< + > Weekly Roundup – November 30, 2024

Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week – especially if you were busy cooking a turkey, delicious side dishes, or pies.

3D Printing Improves Surgical Accuracy and Safety, One Layer at a Time. At HLTH, Colin Hung met with Gary M. Turner at Ricoh to see how 3D printing creates personalized surgical guides that help surgeons target tumors, plan incisions, and minimize tissue removal. Read more…

How a Gingerbread Man Can Improve Patient Monitoring and Safety. Colin caught up with Julia Strandberg and Joyce De Ala at Philips to learn about the company’s Visual Patient Avatar that consolidates critical clinical information in a single image, much like the flight display in a commercial airline cockpit. Read more…

Oracle Health Raises the Bar on Its EHR. Oracle Health unveiled its next-generation EHR at the recent Oracle Health Summit. Colin was impressed with the “Ask Oracle” bar that accepts typed or voice commands to help users search for valuable information. Read more…

Healthcare IT Today Podcast: Optimizing the Medication Journey. Dr. Colin Banas at DrFirst joined John Lynn to talk about what it takes to get medication management right – and whether prior authorization and specialty medication make this harder. Read more…

Advancing Behavioral Health Through AI Integration. Amid significant strain on the behavioral health system, research has shown AI can detect conditions, enable personalized treatment, and improve therapeutic approaches, noted Andy Flanagan at Iris Telehealth. Read more…

Innovative Technology Modernizes Benefits Verification During Open Enrollment. Five million Americans need to find new Medicare plans in 2025. Real-time benefits checks help beneficiaries choose the right plan and reduce denials, said Andrew Mignatti at careviso. Read more…

Shifting From Reactive to Proactive Healthcare Delivery. Dr. Paulo Pinho at Discern Health described the value of predictive analytics in early detection and intervention, especially to help older adults close the gap between lifespan and health span. Read more…

This Week’s Health IT Jobs for November 27, 2024: Multiple roles in informatics and information management, plus California’s Clinicas del Camino Real seeks a Chief Medical Officer. Read more…

Bonus Features for November 24, 2024: Only 16% of patients prefer online pharmacies; medical coding denials up 125% in the last year. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Healthcare phone call automation firm Infinitus Systems raised $51.5 million in Series C funding.
• On-demand medical guidance startup Counsel Health launched with $11 million in seed funding.
• Chronic condition management vendor CopilotIQ merged with Biofourmis, a virtual and in-home care delivery service provider.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.

< + > Ricoh’s 3D Printing Improves Surgical Accuracy and Safety One Layer at a Time

Imagine a surgical guide so precise that it snaps onto the bone like a perfectly fitting glove, directing a surgeon’s every cut and drill. This is the reality of Ricoh’s 3D printing technology for healthcare.

To find out more, Healthcare IT Today met with Ricoh at the #HLTHUSA conference in Las Vegas. Gary M. Turner, Managing Director of Additive Manufacturing North America at Ricoh USA.

Key Takeaways

1. Hyper-Personalized Care. Ricoh’s 3D printed guides are tailored to each patient’s anatomy, enabling surgeons to perform highly precise procedures, from osteotomies to tumor resections.
2. Improved Surgical Outcomes. These guides help surgeons reduce operating time, leading to faster recovery and lower risk for patients.
3. Cost and Safety Benefits. By reducing surgical time, the technology lowers anesthesia exposure and hospital costs while improving overall patient safety and surgical efficiency.

Printed Guides for Surgery

Ricoh’s 3D printing technology uses patient-specific CT or MRI scans to create custom surgical guides that snap onto bones, guiding surgeons with incredible precision. These guides eliminate guesswork, enabling faster, safer, and more accurate procedures.

The process is simple yet powerful. Biocompatible polymers are shaped using digital light processing (DLP) technology to match each patient’s anatomy. These guides help surgeons target tumors, plan incisions, and minimize tissue removal. The result? Reduced operating times, less blood loss, and faster recoveries.

“We have tools focused on patient specific applications for surgical interventions,” explained Turner. “Every minute you have a patient under anesthetic increases the risk of complications and recovery. So the faster a surgeon can perform that surgery, the better experience and outcomes for the patient.”

In a way, these 3D printed guides from Ricoh are the epitome of personalized care.

Learn more about Ricoh at https://www.ricoh.com/industries/healthcare

Listen and subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today Interviews Podcast to hear all the latest insights from experts in healthcare IT.

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< + > Advancing Behavioral Health Care Through AI Integration

The following is a guest article by Andy Flanagan, CEO at Iris Telehealth

The U.S. behavioral health system faces unprecedented strain as patient demand continues to outpace provider availability. This growing gap creates significant barriers to care, particularly for high-risk patients who require immediate intervention. Traditional care delivery models, which typically follow first-come-first-served protocols, often fail to effectively prioritize clinical urgency, potentially compromising patient outcomes.

Healthcare organizations are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to address these systemic challenges. Recent research demonstrates AI’s capability to detect signs of behavioral health conditions, such as depression, with 80-90% accuracy when properly integrated with clinical workflows. This technology, combined with the rising adoption of virtual care delivery, presents opportunities to transform care access and delivery.

AI’s full potential doesn’t replace clinical judgment. It enhances it. When implemented alongside experienced clinicians and assessment specialists, AI tools can help optimize resource allocation, improve risk stratification, and enable more proactive, personalized care delivery — ultimately working toward a healthcare system that better serves all patients.

The Power of Clinical AI Integration

Recent findings from the Journal of Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health highlight AI’s potential to enhance early detection of behavioral health conditions, enable personalized treatment planning, and improve therapeutic approaches — all while emphasizing the importance of responsible implementation and ethical considerations.

When properly integrated with operational workflows, this technology offers several key advantages in improving care delivery and patient outcomes:

Enhanced Risk Detection and Analysis

AI processes comprehensive data sets from medical records, claims, and prescription histories to identify subtle risk patterns that complement clinical assessment. Working alongside specialists, these systems evaluate multiple variables simultaneously, including medication adherence and social determinants of health, enabling more accurate risk assessment and timely intervention decisions.

