Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• The controversial brain-computer connection company that’s close to the heart of Elon Musk has raised a fresh $280 million. The company, Neuralink, announced the investment infusion on X, the Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “If you’d like to help make the first human experience incredible and work on engineering challenges to restore vision and mobility,” the company tweets, “come join!” Meanwhile Neuralink is being watched for animal mistreatment or any other problematic practices it might employ during preclinical or in-human product development.
   
• Medical conversation capturer Abridge AI (Pittsburgh) received some tasty press this week. A local TV station in Kansas City covered use of the company’s software by physicians at the University of Kansas Health System. “Doctors can spend up to five hours a day charting, but Abridge can drastically cut that down to an hour or less,” the station’s news team reports. Get the rest.
   
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is bestowing grants of up to $100,000 upon almost 50 healthcare AI startups. What the recipients all have in common is a drive to use large language AI for solving problems in global health and development. Foundation announcement here.
   
• Investor enthusiasm over healthcare AI has fallen precipitously this year from a peak it hit in 2021. That year saw some $12.8 billion invested—and 607 deals made—in the sector. So far in 2023, the figures are just $2.6 billion in funding and 192 in deals. The numbers are from CB Insights, which projects global healthcare AI funding will have fallen by 28% year over year by the time 2023 is in the books. The firm is offering a full report on the state of healthcare AI here.
   
• Aiberry (Seattle) has tailored a version of its mental-health screening platform for corporate wellness programs. The company says its AI-powered “therapeutic assistant,” Botberry, can discern signs of mental unwellness by analyzing “what is being said, the speech patterns being used and even subtle changes in facial expressions.” The new version aims to help corporate wellness directors track employees’ use of the platform and monitor their mental wellness over time. (Should this item get a Yay or a Yikes?)
   
• Vital (Claymont, Del.) has unveiled an AI-equipped translator that turns medical mumbo-jumbo into lay language. The company says its product combines large language modeling with natural language processing. The yield is HIPAA-compliant explanations understandable to those who read at a fifth-grade level and up. Announcement.
   

• From Aiin.Healthcare’s news partners:
   
  • Radiology Business: RadNet says AI revenues have surged 109% year-over-year, but business line still in the red
  • Health Imaging: New scoring systems help grade the accuracy of AI-generated radiology reports
  • Cardiovascular Business: New research on AI-based CCTA assessments wins Best Abstract at SCCT 2023