Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• Royal Philips CEO Roy Jakobs has healthcare AI and a lot else on his mind. In a long and wide-ranging interview with The Verge, he talks about using AI to not only assist radiologists reading scans but also to cut scan times for better patient satisfaction and faster case throughput. Plus he reassures rads that AI will not replace them but will ease their workloads as the physician shortage worsens. “I still believe that we will have radiologists in the future, but the one thing I know for sure is we will not have enough,” Jakobs says. “It’s for us as a technology company to make sure that technology [doesn’t] make their job harder but actually really helps them do it better and faster.” Verge podcaster and editor-in-chief Nilay Patel also asked him about the damaging recall Philips suffered in 2021 involving millions of breathing machines. Knowing what the company knows now, would Philips have handled the situation differently? “Yes,” Jakobs replies. “We might even have done the recall differently.” Read (or listen to) the whole thing. 
   
• Congress is swamped with AI bills. More than 120 are wending their way through committees in one chamber or the other, House or Senate. More than two-thirds are brainchildren of Democrats. And four deal specifically with healthcare (two introduced by R’s, two by D’s.) The tally comes courtesy of some fine in-depth reporting at MIT Technology Review. AI reporter Scott Mulligan scared up quotes from several close watchers and stakeholders. One is David Evan Harris of UC-Berkeley. “Industry lobbyists are in an interesting predicament—their CEOs have said that they want more AI regulation, so it’s hard for them to visibly push to kill all AI regulation,” says Harris, who teaches AI ethics. “On the bills that they don’t blatantly try to kill, they instead try to make them meaningless by pushing to transform the language in the bills to make compliance optional and enforcement impossible.” Read the rest. 
   
• Untruth in healthcare AI advertising? That was the alleged wrongdoing when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton investigated Pieces Technologies over complaints the company unlawfully exaggerated its algorithm’s accuracy at writing clinical notes and documentation. The product has been used by at least four major hospitals in the Lone Star State. This week the AG’s office settled with Pieces, which denied it committed any fouls but agreed to terms. These include informing customers of the software’s true accuracy, instructing them in how to properly use it and warning them of potential harms. A Texas TV station called the case a “first-of-its-kind investigation into AI in healthcare.” Fierce Healthcare has additional details. 
   
• Healthcare AI has made the leap from lab concept to real practice. It’s that widely used, notes the American Medical Association. The messaging comes by way of promoting the fourth and latest learning module in the group’s “Ed Hub” CME series. Module excerpt: “Clinician roles in healthcare are evolving due to the integration of Al with a shift from bi-directional”—meaning between patients and the care team—“to a more complex tri-directional interaction that actively involves Al, empowers patients and requires clinicians to adapt to this evolving landscape.” Learn more. 
   
• Too many older folks skip annual checkups. One survey has the rate as high as 82%. Common reasons—or excuses—for the senior absenteeism from primary-care offices include misperceptions of cost, lack of transportation and other easily addressed concerns. AI chatbots can help solve all those problems and more, CNET points out. “This is a population with limited income and significant health issues,” a healthtech CEO tells the outlet. “Health technology designed for seniors and their caregivers,” the CNET reporter adds, “can simplify their lives by addressing today’s challenges and improving the experience for future generations.” 
   
• AI watchers can never get too many good primers on AI in healthcare. The NHS Confederation in the U.K. is out with a very good basic guide indeed. They almost could have called it “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Healthcare AI But Were Too Scared to Ask (Because Doing So Might ‘Out’ You as a Perpetual Newbie”). Check it out. We won’t tell anyone. 
   
• Healthcare leaders struggle to wring value out of digital investments made to improve service. Why is that? Because their organizations lack service-focused things like a mission-led roadmap, a modernized workforce strategy, up-to-date technology and other little niceties. OK, snark switch turned off. For some serious thinking on “reimagining healthcare industry service operations in the age of AI,” let McKinsey be your guide. 
   
• Israel is at war, but it remains a hub of healthcare AI innovation. The determination of the nation’s tech sector comes through in coverage of the 2024 ARC (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) Summit, hosted this month in Tel Aviv at Sheba Medical Center. “The healthcare industry in general, and certainly in Israel, is very resilient,” says Avner Halperin, CEO of Sheba Impact, according to the Jerusalem Post. “We see that crises like COVID and the current war actually accelerate innovation. We’ve had dozens of new inventions, and we’re building startups around them. So, while there is the pain of the crisis, there is also excitement and hope, as the innovations born out of this time are literally saving lives.” Read the rest. 
   
• Recent research in the news: 
   
  • Oregon Health & Science University: Researchers test ChatGPT, other AI models against real-world students
     
  • UTHealth Houston and OpenAI announce groundbreaking collaboration
     
  • University of Colorado: Machine learning could help reduce hospitalizations by nearly 30% during a pandemic
     
  • Keck Graduate Institute: KGI awarded $750,000 grant from the Department of Energy to study low-level radiation effects
     
  • Uppsala University: One in five UK doctors uses AI chatbots
     
• Notable FDA Approvals:
   
  • Avicenna.AI lands FDA clearance for AI tool that detects cervical spine fracture
     
  • Somite Therapeutics announces FDA orphan drug and rare pediatric disease designations for SMT-M01 in Duchenne muscular dystrophy
     
• AI funding news of note:
   
  • Cerebriu raises $19M to expand AI-driven MRI accessibility across the globe
     
  • Hippocratic AI receives $17M investment to build generative AI healthcare agents
     
  • Ferrum Health raises $16M in Series A funding to unlock AI adoption in healthcare
     
• From AIin.Healthcare’s news partners:
   
  • Health Imaging: ChatGPT is ‘robbing applicants of their voices’ in residency applications
     
  • Radiology Business: AI catches overlooked broken vertebra on X-rays, with sizable cost-saving implications
     
  • Health Imaging: Denoising algorithm produces quality trauma head CTs at a fraction of the radiation dose