Healthcare AI News 2/26/25

News

OpenAI expands access to its recently released Deep Research tool, which generates in-depth reports, to all paying ChatGPT users. It previously required a Pro-level subscription at $200 per month. The output above comes from my request to compare atrial fibrillation symptom relief and quality-of-life outcomes between cardiac ablation and rate-control drugs. The tool provided a running narrative of insights from 22 reputable sources before compiling a comprehensive report, which took several minutes to generate.

Meanwhile, XAI makes Grok 3 – which has similar DeepSearch agentic search functionality – available for free to all users.

Arizona lawmakers unanimously pass a bill that prohibits insurers from using AI alone to reject claims, deny prior authorization, or make other decisions that require medical judgment. The legislation mandates that insurers assign a clinician to review AI-generated decisions.

A survey of 10,000 people across 20 countries on AI replacing human jobs finds that their top concerns are doctors and judges.

Amazon adds AI capabilities to Alexa, enabling it to make reservations and appointments, play music, order food or restaurant delivery, and book service providers. A new mobile app allows seamless conversations across Echo devices, the web, and the app. Users can also share documents like schedules, study materials, and emails for reminders, summaries, or actions. Alexa+ costs $19.99 per month but is free for Prime members. Early rollout begins in the coming weeks, with priority given to recent Echo Show models.

Business

Charta Health, whose founders sold their previous AI company to OpenAI, raises $8.1 million in a seed funding round. Its product uses AI to automate patient chart reviews to find missed billing codes.

OpenEvidence, which offers a clinical decision support chatbot for providers, announces $75 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. It recently signed a content agreement with The New England Journal of Medicine.

A physician reviews how Hims uses its MedMatch AI system to drive business:

• The AI analyzes basic patient data to suggest optimal medications.
• Physicians can prescribe faster with personalized treatment recommendations and improved outcomes.
• Patient trends help identify custom or compounded medications that Hims can sell at higher margins than generics, creating a competitive advantage. More than half of Hims patients use personalized medications, distinguishing the company from generic drug sellers.
• The system can justify selling compounded versions of drugs like GLP-1s for weight loss by recommending doses that vary from commercially available products by more than 10%, which avoids FDA oversight.

Research

A small study of hospital clinicians finds that use of the DAX Copilot ambient scribe that is integrated tool with the Epic Haiku mobile EHR app was associated with greater efficiency, lower mental burden, and a greater sense of engagement with patients.

Researchers develop a framework for radiologist reading of chest X-rays that follows the gaze of the radiologist, then focuses on the image areas that drew the most attention.

Other

An AMA physician survey finds that 61% worry that payer use of AI will increase denials of their prior authorization requests. One-third of respondents say that their PA requests are often or always denied, while 82% say that the process at least sometimes forces patients to receive something other than the physician’s preferred treatment.

Another AMA survey finds that physician use of AI jumped from 38% last year to 66% now. Common use include creating billing and visit notes documentation, creating discharge instructions and progress notes, language translation, and diagnostic support.

Contacts

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