Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• HHS isn’t waiting to see what its incoming secretary does before filling some key leadership positions. That person may be President-elect Trump’s first choice, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It also could end up being someone else: RFK’s Senate appointment hearing hasn’t yet been scheduled. Regardless, the cabinet-level agency has gone ahead and hired three new officials with responsibilities in AI, technology and data. This week HHS announced the moves and posted biographies of the three. They are: Alicia Rouault, associate deputy assistant secretary for technology policy and chief technology officer; Kristen Honey, chief data officer; and Meghan Dierks, chief AI officer. Fedscoop points out the appointments didn’t come from out of the blue but, instead, followed HHS’s announcement of last summer that it would be reorganizing some tech-related operations. The reorg also included naming Micky Tripathi assistant secretary for technology policy and changing the ONC to the ONC/ASTP.
   
• Healthcare AI—and only healthcare AI—engenders consumer confidence. Just about every American uses at least one AI-equipped product at least once a week. Most use several such products within that timeframe. Yet Americans have more negative than positive views about AI’s potential impact on U.S. society. There’s an exception, though. “The only area asked about that receives more positive than negative views is AI’s impact on medical diagnosis and treatment,” reports Gallup, which polled 4,000 U.S. adults. Some 71% of those who have used AI over the past seven days are bullish on medical applications, as are 53% of those who have not done so and 62% of those who aren’t sure whether they’ve used AI or not. Get the rest straight from Gallup.
   
• Paradoxically, it also induces consternation. In another survey, close to 77% of 2,100 American adults said they’re willing to use medical AI tools. That same slice said they believe AI can effectively reduce healthcare disparities over the next five years. The surveyor in this case was The Harris Poll, working on behalf of Gwynedd Mercy University outside Philadelphia. GMercyU, as it’s called for short, notes the findings fly in the face of another survey showing almost 90% of 2,100 American adults admit fretting over the expansion of AI in healthcare settings. And nearly 60% cop to feeling uneasy about the potential for the technology to be used in medicine without sufficient human oversight. The university commissioned the work ahead of opening the Frances M. Maguire Healthcare Innovation Center in a 63,000-square-foot building later this year. More on that here. 
   
• 2025 will be the year multimodal AI in healthcare faces a ‘commercial reality check.’ So predicts the San Fran-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners. Noting that clinical integration requires a lot more than technical know-how, Bessemer forecasts multimodal healthcare AI—which combines data from medical imaging, clinical notes, video, audio and genomics—scoring early with operational applications. These will likely include relatively simple and ROI-measurable things like virtual nursing, supply chain optimization and surgical robotics. Meanwhile, clinical deployments require more than technical excellence, the firm states. “The transformative potential of diagnostic AI remains constrained by reimbursement complexities,” Bessemer observes. “Even as companies secure CPT codes, implementation barriers create a maze of restrictions that limit scalability.” 
   
• AI helps plan operating room schedules, predicts which patients will benefit from interventions and flags patients at high risk of self-harm. And that’s just in one state, North Carolina. It’s also just three of 10 ways healthcare AI is being used there. Read up on all 10. 
   
• Microsoft is trying to stay ahead of the European Union’s AI Act. And it’s being quite transparent about the steps it’s taking toward that goal. In a Jan. 16 blog post, the Big Tech heavyweight taps its customers on the shoulder. Noting that the comprehensive legislation is rolling out across the Continent this year, piece by piece, Microsoft tells its clients they “have the opportunity to contribute their valuable insights and help shape implementation practices.” The company encourages its customers to engage with policymakers and industry groups. Such interactions, Microsoft suggests, will build understanding across stakeholder groups while showcasing the “broad range of organizations in Europe that are energized by the opportunity to innovate and grow with AI.”
   
• The University of Hawaii has launched an AI training program that gives grad and PhD students not only hands-on experience but also cash. Called the Descartes program for data in engineering and society converging applications, research and training enhancements for students, the program includes a healthcare module. It offers a fellowship of up to $34,000 annually, along with full coverage of graduate tuition. Master’s students are funded for one year, while PhD students receive funding for two years. Program coordinator London Thompson, EdD, tells the school’s news operation the program “represents a unique convergence of cutting-edge AI education and Hawaii’s most pressing challenges, where our graduate students are developing solutions that directly benefit our island communities while gaining invaluable skills in emerging technologies.”  
   
• Recent research in the news: 
   
  • Penn Medicine: Using AI to uncover hospital patients’ long COVID care needs
     
  • UNC Hospitals experiment with AI, work to integrate new technology in healthcare
     
  • University of Washington: Deep learning designs proteins against deadly snake venom
     
  • The Menopause Society: AI helps identify subjective cognitive decline during the menopause transition
     
  • University of Virginia: Computer models could lead to more targeted antibiotics
     
  • Case Western Reserve: Researchers harness AI to predict cardiovascular risk from CT scans
     
  • University of Texas: Picking the Right Doctor? AI Could Help
     
• Funding news of note:
   
  • Hippocratic AI completes $141M financing round
     
• From AIin.Healthcare’s news partners:
   
  • Health Imaging: Experts developing AI model that learns from calcium-scoring CT scans
     
  • Radiology Business: Radiology leaders optimistic about AI but see cost as a key hurdle
     
  • Health Imaging: FDA has approved over 1,000 clinical AI applications, with most aimed at radiology
     
  • Radiology Business: GE HealthCare signs $1B imaging AI deal with 1 of nation’s largest nonprofits
     
  • Health Imaging: Mayo Clinic and Microsoft partner to advance generative AI in radiology