Healthcare AI News 10/1/25

News

The White House issues an executive order, “Unlocking Cures for Pediatric Cancer with Artificial Intelligence,” that doubles HHS funding for the National Cancer Institute’s AI-driven childhood cancer data initiative.

The FDA issues a Request for Public Comment on how to measure and evaluate real-world performance of AI-enabled medical devices.

Amazon announces a new generation of Echo devices that support its Alexa+ ambient AI assistant. The company says that Early Access users of Alexa+ are engaging the device in deeper conversations and using it to complete tasks related to smart home devices, booking reservations, and managing the family calendar. The Echo Show 8 costs $180, while the no-display Echo Dot Max runs $100. All models feature enhanced audio capabilities and the ability to be paired for richer sound.

Business

AI-powered revenue management vendor SmarterDx acquires Pieces Technologies and launches SmarterNotes, which retrieves EHR data to create patient notes and flag missed revenue.

Business Insider reports that ambient scribe vendor Abridge, once closely partnered with and partly owned by Epic, now competes with the EHR giant as Epic develops its own AI tools. Abridge has raised $700 million at a $5 billion valuation.

Cardiac data management vendor RhythmScience licenses a heart failure algorithm from Cedars-Sinai, whose venture arm also led its Series A round.

Ambience Healthcare launches the first ambient AI inpatient CDI assistant, built on OpenAI, to capture compliant diagnoses at the point of care with explainable audit trails and EHR integration.

Research

A 20-year-old biomedical engineering student creates ShotCaller, a mapping tool that helps Children’s Hospital Los Angeles oncologists target radiation for treatment-resistant tumors. Clinicians say their use of the tool has reduced the time required to create a radiation hotspot map from two hours to eight minutes.

Other

Not healthcare related, but don’t forget to check your ChatGPT setup. A Reddit user whose wife uses their shared ChatGPT account to obtain marriage advice adds custom instructions.

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