Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• Microsoft has introduced healthcare-specific touches for its all-in-one analytics system, Fabric. Showcasing the technology at the HLTH conference in Las Vegas Oct. 8 to 11, Microsoft said Fabric’s healthcare setup helps provider orgs manage medical images, text, video and, presumably, ultrasound loops at a single point of digital engagement. The aim is to let credentialed end-users securely “access, analyze and visualize” decision-aiding insights from across the enterprise. Unsurprisingly, Fabric offerings will parallel, and for some users will overlap with, Azure cloud services for healthcare. Details here, here and here.
   
• Not to be outdone, Google Cloud is touting the healthcare tunings of its Vertex AI platform. At HLTH 23, Google demonstrated Vertex’s might for helping data scientists and software engineers in healthcare to “automate, standardize and manage” machine learning projects. Vertex is presently a work in progress. When it’s ready for wide production, Vertex AI’s search functions will aid end-users with specific clinical and research aims. “Working with healthcare and life science organizations to test and deploy new gen AI solutions is a critical step toward building safe and helpful AI technology,” Google comments. More info here and here.
   
• Among the provider orgs piloting Vertex AI Search is Highmark Health’s Allegheny Health Network based in Western Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette caught wind of the project and covers it for the newspaper’s business readership. “We’re teaching [Vertex AI] how to speak Highmark,” Highmark’s chief analytics officer tells the outlet. “It’s going to have a very meaningful impact in the clinical setting.” Read the article.
   
• Generative AI keeps winning hearts and minds in healthcare, but not much of the love has translated to solid plans. A new virtual community has formed to bridge that gap. Led by all University of California health systems, with UC-Davis at the tip of the spear, the collective brings together more than 30 charter members. Along with health systems, the group already has health plans, nonprofit associations and research outfits in its fold. The founders call their work “VALID” for Vision, Alignment, Learning, Implementation and Dissemination of Validated Generative AI in Healthcare. Their guiding vision: to “explore uses, pitfalls and best practices for Gen AI in healthcare and research, and accelerate execution and real-world evidence.” Announcement.
   
• Wolters Kluwer Health is unveiling a new “health language” platform. The technology will work with FHIR standards in Microsoft Azure’s health data services to “transform disparate, messy healthcare data into clean, standardized and interoperable data and insights,” the Dutch publisher and info-services company explains. Announcement here.
   
• EHR supplier NextGen Healthcare (Atlanta) has launched an ambient listening tool. The software openly eavesdrops on doctor-patient discussions, then translates the words into clinical summaries. From these it drafts care plans, populating EHR fields so clinicians only have to proofread automated entries and direct care pathways. Announcement.
   
• Pure Storage (Santa Clara, Calif.) is offering to pay power and rack-space costs for clients subscribed to certain of its data-storage services. The company, which has a large and growing footprint in healthcare, wants to let healthcare providers know that its updated products and services can “enable healthcare organizations to better utilize AI and recover quicker after a ransomware attack or other disaster.” Relevant announcements here and here.
   
• Nvidia has canceled its AI summit planned for Oct. 15 and 16. The reason is absolutely understandable: The event was booked for Tel Aviv, Israel. Brief message from Nvidia here, news coverage from CNBC here.
   
• From AIin.Healthcare’s news partners:
   
  • Radiology Business: FDA clears new artificial intelligence capabilities for portable MRI scanner
  • Cardiovascular Business: AI model detects multiple heart issues in a single 10-second audio clip
  • Health Imaging: AI brain imaging device receives FDA clearance
  • Radiology Business: ChatGPT shows ‘tremendous’ potential in simplifying readability of radiology reports
  • Cardiovascular Business: Mount Sinai partners with the Chiba Institute of Technology on AI to transform cardiovascular research
  • Health Imaging: GE HealthCare upgrades ultrasound systems with AI guidance
  • Radiology Business: Clinical decision support has little impact on image-ordering behaviors, single-center study finds