Industry Watcher’s Digest
- Philips and MIT are opening access to a prodigious critical care dataset they’ve developed for, among other interested parties, researchers looking to advance AI in healthcare. The store houses de-identified data from 200,000 patients cared for in more than 200 ICUs. The duet launched the secure database, called the eICU Collaborative Research Database, back in 2016 but have since updated it to include many patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19. AI researchers taking them up on the offer will find detailed clinical info (diagnoses, vital signs, medication orders, lab results) as well as insights into treatments, comorbidities, readmissions, clinical outcomes and more. Full announcement here.
- Regardless of their station—provider org, payer, supplier—today’s healthcare leaders would do well to embrace healthcare AI without letting the excitement (or the nervousness) distract them from their organization’s mission. That’s the advice of Vishal Patel, president of global markets for Duke (University) Corporate Education. Publishing his pointers in TechNative, Patel warns against tapping AI for the mere sake of doing so. Instead, he writes, “ensure that it aligns with your organization’s goals and values and that you can effectively communicate this to your stakeholders, whether they are employees, investors or customers.” Read the whole thing.
- Care-enablement tech developer Memora Health has received a monetary infusion worth $30 million. San Fran-based Memora says it intends to put the cash windfall behind its drive to digitize and automate “high-touch,” AI-aided clinical workflows that can assist and relieve care teams. Meanwhile patients will experience the technology as conversational, text-based guidance that adjusts to their style of communicating. The funding is led by venture capital firm General Catalyst with participation from Northwell Holdings, both of which sent speakers to HIMSS23. (See story above.)
- Health cloud company Innovaccer used the stage that was its booth at HIMSS23 to introduce the world to “Sara.” A new mascot in a floppily oversized costume? No—“the first conversational AI for healthcare analytics.” Aimed not at patients but at clinical and business professionals, the virtual assistant can take complex text-based questions and quickly return on-point answers with germane metrics. The company says the name is short for Saraswati, a wise Hindu goddess who brings order out of chaos. Read more about Sara and five other offerings San Francisco-based Innovaccer debuted at HIMSS23 here.
- ChatGPT at its current level of, ahem, sophistication turns out to be something of a sciolist. The word comes from the Latin for “one who speaks with spotty or superficial knowledge.” That’s the conclusion, in so many words, of orthopedic researchers in the U.K. who found the chatbot wrote authoritative-sounding journal articles that may have fooled a layperson but were, in fact, “factually inaccurate and had fictitious references.” The study is running in Skeletal Radiology and covered by HealthImaging.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.