Operational Efficiency and Resource Management

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine reports that AI-driven clinical decision support tools enhance clinicians’ ability to identify high-risk patients and efficiently allocate resources. These systems analyze complex data to support strategic resource distribution and capacity planning. When integrated with clinical expertise, this capability helps healthcare organizations optimize staffing levels, manage patient flow, and ensure resources are allocated where they’re needed most.

Resource Optimization and Access

AI analytics support clinical teams in predicting patient demand patterns and identifying access gaps in care delivery. This capability allows for more efficient resource allocation, helping ensure underserved populations receive timely care through both in-person and virtual visits — the latter offering enhanced safety and comfort for patients and providers alike. Leading healthcare organizations like Albany Med Health System are already seeing the benefits, reporting improved patient satisfaction and reduced readmissions through virtual behavioral health integration. This flexibility in care delivery, combined with optimized provider schedules, helps prevent burnout and enhance productivity.

Personalized Care Pathway Development

By analyzing patient risk profiles alongside available resources, AI helps clinical and operational teams determine optimal care approaches. This collaboration reduces hospitalizations, improves chronic condition management, and maximizes resource usage, ultimately enabling more personalized and effective treatment strategies.

Administrative Efficiency

AI streamlines routine tasks, allowing clinicians to focus more time on direct patient care. From appointment scheduling to documentation support, these tools enhance clinical workflow efficiency and maintain the essential human elements of care delivery.

The advantages of AI integration in behavioral health care are significant, yet realizing this potential requires careful consideration of implementation practices and ethical guidelines.

Impact and Implementation Considerations 

Healthcare organizations adopting AI technology must balance its transformative potential with responsible implementation practices. While AI demonstrates clear benefits in improving patient access and clinical and operational efficiency, successful integration requires robust frameworks for data privacy, ethical oversight, and clinical validation.

Privacy considerations extend beyond standard HIPAA compliance. Privacy protections in AI-driven behavioral health systems must include end-to-end encryption, secure access controls, and regular security audits. Healthcare systems should implement multi-factor authentication (MFA), role-based access limitations, and automated logging of all data interactions. Additionally, data anonymization protocols should be established for individual patient information and aggregated AI insights, with clear governance policies for data retention and disposal.

Clinical oversight continues to be a critical component of AI implementation. Assessment specialists and behavioral health clinicians should maintain final authority in patient care decisions, with AI serving as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for clinical judgment. Regular validation of AI recommendations against established clinical protocols helps ensure that technology enhances rather than diminishes the quality of patient care.

The integration of AI in behavioral health care presents compelling opportunities for improved care delivery and patient outcomes. But success hinges on meaningful collaboration between clinicians, technology developers, and healthcare administrators. Implemented properly, AI can help create a future where quality behavioral health care becomes more accessible, personalized, and effective for all.

About Andy Flanagan

As CEO, Andy Flanagan is responsible for Iris Telehealth‘s strategic direction, operational excellence, and the cultural success of the company. With significant experience in all aspects of our U.S. and global healthcare system, Andy is focused on the success of the patients and clinicians Iris Telehealth serves to improve people’s lives. Andy has worked in some of the largest global companies and led multiple high-growth businesses providing a unique perspective on the behavioral health challenges in our world. Andy holds a Master of Science in Health Informatics from the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Nevada, Reno. Andy is a four-time CEO, with prior experience including founding a SaaS company and holding senior-level positions at Siemens Healthcare, SAP, and Xerox.

< + > Counsel Health Launches with $11M in Seed Funding to Deliver Physician-Led, AI-Powered Medical Advice

Counsel Health announces $11M in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health, with participation from Asymmetric Capital Partners, Floodgate Fund, and Pear VC. The funding will support Counsel’s national expansion and coverage extension to millions more members.

The U.S. healthcare system has an access-to-care crisis, with 60 million Americans facing primary care shortages and patients waiting 38 days for appointments. Meanwhile, demand for messaging-based medical advice has surged with patient inbox messages increasing six-fold, contributing to physician burnout and delayed responses.

Founded by a team of physicians and engineers, Counsel’s mission is to improve access to care by providing patients high-quality, personalized medical advice from expert physicians within minutes. By offering on-demand guidance, Counsel reduces unnecessary hospital visits, eases the provider burden, and improves the patient experience.

“The power of technology lies in its ability to make the best version of something available to everyone,” said Dr. Alagappan. “Access to high-quality healthcare advice remains a global challenge, but Counsel’s AI-embedded virtual medical practice breaks that barrier by enabling everyone to feel like they have a doctor in the family.”

At the core of Counsel’s model is an AI-native “clinician cockpit” that integrates patients’ medical records, specialty guidelines, and academic research, enabling physicians to respond with more efficiency and quality. “Counsel’s hybrid structure—part software company, research lab, and medical practice—uniquely positions it to deliver a care experience that hasn’t been possible until now,” said Nancy Chou, Partner at Asymmetric Capital Partners.

Counsel currently serves tens of thousands of patients through its health plan and provider partnerships in California, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, and Texas, and plans to expand nationwide over the next two years.

Over time, Counsel’s innovative approach could even spark the creation of a new medical specialty—Asynchronous Medicine—where providers specialize in messaging-based care. “Counsel’s technology has made asynchronous care more sustainable and efficacious,” said Julie Yoo, General Partner at a16z Bio + Health. “Counsel thoughtfully integrates AI with physicians, ensuring care remains safe, personalized, and effective. We’re excited to support Counsel’s transformative journey.”

Get in touch with the Counsel team at info@counselhealth.com.

About Counsel Health

Counsel Health was founded in 2023 to multiply the world’s healthcare capacity. Counsel provides patients with personalized on-demand medical advice while avoiding unnecessary medical expenses. Visit counselhealth.com.

