Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• Speaking of the nation’s capital, the intellectual property sentinel IPWatchdog.com notes this week is a frenetic one inside the beltway for AI stakeholders. In fact, the outlet has posted a calendar of events. It shows an AI-oversight meeting of the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law on Tuesday; a convening of the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet Wednesday (topic: “Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property: Part I—Interoperability of AI and Copyright Law”); a discussion at the Brookings Institution titled “AI, emerging technologies and the division of domestic labor” (also Wednesday); and more.
   
• A sizeable bank has scooped up a digital healthcare company that has expertise in electronic billing and collections. Eleven-state Fifth Third Bancorp (Cincinnati) announced the acquisition of Big Data Healthcare (Madison, Wisc.) May 15. The company’s primary product is a bank-neutral online portal that automates remittance reconciliation back to deposits. The bank’s head of commercial banking, Kevin Lavender, says Fifth Third is “deeply committed to bringing our solutions to healthcare clients.”
   
• A startup with some wherewithal is launching on the strength of a generative AI assistant for patients seeking info on provider quality and cost. The fledgling company, Cascade Health in Seattle, is also introducing a B2B offering for healthcare vendors looking to build digital products on data. Cascade has some capital for building both, as it’s raised $1.7 million in venture funding and angel investments. The company is billing its technology as an “intelligent platform for healthcare transparency.” Details here.
   
• Just days after unveiling a generative AI product for both clinical and administrative aims, DiagnaMed of Toronto is opening a new division. Called Health GenAI, the effort will use GPT-4 to launch at least three products this year. What all three will have in common is helping providers improve patient outcomes and operational efficiencies. Announcement.
   
• Healthy eating plans created by ChatGPT may offer some helpful dietary advice, but they’re not to be trusted without expert human oversight. So conclude researchers at Poznań University in Poland who tested the technology using 56 diets containing 14 food allergens and four levels of no-no’s common to folks with dietary restrictions. Criteria included not only safety and accuracy but also appeal to people who enjoy eating. (Isn’t that pretty much everyone?) It might be tempting to dismiss the technology as a potential robo-dietition, the researchers remark, but doing so would “undermine the benefits that robo-diets might provide, for example, to people with lower income or an aversion to consult health professionals.” Read the full study in Nutrition.
   
• Two companies with telehealth know-how are partnering to offer AI-powered virtual care. West-Com Nurse Call Systems (Fairfield, Calif.) and Vitalchat (Ashburn, Va.) say their combined product and service lines can boost patient safety as well as clinical collaboration while facilitating offsite family involvement. Announcement.
   
• Young adults increase their smartphone stare-time during forays into city parks and such—but significantly cut back when they chill out in the “true” great outdoors. The latter includes forests, nature reserves and the like. Researchers at the University of Vermont observed the dichotomy and had their findings published in Environment and Behavior. Journal study here, UVM coverage here.
   
• A hybrid human-AI system can get patients to follow through with physician recommendations. In the process it can increase provider revenue, boost patient safety and, by extension, improve outcomes. Researchers at UC-Irvine made the findings when they tested a natural language processing (NLP) tool as deployed with actively involved nurse coordinators. Journal study here, Health Imaging summary here.
   
• AI is finding a foothold in heart care. In fact, cardiology is second only to radiology in clinical algorithms bearing the FDA’s blessing. Get the full story from Cardiovascular Business.