Katie Adams is a senior reporter for MedCity News covering providers and healthcare technology. Previously, she worked as a healthcare technology editor at Becker’s Hospital Review. Her journalism degree is from DePaul University in Chicago, where she is still based.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-adams-450775141/
Quest Diagnostics teamed up with Google Cloud. The collaboration seeks to deliver new AI capabilities — including predictive population health analytics, customized physician results reporting and individualized patient engagement.
Sibel Health raised $30 million to accelerate the commercial deployment of its remote patient monitoring platform. The company also announced its seventh FDA clearance, which enables clinicians to use alarms and alerts along with the Sibel’s central platform.
Transitioning to PDPM models significantly shifted the healthcare industry. By replacing the RUG system, healthcare providers cut waste and more accurately reflect the care each patient received.
Without a clear picture of which solutions are working and which ones aren’t, it’s difficult for providers to scale AI across their enterprise. As hospitals transition their AI efforts from experimentation mode to the widespread adoption phase, experts agree that more rigorous, real-world evidence is needed.
Two hospital-at-home providers, DispatchHealth and Medically Home, announced their plan to merge. Once combined, the company will provide in-home care across 50 major metropolitan areas and partner with nearly 40 health systems.
The American Cancer Society struck a multi-year collaboration with Layer Health, a healthcare AI company that uses LLMs to improve data abstraction and generate insights. The partners will abstract data from thousands of medical charts of patients enrolled in the American Cancer Society’s research studies, with the ultimate goal of shortening research timelines.
Congress passed a continuing resolution last week that extended expiring Medicare telehealth flexibilities through the next six months. Telehealth CEOs view the passing of the resolution as a short-term win, but they think there is still more work to do to ensure Americans have permanent access to virtual care services in the future.
Patient expectations continue to evolve, and healthcare practices that fail to adapt risk more than just revenue—they risk losing trust.
Breast cancer survivor Kate Dilligan is the CEO of Cooler Heads, a company that sells a portable and self-administered scalp cooling device. The system helps chemotherapy patients retain their hair, and therefore their self-esteem and privacy.
House Republicans proposed Medicaid cuts last month that would have disastrous financial consequences for hospitals, especially for those in rural areas. While the plan aims to reduce government spending, healthcare executives are pointing out that these cuts would actually exacerbate the financial instability of the overall U.S. healthcare system — as well worsen health outcomes for millions of people, many of whom are children.
AI tools very rarely work as out-of-the box solutions, noted Zafar Chaudry, chief digital officer and chief AI and information officer at Seattle Children’s. When hospitals enter into contracts with AI developers to build tools that are the right fit, he thinks the two parties should share risk. That way, hospitals won’t be stuck paying for tools that don’t deliver results.
Some healthcare providers have partnered with AI gun detection company ZeroEyes. The company adds its software to hospitals' existing security camera systems to identify a gun before the shooter strikes.
Every wellness clinic is only as successful as the capabilities of its software. Here's where you can find the top-rated practice management solutions for med spas.
Houston Methodist Coordinate Care is reducing costs through a partnership with Koda Health, a digital platform that guides patients through their end-of-life choices. Preliminary findings show the technology resulted in a 19% reduction in the total cost of care for patients at the end of their life, which equals nearly $9,000 in savings per patient.
Healthcare organizations are starting to implement AI agents — autonomous, task-specific systems designed to perform functions with little or no human intervention. While initial adoption is focused mainly on non-clinical areas like scheduling and prior authorizations, experts predict that AI agents could eventually play a role in clinical decision-making, provided they meet rigorous safety and reliability standards.
Lavonia Thomas, nursing informatics officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center, hopes that nurses will gain more access to ambient listening tools that listen in on patient conversations and then generate summaries for documentation purposes. These AI tools have become popular among physicians in the past couple years.
This year's HIMSS conference featured many news announcements — from advanced partnerships to product launches to new research. In this list, MedCity News compiled short summaries for six of the conference's most notable announcements.
Bluebird Kids Health raised $31.5 million in Series A funds. The startup seeks to improve pediatric care access in underserved areas by building practices in these areas and accepting all insurance types.