Originally announced October 22nd, 2024

< + > Happy Thanksgiving – We Appreciate All the Good You Do

I recently heard someone say that Thanksgiving was their favorite holiday.  They loved that it was relatively simple compared to some other holidays and was focused on showing gratitude.  No doubt gratitude is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and others around us.

On this Thanksgiving, we want everyone in the Healthcare IT Today community to know how much we appreciate you.  Whether you’re someone who reads occasionnaly or you’re one of our regular readers.  Whether you like, comment, and share on our videos or whether you just enjoying watching or listening to them.  Whether you’re one of our sponsors or not.  We want to thank you for supporting the work we do here at Healthcare IT Today.

Plus, even beyond the great Healthcare IT Today community, thank you to all of you who serve so well in healthcare.  We appreciate all the work you do to improve the lives of patients.

Happy Thanksgiving!

< + > Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun Hospital sets up AI-powered pathology service

It features speech-to-text and an AI that identifies high-risk findings from slide images.

< + > Senators intro bipartisan bill to bolster healthcare cybersecurity

The Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2024 would provide grants to help healthcare organizations strengthen prevention and response, and push for better coordination between HHS and CISA.

< + > Can Gingerbread Help Improve Patient Monitoring and Safety? Philips says Yes!

Instruments designed to improve situation aware help pilots understand the current and future state of a flight so they can better anticipate as well as react to changes. Philips recognized the need for more situational awareness in healthcare and to address it, they developed a digital patient avatar that looks remarkably like a gingerbread man.

At the AdvaMed MedTech Conference, the Healthcare IT Today team caught sight of this “gingerbread man” and were intrigued enough to find out more. Julia Strandberg, Chief Business Leader of Connected Care and Monitoring at Philips, agreed to come on-camera to provide more details.

Key Takeaways

1. Visual Patient Avatar helps with patient monitoring and safety. Philips’ new avatar, shaped like a gingerbread man, helps improve situational awareness and reduces cognitive load while monitor patients.
2. Device mobility eliminates gaps in monitoring. Patients need to be monitored in patient rooms, in transit between care settings, and event at home. Monitoring solutions need to be mobile to accommodate these situations and avoid gaps.
3. Cybersecurity needed for care-at-home. Cybersecurity for medical devices is paramount for the care-at-home setting which lacks the security infrastructure of a hospital. Manufacturers need to account for this in the design of their monitoring technologies.

 Gingerbread Innovation

One of Philips’ recent breakthroughs is the Visual Patient Avatar, an AI-powered interface that provides a holistic, real-time representation of a patient’s condition. This intuitive tool reduces cognitive load by presenting critical patient data visually, helping clinicians make faster, more informed decisions.

“When the patient is cold, the avatar can turn blue,” explained Strandberg. “Or when their pulse is racing, you can see the heart on the avatar pumping more.”

According to Standberg and to Joyce De Ala, Clinical Architect at Philips (who was kind enough to give a walkthrough of the Philips platform), the idea for the avatar came from two anesthesiologists who were also pilots.

“They got the idea from the airplane cockpit,” recalled De Ala. “Pilots monitor so many different dials and instruments. It can take them a while to build a picture of the conditions of the aircraft and the environment.”

Having a single instrument that consolidates the most critical information in an intuitive way, drastically reduces the amount of time and mental energy required to assess the current situation. On most commercial aircraft, this is the job of the Primary Flight Display which shows airspeed, altitude, pitch, thrust, heading and other critical information. A pilot can look at that one display and get an idea of whether everything is normal or whether further investigation or intervention is needed.

The Philips “gingerbread” avatar does the same for doctors and nurses monitoring patients. With a quick glance, they can see if action is needed. This decreases cognitive load and improves patient safety.

Integrated, Connected, and Open Patient Monitoring

The days of using multiple devices from different vendors that simply beep when something is wrong are thankfully coming to an end. Health systems today want simplified patient monitoring that is smart, connected, and tightly integrated, preferably from a single vendor.

That is Strandberg’s vision.

“Patient monitoring meant a lot of hardware, which created gaps in the flow of care,” she explained. “Now, we are reimagining care delivery through digital transformation, where tools like clinical decision support, AI, data integration and workflow optimization play leading roles.”

Strandberg pointed to Philips’ latest central monitoring unit, the PIC iX v4.3 Patient Information Center (PIC iX), which integrates data from various sources, including non-Philips devices, into a cohesive and open ecosystem as an example of the company’s direction. The PIC iX system ensures continuity of care because the unit can physically be moved with the patient – to their room at the hospital, to the operating room, and even to their home. Philips has added this mobility because it recognizes that providing care is no longer restricted to the four walls of a facility.

Strandberg noted that in-home monitoring, supported by tools like Philips’ ambulatory monitoring services, empowers clinicians to intervene earlier and improve outcomes for chronic disease management and post-acute care.

A Focus on Cybersecurity

Security remains a critical consideration as monitoring systems expand beyond the hospital. Philips embeds robust cybersecurity protocols, including military-grade encryption, into its products.

“Cybersecurity is built into our culture and software development lifecycle,” Strandberg stated. For example, Philips’ monitoring systems recently underwent rigorous testing at the DEF CON Biohacking Village and demonstrated resilience against attempted breaches. By prioritizing security, Philips is enabling a seamless flow of data between homes and healthcare providers without compromising patient trust.

By addressing challenges like clinician burnout, fragmented care, and cybersecurity, Philips is helping healthcare providers deliver high-quality, patient-centered care in manner that is aligned with the future of care – portable, safe, connected, whether the patient is a healthcare facility or at home.

Learn more about Philips at https://www.philips.com/

Listen and subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today Interviews Podcast to hear all the latest insights from experts in healthcare IT.

And for an exclusive look at our top stories, subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube.

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< + > What’s Next for Healthcare Cybersecurity After a Tumultuous 2024?

