal kingdom à la Dr. Dolittle? Yeah, probably not quite like that. But a nonprofit called the Earth Species Project is tapping the technology to “decode nonhuman communication” as a way to support conservation efforts—and to eavesdrop just for the fascination of it. Details here.
   
• From AIin.Healthcare’s news partners:
   
  • Health Imaging—Many medical students believe AI poses a threat to the radiology job market
  • Radiology Business—Troubled imaging AI company files for chapter 11 bankruptcy
  • Cardiovascular Business—FDA grants breakthrough designation for new AI model to detect cardiac amyloidosis in ECG results