Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• Toward ‘AI justice’ in nursing and across healthcare. The country’s biggest labor union representing nurses has posted an AI bill of rights on behalf of both nurses and patients. National Nurses United says it drafted the document out of concern that “certain technologies” rolling into healthcare neither complement bedside skills nor improve quality of care. Subtitled “Guiding Principles for A.I. Justice in Nursing and Health Care,” the bill of rights states: “The right to healthcare in-person by a licensed healthcare professional underlies all other medical care and should not be compromised by uses of AI or other technologies that contribute to worker displacement or de-skilling.” An affiliate of the NNU, the California Nurses Association, led street protests against AI at a Kaiser Permanente location in San Francisco in April. Fierce Healthcare posted updated coverage of the ongoing standoff June 3.
   
• Google would like to introduce you to 24 startups that are set to drive change into global healthcare on the strength of their AI chops. What the two dozen companies have in common is their selection as participants in Google for Startups Growth Academy: AI for Health. Well, that and a business address outside the Americas. Participants represent emerging markets in 13 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Announcement.
   
• Generative AI continues raising hopes it will give clinicians more time with patients. Well-traveled healthcare AI expert Shashank Agarwal strikes a generally optimistic stance toward the claim in a piece published by Forbes. He also holds out a caveat. Healthcare organizations “must understand that generative AI will be only as good as the data it has been trained and fine-tuned upon,” writes Agarwal, whose LinkedIn profile shows his current job to be senior decision scientist with CVS Health. Worth a read.
   
• Remember Sarah? She’s the healthcare helper who speaks eight languages and takes questions on all manner of healthcare topics any time of day or night. She’s also a Gen AI-powered avatar of the World Health Organization. Sarah takes her name from her identity—Smart AI Resource Assistant for Health. We reported on her emergence in this space two months ago. And now Sarah has at least one vocal detractor. “Sarah is arguably as much a product of AI hype and [fear of missing out] as it is a tool for positive change,” writes Brian Spisak, PhD, a leading light on healthcare AI in the U.S. “It’s clear that WHO’s own principles for the safe and ethical use of AI should guide its decision-making, but [that’s not happening] when it comes to Sarah. This raises critical questions about the organization’s ability to usher in a responsible AI revolution.” HIMSS Media’s Healthcare IT News published the piece June 3. Read it all.
   
• Publicly traded health insurers have been romancing investors with smooth talk about tapping AI for efficiency gains and cost cuts. That may come as news to no one. But here’s the thing. For all their jawing to that one audience on the glories of AI, some if not all of these payers are tightlipped on the same subject to another: the prying media. STAT reports that one or more of its journalists reviewed regulatory filings from publicly traded health insurers and found several of them “investing in AI with the goal of saving money.” One company “has hired nearly 500 people to work exclusively on AI. However, all five of the insurers STAT contacted declined to elaborate on how they are using AI.” It may not be a stop-the-presses investigation, but it surely is a needed one. Article here (behind subscriber paywall).
   
• ‘I’m not sure yet whether I’m going to regret this or not.’ So spoke Nvidia honcho Jensen Huang before announcing his company’s next-generation AI-accelerating GPU platform, Rubin, on June 2 in Taiwan. His trepidation was likely based on his desire not to have would-be buyers of Nvidia’s current pacesetter, the Grace Hopper AI superchip, hold off until Rubin gets here. Ars Technica has the story.
   
• Must see to appreciate. Those four words aptly tease an opinion piece on healthcare AI published by the Los Angeles Times June 3. The commentary takes the form of a comic strip. The protagonist/narrator is a physician embodied by a cartoon guinea pig. Why a guinea pig? Because that’s what the doctor felt like heading into his hospital’s pilot of note-taking Gen AI. In one panel, our brave rodent shares that “capturing a physical exam meant you have to awkwardly speak findings aloud.” Holding a stethoscope to the patient’s belly, he dictates: “Soft abdomen. Normal bowel sounds.” (The patient appears nonplussed.) Need a chuckle? Check it out.
   
• Recent research roundup:
   
  • Washington University in St. Louis: New machine learning method can better predict spine surgery outcomes
     
  • American College of Physicians: ACP Recommends AI Tech Should Augment Physician Decision-Making, Not Replace It
     
  • Tsinghua University: Facial thermal imaging + AI accurately predict presence of coronary artery disease
     
• From AIin.Healthcare’s news partners:
   
  • Cardiovascular Business: AI-based coronary plaque assessments 1 step closer to Medicare coverage
     
  • Radiology Business: Nearly two-thirds of consumers surveyed say they’d trust a diagnosis from AI over a human doctor
     
  • Health Imaging: Primary care docs lack trust in AI, making it unlikely they'll invest in applications, new survey says
     
  • Radiology Business: The promise and potholes of computer vision as viewed from a radiological vantage point