The following is a guest article by Andrew Costis, Engineering Manager of the Adversary Research Team at AttackIQ

The healthcare sector continues to face a wave of cyber incidents, with 2024 marking a year of heightened attacks. Healthcare and public health (HPH) organizations have become frequent targets for ransomware and data exfiltration attacks, creating a critical need for stronger defenses. The cyberattack on Change Healthcare compromised the data of an estimated one-third of Americans, highlighting the consequences of such breaches. However, these attacks extend beyond data loss. The attack on Ascension’s hospital network disrupted patient care and limited access to digital records, demonstrating the real-world impact on healthcare services.

In response, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into securing clinical and administrative systems, networks, and patient data. A recent HIMSS report found that cybersecurity budgets in the healthcare sector are up 55%. Yet, despite these investments, the question remains: are these security measures enough?

The Unique Challenge for Healthcare

The complexity of healthcare systems, combined with the high value of the data they protect, makes the sector especially attractive to attackers. Many organizations rely on outdated infrastructure or lack the resources for comprehensive cybersecurity measures, which creates an environment where malicious actors can slip through the cracks unnoticed. With critical systems often working on aging networks, healthcare providers find themselves in a constant battle to keep up with changing threats while managing legacy technologies.

Where the Investments Are Going

HPH organizations are not holding back in their efforts to bolster cybersecurity. Resources are being funneled into advanced security controls designed to shield critical assets. But deploying these solutions isn’t the final step — it’s only the beginning. To justify this level of spending and secure future budgets, security leaders need to demonstrate a clear return on investment (ROI). This can only happen if they have the tools and processes in place to measure how effective their controls are in preventing and mitigating the types of attacks most likely to strike.

Assessing the Efficacy of Cyber Defenses

Deploying security controls is not enough. In a healthcare sector as vulnerable as this, organizations must go beyond simple deployment by regularly validating their defenses through proactive, continuous testing. This multi-pronged approach ensures that organizations aren’t just reacting to breaches but actively preventing them. Here’s how healthcare organizations can test and validate their cyber defenses:

Leveraging Frameworks Like MITRE ATT&CK

This well-known framework offers a structured approach for understanding and emulating real-world adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). By integrating MITRE ATT&CK, healthcare organizations can simulate various attack vectors and pinpoint gaps in their security, enabling preemptive improvements.

Implementing Comprehensive Breach and Attack Simulations

Simulating attacks—such as ransomware or data exfiltration—on critical healthcare systems allows organizations to discover vulnerabilities before attackers do. This hands-on approach ensures potential threats are addressed swiftly and effectively, reducing the likelihood of successful attacks.

Continuously Evaluating and Refining Security Controls

Static defenses quickly become obsolete. Regular assessments of existing controls, aligned with the latest threat intelligence, help identify gaps and emerging risks. This iterative process ensures healthcare organizations can adapt and fine-tune their security posture, ensuring sustained protection.

Adopting Automated, Continuous Testing Platforms

Moving away from costly, infrequent manual testing, automated platforms enable healthcare organizations to continuously validate their security controls against real-world threats. This approach provides real-time insights into the effectiveness of cyber defenses, allowing for rapid improvements without the overhead of traditional testing methods.

Securing the Future

As we look to the future, it’s clear that cybersecurity in healthcare must evolve. Static defenses won’t suffice in the face of dynamic and increasingly sophisticated threats. The organizations that succeed in safeguarding their systems will be those that continuously test, refine, and adapt their defenses, ensuring that every dollar spent on cybersecurity yields tangible results. For CISOs, it’s about making cybersecurity not just an operational necessity but a strategic investment that protects critical assets and patient trust.

By implementing proactive testing and ensuring that defenses are aligned with the real-world threat landscape, healthcare providers can build a cybersecurity program that is both resilient and financially sustainable. This forward-thinking approach will enable them to not only survive but thrive in an era of relentless cyber threats.

< + > This Week’s Health IT Jobs – November 27, 2024

It can be very overwhelming scrolling though job board after job board in search of a position that fits your wants and needs. Let us take that stress away by finding a mix of great health IT jobs for you! We hope you enjoy this look at some of the health IT jobs we saw healthcare organizations trying to fill this week.

Here’s a quick look at some of the health IT jobs we found:

• Privacy Consultant – Health Care Service Corporation
• Clinical Informatics Specialist – Insight Global
• Chief Medical Officer – Clinicas del Camino Real, Inc.
• EHR Provider Specialist – Adventist Health
• Executive Director, Information Systems – Cape Cod Healthcare
• Clinical Systems Engineer – WCMC Healthcare Technology Management – John Muir Health
• HIM Specialist – Conifer Health Solutions
• Clinical Integration Lead Telecollaboration – Intuitive
• Documentation Coordinator – The MedElite Group
• District Manager, Health Technology Manager – The Alexzander Group Human Resource Consultants, Inc.
• EHR Specialist – UofL Health
• Sr HIT Strategic Account Manager – Exact Sciences
• Associate Vice President, Women Infant Health Services – VHC Health
• Senior Analyst – Denials Management – El Camino Health
• Clinical Informatics Analyst – Midland Memorial Hospital
• Health Information Management Specialist – Medical Records – Eisenhower Health
• Data Governance Specialist – The University of Kansas Health System
• Oracle Business Systems Analyst – Connecticut Children’s
• Consulting EHR Support Analyst – HCA Healthcare
• Health Information Coder – Health Information Management – Montage Health

If none of these jobs fit your needs, be sure to check out our previous health IT job listings.

Do you have an open health IT position that you are looking to fill? Contact us here with a link to the open position and we’ll be happy to feature it in next week’s article at no charge!

*Note: These jobs are listed by Healthcare IT Today as a free service to the community. Healthcare IT Today does not endorse or vouch for the company or the job posting. We encourage anyone applying to these jobs to do their own due diligence.

< + > New NIH tool uses genAI to connect volunteers with clinical trials

TrialGPT could help providers navigate the vast and ever-changing range of clinical trials available to their patients by finding, ranking and explaining why a patient is matched, the agency says.

