Healthcare AI News 10/8/25

News

Microsoft launches a free, AI-powered claims denial navigator from its Rural Health AI Innovation Lab.

The VA updates its AI strategy, which includes deploying tools for scheduling, real-time transcription, claims processing, and administrative tasks.

HHS officials say that the administration opposes private-sector vetting of healthcare AI tools, warning that it could shut out startups.

Samsung will add a heart failure detection feature to its Galaxy watches using an algorithm for left ventricular systolic dysfunction, while also developing Korea-built Ear-EEG technology that uses ear-worn electrodes to detect drowsiness and analyze video preferences.

Business

UnitedHealth Group hires Michael Pencina, PhD, Duke Health’s chief data scientist and co-founder of the Coalition for Health AI, as chief AI scientist.

Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin says that the company’s $6.75 billion acquisition of Press Ganey was driven by AI, giving the customer experience and analytics vendor “the most complete, specialized AI platform” to speed adoption in healthcare.

Research

A study finds that clinician burnout fell from 52% to 39% within 30 days of implementing an ambient AI scribe across six health systems, with additional gains in documentation efficiency, patient communication, scheduling flexibility, and after-hours workload.

Other

Some parents are letting their children use generative AI toys and chatbots to spark their creativity, but experts warn that the tools can confuse kids about what is real, limit their originality, and mislead them. A parent turned his four-year-old son, who is a fan of “Thomas the Train Engine,” over to ChatGPT’s voice mode and found him still talking two hours and 10,000 words later. He laments, “My son thinks ChatGPT is the coolest train-loving person in the world. I am never going to be able to compete with that.”

Contacts

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