Healthcare AI newswatch: Payer AI regulation please, pharmacy AI, nurses v. AI redux

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• The FDA could and should regulate AI used by healthcare insurers. And the agency really ought to take special aim at algorithm categories that can be used to reject claims, delay care or otherwise deny coverage. This only seems right, and a professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law makes the case in an article slated for publication in the Indiana Law Journal. Insurance plan reliance on coverage algorithms designed to maximize profits is “unlawful,” writes Jennifer Oliva, JD. “It is also a lucrative strategy,” she adds. “[W]hen a patient is projected to die within a few years, the insurer is motivated to rely on the algorithm to deny that patient medically necessary care, force the patient to appeal that decision—and anticipate that the patient will die before the conclusion of the appeals process so that the claim is never paid.” Read a JD candidate’s summary of the article here or download the full paper. 
   
• AI isn’t just for drug discovery. It’s pretty good at drug dispensing too. An expert in the field looks at the latter in a piece published March 18 by Pharmacy Times. “AI enhances the pharmacist’s role and will continue to do so by providing decision support, streamlining medication management and automating routine tasks,” explains Kathleen Kenny, PharmD. “AI may take over more complex tasks as time goes on, freeing pharmacists to provide human judgment and patient interaction.” 
   
• Google is adding a nifty new feature to its search engine for health information. “What People Suggest” uses AI to organize tips and insights from fellow sufferers. It only runs on mobile devices for now. Here’s hoping it makes the leap to web browsers running on desktops that are anything but mobile. And learns how to spot and flag escalatory input from talkative hypochondriacs. The crowdsourcing AI offering is one of six health AI updates Google just announced. 
   
• Whenever someone wishes for U.K.-style healthcare in the U.S., someone else pipes in with a counter-take. The reactor generally says something along the lines of, “OK, but you’d better enjoy waiting to be seen.” The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change is taking on that complaint head-on. And AI is a key part of its recommended cure. The government “should commit to the development of an AI Navigation Assistant for every citizen,” the authors of a long-form advocacy piece state. Such a digital aide would “expand the scope of performed tasks and carry out new ones that were previously unthinkable in labor-intensive processes. It can also analyze data for continuous improvement to provide a faster and better service.” Read the whole thing.
   
• Healthcare AI developers often prove their models are capable of excellent accuracy. But seldom do they demonstrate the reliability of their accuracy. That’s an interesting observation. It’s from Milan Toma, PhD, an assistant professor of clinical sciences at the New York Institute of Technology. Toma made the comment during the institution’s annual biotech conference earlier this month. New York Tech’s own news operation has posted a brief rundown of some highlights.
   
• Abridge’s AI scribe stands out in a crowded field. AISAP’s platform lets everyday clinicians diagnosis heart conditions at an expert level. And WellRithms’s pricing model uses AI to fight overbilling. What all three have in common is a spot in Fast Company’s list of the 15 “most innovative companies moving the needle in healthcare.” Get the rest.
   
• Unionized nurses: ‘AI overrides our expertise and degrades the quality of care.’ AI-using hospital: “Not true. AI helps you work more efficiently while addressing burnout and understaffing.” Yes, this fight is back on. Not that it ever went away. “The entire [AI] ecosystem is designed to automate, de-skill and ultimately replace caregivers,” Michelle Mahon of National Nurses United tells the Associated Press. “It would be foolish to turn our back on this [technology] completely,” counters Michelle Collins, dean of Loyola University’s College of Nursing. “We should embrace what it can do to augment our care” without allowing it to “replace the human element.” Read the AP coverage. 
   
• The U.S. doesn’t maintain a trade surplus with China in many industries. Healthcare is that rare case in which it does. In fact, many China-based firms employ large workforces Stateside. The intel comes from KraneShares, whose investment strategist Henry Greene also reports: “After a challenging two years, we believe it could be time to revisit China’s healthcare sector.” China’s rapidly aging population, Greene adds, is “a secular growth driver for the sector,” which is “relatively well insulated from geopolitical frictions.” Read the whole thing. 
   
• Recent research in the news:
   
  • Washington University in St. Louis: Machine learning could help predict adherence to HIV treatment in adolescents
     
  • Mount Sinai School of Medicine: New AI model analyzes full night of sleep with high accuracy in largest study of its kind
     
  • Harvard: Open-Source AI matches top proprietary model in solving tough medical cases
     
  • Osaka University: AI can now reveal your true age with just five drops of blood
     
• Funding news of note:
   
  • Vori Health secures $53M in Series B funding to transform value-based musculoskeletal care
     
  • Longevity startup Mito Health secures additional $2.2M in seed funding
     
  • Seed grant recipients announced at Stanford’s RAISE Health initiative
     
• From AIin.Healthcare’s news partners:
   
  • Cardiovascular Business: The revolution is here: AI’s growing role in cardiovascular imaging, interventional cardiology
     
  • Radiology Business: American College of Radiology to launch AI accreditation program
     
  • Health Imaging: What radiologists think about using ChatGPT and AI in breast imaging