< + > CopilotIQ and Biofourmis Merge to Create the First End-to-End Platform for AI-Driven In-Home Care

Merger Establishes a Category of One Company That Can Deliver In-Home Care from Pre-Surgery to Acute, Post-Acute, and Chronic Care

CopilotIQ, the health tech company helping older Americans with chronic conditions live longer and healthier lives, and Biofourmis, a global technology-enabled care delivery company, delivering in-home care solutions serving enterprise healthcare customers, today announced a strategic merger. The combined company creates the industry’s first AI-driven platform that delivers in-home care across the full spectrum from pre-surgical optimization to acute, post-acute, and chronic care.

For customers, the combination delivers a single vendor that can provide a best-in-class offering across the entire care continuum and creates a ‘single pane of glass’ solution by which enterprise customers will enjoy observability of patients across the care continuum via one technology integration, one security audit, simplified procurement, and a much better patient experience. Hospitals and payors are struggling with an overwhelming level of complexity and cost to manage multiple-point solutions required to deliver the necessary suite of home-based care. This combination provides the first solution that solves these problems.

“Our mission is to redefine the future of healthcare delivery, by extending care to the comfort of patients’ homes, and driving improved health outcomes, at the lowest possible cost to the system,” said David Koretz, CEO at CopilotIQ and Biofourmis, the newly combined entity. “This merger is a major step toward realizing our vision of transforming healthcare from reactive treatment to proactive prevention, and from generalized to deeply personalized, data-driven care.”

Biofourmis’ capabilities in supporting health systems, payors, and life sciences companies’ delivery of complex care for their patients in the home with FDA-cleared algorithms and technology will be expanded further upstream and downstream when combined with CopilotIQ. The combined company will unlock coordinated, convenient, and cost-effective care for patients managing chronic conditions. Further, CopilotIQ’s transformative software suite for driving patient engagement, improving clinician efficiency, and delivering clinical personalization, will be integrated across Biofourmis’ acute and post-acute offerings.

As part of this combination, leading investors from both businesses, including General Atlantic, Openspace Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners are investing into the combined business.

About CopilotIQ

CopilotIQ is the creator of the first High-Frequency Connected Care platform to transform outcomes for older Americans with chronic conditions. CopilotIQ combines continuous biomarker data, behavioral analytics, and US-licensed nursing visits to drive data-driven improvement, coupled with a clinical automation software platform that delivers unprecedented clinical efficiency. The company was named to Fast Company’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024. CopilotIQ is headquartered in Nashville, TN.

About Biofourmis

Biofourmis brings high-quality care and life-changing clinical trials to any person, anywhere. Biofourmis Care enables hospitals, health systems, and payors to seamlessly extend care to patients at home across all levels of acuity. Biofourmis Connect streamlines clinical trials with powerful digital capabilities to bring the most effective therapies to market more efficiently. Biofourmis’ data-driven solutions leverage clinical devices, artificial intelligence, and an ecosystem of virtual clinical teams and in-home services to drive quality outcomes, improve operational efficiency, and lower costs.

Originally announced October 21st, 2024

< + > Singapore General Hospital developing AI to prevent antibiotic resistance

A pilot validation study found that the AI helped hasten case reviews and data analysis and determine the necessity of antibiotic use.

< + > Mount Sinai Health announces new Center for AI and Human Health

The interdisciplinary center will combine artificial intelligence with data science and genomics at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

< + > Yale study shows how AI bias worsens healthcare disparities

The research shows how data integrity issues at every stage – training, model development, publication, implementation – can adversely impact patient outcomes, say clinicians at Yale School of Medicine.

< + > Shifting Our Healthcare Delivery Model from Reactive to Proactive

The following is a guest article by Paulo Pinho, M.D., Chief Medical and Strategy Officer at Discern Health

The U.S. healthcare system is largely a sickness model of reactive care delivery. In our current healthcare delivery model, interventions are triggered by patients becoming unwell; we don’t invest enough in prevention and when we do, prevention strategies are often misdirected.

This model is unsustainable, particularly given the nation’s changing demographics. In the next two decades, the number of adults over 65 will increase 30%, from 63 million to 82 million, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the U.S. population by 2050. While many of these older Americans will enjoy a long lifespan, their health span will be challenged by the burden of chronic illness (85% of adults aged 65 and older are managing at least one chronic condition, and two-thirds are dealing with two or more), or by acute impactful health events, many of which can be prevented. The U.S. ranks 68th globally in health span, with adults often spending the last dozen years of life in poor health.

To close the gap between lifespan and health span, the U.S. healthcare model must shift toward earlier detection and intervention, especially for aging adults with functional limitations. Predictive analytics represents a promising tool. Harnessing data, data science, and artificial intelligence (AI) thoughtfully can enable healthcare providers to detect subtle signs of decline that often go unnoticed. This proactive approach can help identify individuals at higher risk of adverse outcomes, allowing for timely intervention before conditions worsen.

A Game-Changing Tool 

Predictive analytics leverages advanced technologies and data science to analyze vast amounts of patient information. By identifying patterns and subtle indicators of health deterioration, predictive analytics can flag individuals at risk of adverse outcomes before they even show noticeable symptoms. In a healthcare system where clinicians are often rushed, this tool can be a game-changer, surfacing concise, actionable insights in a clinician’s workflow that improve both patient outcomes and the efficiency of care delivery.

The potential of predictive models is not limited to forecasting risks; they can also provide explainable insights into the drivers of patient’s health and impairment. This transparency is crucial in helping clinicians understand and address the factors influencing a patient’s health trajectory. Instead of overwhelming providers with data, predictive analytics simplifies it into insights, offering clear recommendations for timely, targeted intervention and impact.

Complementing Human Care

While some may fear that AI and predictive tools will replace human judgment, this is an unfounded fear. Technology is meant to complement, not replace, the expertise of healthcare professionals. Just as the stethoscope once revolutionized medical practice (despite early skepticism and challenged adoption), predictive analytics is poised to become an essential tool, enhancing the ability of clinicians to deliver personalized, data-driven care.

