Healthcare AI News 1/15/25

News

OpenAI launches Tasks, a beta feature for ChatGPT that allows users to instruct the LLM to execute tasks or reminders at specified times in a Siri-like way. Example: “Every Friday, provide a list of weekend activities based on my location and the forecasted weather.” The rollout of Tasks is the first step of OpenAI’s AI agent strategy, where ChatGPT can go beyond answering questions to actually performing actions selectively.

A survey by Gwynedd Mercy University of American adults finds that 59% expect AI to improve outcomes, 57% believe it will reduce costs, and 77% believe it can reduce healthcare disparities in the next five years.

The Peterson Health Technology Institute launches an AI task force that will assess AI’s current and potential impact on cost and efficiency, the uptake of AI scribe systems, and the need for metrics and evidence.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says that AI analysis of NHS patient records can speed development of treatments and tests, saying that he doesn’t think a “defensive stance” can deliver possible breakthroughs. He cited diagnostic imaging AI and models that identify patients who are likely to miss appointments.

Business

Microsoft’s venture fund invests in RAAPID, which offers an AI-powered risk adjustment coding platform. Founder and CEO Chetan Parikh, MS previously held executive roles at EzDI and Mediscribes.

Mayo Clinic launches Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology, with assistance from Nvidia and Aignostics. The system was trained on 20 million digital slides and 10 million patient records from Mayo. Mayo apparently intends to commercialize it given its announcement at the J.P. Morgan Health Conference.

The American Hospital Association publishes “Building an Implementing an Artificial Intelligence Action Plan for Health Care.” It lists the top use cases that can generate a quick ROI for health systems: predicting claims denial, optimizing OR time, managing supply chain data, and streamlining discharge planning.

Amazon Web Services and investment firm General Catalyst will collaborate to develop and deploy AI solutions. General Catalyst’s portfolio includes Summa Health acquirer Health Assurance Transformation Company, Commure, and Aidoc. 

Hippocratic AI launches an AI agent app store for clinician creators, who have developed 300 agents covering 25 specialties in the past few weeks. 

UK-based digital-first home healthcare provider Cera raises $150 million in financing, valuing the company at over $1 billion. The company reduces hospitalization through AI-powered fall prediction, vital signs monitoring, and next best action.

Research

Researchers from Penn’s medical school use AI to analyze the EHR data of long COVID patients and identify those who may need care from specific departments and teams.

Other

The Military Health System recaps the work that it completed in 2024 to prepare for AI: inventorying use cases, enhancing collaboration with other government agencies, creating a digital health strategy, and completing an exercise to identify AI’s vulnerabilities, risk, and biases in a military medicine setting.

California’s attorney general reminds healthcare users and developers that AI must be tested, validated, and audited to ensure that its use is safe, ethical, lawful, free of bias, and transparent with regard to system training and provider use in making decisions.

Two Tenet hospitals delete a job fair announcement when people notice that the depicted employees are sporting extra fingers and unrealistic hair due to what appears to be an “AI fail.” 

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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