Today’s healthcare providers are asked to do more with less — seeing patients in under seven minutes while managing increasingly complex cases. Predictive analytics can alleviate some of that burden by surfacing critical insights that might otherwise go unnoticed. This is especially vital as the population ages and the demand for more personalized care grows.

Innovative technologies like predictive analytics tools can help our healthcare system evolve from a reactive to a proactive delivery model by enabling providers to more easily determine the right interventions for a specific patient. They can also serve to help patients better understand what is likely to happen in their healthcare journey in the future to encourage them to take proactive steps to prevent adverse events. By empowering providers to prioritize the most effective interventions, these tools can help erase the gap between lifespan and health span.

About Paulo Pinho 

Paulo Pinho, M.D., is the Chief Medical and Strategy Officer at Discern Health, a health technology startup focused on predictive data models to improve health outcomes. With nearly 25 years of medical practice, he is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Clinical Informatics. Dr. Pinho previously held leadership roles at Availity Clinical Solutions and Prudential International Insurance and founded PASE Healthcare. His global clinical experience spans diverse settings, and he remains a prominent public speaker and published expert in healthcare delivery and patient empowerment.

< + > Infinitus Systems Raises $51.5 Million Series C Funding on the Strength of AI Guardrails

Industry-Leading AI System with Guardrails Announces New Investors Including Andreessen Horowitz, and General Availability of Healthcare AI Copilot FastTrack

Infinitus Systems, Inc., provider of the first AI platform specifically built to automate manual healthcare phone calls, has raised its Series C financing led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Andreessen Horowitz and Memorial Hermann Health System joined existing investors Kleiner Perkins, Coatue, and GV (Google Ventures) in investing an additional $51.5 million to accelerate the Infinitus mission of transforming healthcare operations with AI. This brings the company’s total funding raised to $102.9 million.

The healthcare experience for patients and employees is falling short. Inefficiencies in back-office operations lead to delays in access to treatment and contribute to employee burnout from tedious manual processes. Infinitus solves this fundamental problem by enabling payors, providers, and drug manufacturers to automate one of the most time-consuming aspects of healthcare operations — manual phone calls.

“We have an enormous opportunity to transform how the healthcare ecosystem exchanges administrative data,” said Ankit Jain, Co-Founder and CEO at Infinitus. “We are grateful for the support from our new and existing investors, as this funding will allow us to further scale our impact, continuing to innovate and deliver solutions that meaningfully improve the experience of patients with chronic conditions.”

Infinitus is setting the standard for how AI is used within patient services, much of this due to the strength of its industry-leading AI guardrails, safeguards designed to ensure AI systems operate within ethical, legal, and technical boundaries. The ability to combine guardrails at every level of the Infinitus AI system means the company’s AI products can handle long phone conversations with high accuracy, ensuring customers get the reliable data they need. The AI agent, for example, can navigate hundreds of conversational turns and long context windows, something even the most modern LLMs can’t do.

Unlike other solutions on the market, Infinitus has the ability to use LLMs for their reasoning and extraction capabilities through a coordination layer that restricts conversations to an approved set of topics. This discrete knowledge and action space puts to rest any concerns that the AI might hallucinate.

In addition, the phone calls on which these conversations occur stay secure and compliant, as all Infinitus solutions are HIPAA and SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and run on a HITRUST Certified Cloud.

“Our comprehensive guardrails enable us to create a secure and precise environment for these interactions. This not only minimizes errors but also ensures compliance and trust, which are paramount in healthcare,” said Shyam Rajagopalan, Co-Founder and CTO at Infinitus. “In addition to enabling our full-call automation, our guardrails play a major role in other products we have developed, including FastTrack, the Infinitus AI copilot, which is built on many of these same components.”

The purpose-built AI copilot for healthcare, FastTrack enters general availability today. It enables call center staff contacting payors to bypass tedious IVR systems and hold times, reducing administrative task turnaround time and improving patient support.

“The potential for AI to revolutionize the healthcare industry is immense, and Infinitus is well positioned to help customers navigate this time of change,” said Scott Kupor, Managing Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, who also joined the Infinitus board as part of this investment. “We believe in Infinitus’s vision and are confident that their innovative solutions, like FastTrack, will continue to disrupt the industry and deliver significant value to both their customers and the broader healthcare ecosystem, safely and securely driving efficiency and enabling healthcare providers to focus more on patient care.”

FastTrack is powered by lnfinitus’s purpose-built AI system for healthcare, which draws from a vast knowledge graph of payor intelligence gathered from over 4 million calls and counting. It knows the right numbers to call, can navigate complex IVR systems, and waits on hold on behalf of reimbursement specialists or other call center staff – dropping callers in once a live payor agent answers. Use cases for FastTrack include claims processing, prior authorizations, and benefit verifications, among others.

“We believe this technology can help with workforce shortages by taking on some of the tasks that help support workflow,” said Feby Abraham, PhD, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Memorial Hermann. “We are always looking for new ways to engage our employees and make them feel better supported. The unique challenges of the past few years have only heightened the need for support in this area.”

FastTrack does not require an integration to get started; API integrations are available, as well as integrations to popular systems of record such as Salesforce. Users of the system get back significant time they would have otherwise spent navigating IVRs, waiting on hold, or composing summary notes – another feature auto-generated by the solution.

FastTrack is the latest achievement for Infinitus, which also announced the launches of its AI electronic benefit verification solutions for patients covered by commercial insurance and Medicare earlier this year. Access to FastTrack can be requested via this link.

About Infinitus

Infinitus automates phone call conversations for leading healthcare companies. Through a combination of a multimodal and multi-modal AI system, human-in-the-loop guardrails, and an extensive knowledge graph, Infinitus automates the collection of data that would traditionally be gathered via human-made phone calls. With Infinitus, customers see a 10% increase in data accuracy often coupled with a 50% ROI over manual approaches. Infinitus supports 44% of the Fortune 50 and 27% of the Fortune 100 healthcare companies. Learn more at infinitus.ai

Originally announced October 23rd, 2024

< + > Singapore tackling chronic diseases with wearables

The Health Promotion Board is piloting two preventative health programmes with Google and Abbott involving 6,000 Singaporeans.

< + > $14M more for EMR implementation in Victoria and more briefs

Public health services in South Australia and Melbourne are set to implement a digital patient flow management platform.

< + > Bonus Features – November 24, 2024 – Only 16% of patients prefer online pharmacies, medical coding denials up 125% in the last year, plus 27 other stories

Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.

Studies

• Medical coding denials are up 125% compared to last year, according to a report from MDaudit. Additionally, audit rates have doubled in 2024, and clinical denials have increased 51% in the last three years.
• On a similar note, a survey from HFMA and Cedar found 58% of provider financial leaders report deteriorating payer relations over last three years, with 87% saying this friction impacts care delivery.
• A report from Infinitus found PBMs provide 69% of their prior authorization determinations within five days, compared to just 42% for major medical insurers.
• A Wolters Kluwer Health survey found 44% of Americans use prescription coupon sites such as GoodRx to manage medication costs. Even with retail pharmacies closing, only 16% of patients prefer online pharmacies.
• The latest quarterly trends report from Strata Decision Technology found a 5.2% year-over-year increase in hospital labor expenses, due in large part to higher wages.

Partnerships

• MEDENT and Azalea Health added Suki Platform, Suki’s AI engine, to their EHR systems.
• Behavioral health service provider Rula Health is now available on Amino Health, a care navigation platform.

Products

• Pegasystems launched Pega GenAI Blueprint to help organizations analyze legacy technology systems and create “blueprints” for cloud-ready applications.
• Canvas Medical launched Anova, an EMR system specifically designed for longevity medicine.
• Women’s health company Willow introduced Ema, a conversational AI tool for mental health support.
• Cotiviti launched 360 Pattern Review, which combines pre-pay fraud, waste, and abuse prevention with post-pay review across the claim payment cycle.
• Payment vendor RevSpring launched Forms Blast to assist with digital collection of patient data.
• Academy Medtech Ventures released Move PT to support in-person and remote physical therapy.
• Unite Us updated the Social Needs System framework behind Social Connector, its analytics platform for calculating social risk.
• ModMed released ModMed Scribe, an AI ambient listening tool natively built into the EMA EHR platform.
• Thoughtful AI launched six specialized AI agents for RCM workflows.
• Kidney care vendor Interwell Health launched Acumen Rounder, a nephrology rounding application that integrates with Epic.
• Reimagine Care expanded its symptom-management program to now surgical oncology patients.
• LogicMark launched Freedom Alert Max, its latest medical alert; it includes medication reminders and a fall detection algorithm.
• UbiSim VR updated its nurse education module, with v1.16 giving nurses practice on care delivery amid distractions such as phone calls and incoming orders.
• Lindus Health rolled out a clinical trial management service for infectious disease trials.

Sales

• Tenet selected Commure Scribe as the ambient AI platform for its employed physician network, Tenet Physician Resources.
• Pennsylvania-based Independence Health System chose Ensemble as the RCM provider for four of its facilities.
• Virtual psychiatry practice Array Behavioral Care adopted KeyCare to help coordinate among disparate care settings.
• Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center expanded its use of AGFA enterprising imaging into cardiology.
• Georgia-based Washington County Regional Medical Center chose DT Research and swyMed to build its EMS telemedicine system. In addition, DT Research released the 14th generation of processors for its medical cart and all-in-one computers.

People

• Virtual second opinion provider The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic appointed Dr. David Peter as Chief Medical Officer.
• Lumina Care, which provides technology and services to SNFs, appointed Dr. Mary Jones as Associate Medical Director.
• Pivot Point Consulting added Steve McDonald as Executive Partner.

If you have news that you’d like us to consider for a future edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features, please submit them on this page. Please include any relevant links and let us know if news is under embargo. Note that submissions received after the close of business on Thursday may not be included in Bonus Features until the following week.

< + > Weekly Roundup – November 23, 2024

Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.

A Look at Epic Culture and Interoperability with Brendan Keeler. The former Epic employee, now at HTD Health, talked to John Lynn for more than two hours. Part 1 of the interview focused on what it was like to work at Epic, as well as what opportunities exist to improve interoperability systems today. Read more…

Can You Build a Health Care System Without Notes? Dr. Alex Butler at River Records joined John to discuss how the company is taking AI-driven ambient voice to the next level by providing a concise list of relevant information and retrieving information from the right place at the right time. Read more…

CHIME 2024: Perspectives on AI, Cybersecurity, Leadership, and More. In San Diego, John connected with healthcare IT leaders who shared their thoughts on how to train AI, improve AI governance, and find the right AI use cases, all while leading a modern healthcare organization. Read more…

How Healthcare AI Automation Improves Accuracy and Trust. John sat down with Caleb Manscill at Vyne Medical and chatted about AI’s role in removing the documentation burden from intake, storage, and curation of documents. Read more…

Supporting Identity and Onboarding in the Home and the Clinic. Sandeep Kumbhat at Okta explained the value proposition for handling identity and security through facial recognition, especially when compared to passwords, digital cards, and even single sign-on. Read more…

Balancing Data Sharing With Protection Amid Competing Government Data Requirements. Mo Weitnauer at MRO offered suggestions for avoiding common pitfalls of aggregating healthcare data while managing ever-evolving federal and state regulations. Read more…

Evidence-Based Interventions That Improve Population Health. We asked the Healthcare IT Today community to provide some key examples; responses included maternal health, public health, value-based care, and genomic testing. Read more…

Implementing Healthcare AI Responsibly. At HLTH, John sat down with Maynd Jolly and Mike Stimpson at enGen to discuss how to ensure using AI supports both margin and mission, particularly when it comes to addressing healthcare cost trends. Read more…

Being Doctor to the President of the United States. John connected with Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, physician in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. Among John’s favorite anecdotes: When the President asks to see you but doesn’t say a.m. or p.m. make sure you’re available both times. Read more…

CIO Podcast: Being an AI Champion. Dr. Avi Sharma at Jefferson Einstein talked to John about AI topics that included governance, vendor selection, and product integration. Read more…

Critical Condition: The Increasing Frequency of Ransomware Attacks in Healthcare. Adopting a a robust 3-2-1 backup system helps organizations improve security posture and prevent data loss and downtime in the event of a cyberattack, noted Cody Hall at Synology. Read more…

Federal Innovation Hubs Can Jump-Start Healthcare Technology Adoption. Tim Small and Laura Baker at Deloitte discussed how federal health leaders can demonstrate the potential of emerging technology, encouraging adoption through human-centered design and collaboration. Read more…

How Health Systems Can Adapt to NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0. Under the new framework, organizations must incorporate cybersecurity into their broader risk management strategy. Scott Trevino at TRIMEDX explained how, noting the importance of governance. Read more…

How Technical Debt is Stifling Healthcare Innovation. Organizations accrue technical debt when they focus on short-term fixes instead of long-term solutions. Prasanna Ganesan at Machinify said the best way to pay back debt is gradually and in chunks. Read more…

The Last First Disruption: A Chance for Hospitals to Thrive. Narinder Singh at LookDeep Health described the potential for AI to recognize visual patterns and monitor patients, becoming an “always-on assistant” for doctors and nurses in the hospital and at home. Read more…

This Week’s Health IT Jobs for November 20, 2024: Several roles in informatics and information management, while Virginia-based Sentara Norfolk General Hospital is looking for a CFO. Read more…

Bonus Features for November 17, 2024: 63% of patients more likely to participate in clinical trials if they offer telehealth, plus 29% of healthcare payments in 2023 went through downside risk contracts. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Virtual women’s health clinic Maven Clinic announced a $125 million Series F funding round.
• Motion analysis technology vendor OneStep secured $36 million in funding.
• Member engagement vendor RadiantGraph raised $11 million in Series A funding.
• Health data management vendor Harmony Healthcare IT acquired Trinisys, also a data management vendor.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.

< + > CommonSpirit partners up with U of U for clinical collaboration

Patients from five of the health system's hospitals will now have access to University of Utah Health providers and resources through the new community-based partnership.

< + > Can You Build a Health Care System Without Notes?

Most transcription services and AI medical scribes aim to reproduce the SOAP note that has been the mainstay of patient visit records since the days of paper. Alex Butler, MD, Chief Product Officer at River Records, and his team started the company after reading a paper by Jake Kantrowitz, MD, PhD, Primary Care Physician & Chief Medical Officer, that led him to ask “Can you build a health care system without notes?” This video explains how River Records is working towards that vision.

Traditionally, a SOAP note documents a single visit. To see the trajectory of an illness—whether vital signs have improved or declined, what treatments worked and which didn’t, etc.—a clinician has to page through numerous notes or use some external tool to extract information. In today’s data age, information could be presented in a much more immediately useful, structured format.

River Records operates like other AI-driven ambient voice solutions, but produces a concise list of conditions, symptoms, and other relevant information. The tool is integrated with some 98 EHRs—Butler says it can work with any EHR used in the US or Canada—and they are working on deep integration with certain EHRs so that the tool can manage the problem list, check coding, and initiate billing. ICD codes are currently supported and CPT codes will be added.

Being able to pull information from the EHR, River Records can retrieve not only ancillary information such as lab reports and consultation documents, but information from previous visits. The result is a “problem-oriented document.”

The tool starts by identifying symptoms and conditions. It figures out what information in the transcript is relevant and sends that information as a set of instructions to pull information relevant to those problems from the transcript. The complete report is generated within seconds of the end of the visit. The doctor can also add their impressions before and after the visit to augment the information in the transcript. The tool asks them to review the report and add a summary framework

Doctors can attach the templates from their EHR so that information is presented in the order they like, combining many visits to create a “narrative.” Butler says the tool “opens up a ton of doors” for clinical decision support and other products. He finds that they work well for very narrow specialities as well.

Listen to the video for more information about how River Records adds terms to its AI model, checks for accuracy, and more.

Learn more about River Records: https://www.riverrecords.ai/

Listen and subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today Interviews Podcast to hear all the latest insights from experts in healthcare IT.

And for an exclusive look at our top stories, subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube.

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< + > OneStep Secures $36M to Pioneer Gait as the Sixth Vital Sign

AI-Powered Digital Care Platform Revolutionizes Healthcare by Providing Continuous, Real-Life Mobility Insights to Improve Patient Outcomes and Quality of Life

OneStep, an innovator in digital healthcare, announced $36 million in funding to advance its smartphone-based motion analysis technology. This funding positions gait – how a person walks – as the sixth vital sign, crucial for understanding and improving overall health.

OneStep’s technology transforms smartphones into clinical-grade motion analysis tools, making gait analysis as simple as stepping on a bathroom scale. With real-time insights into gait and mobility from anywhere, and without the need for wearables or complex equipment, healthcare providers gain valuable clinical data based on patient movement. This enables timely interventions and keeps patients actively engaged in their health.

As life expectancy rises, gait analysis becomes essential for diagnosing and managing chronic conditions. Gait reveals unique insights into the health of body systems, including nervous, musculoskeletal, and cardiorespiratory functions. Early detection of falls, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases, through gait analysis, allows for proactive interventions that can significantly improve quality of life.

OneStep’s FDA-listed, AI-powered care platform offers continuous, real-life monitoring, empowering healthcare providers with actionable, real-time data. Providers can enhance patient outcomes, improve decision-making, streamline documentation, and reduce costs while also generating new revenue through Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM).

The funding round was co-led by Team8, a global Venture-Creation and Venture Capital fund with deep domain expertise in healthcare, fintech, and cybersecurity, and Vintage Investment Partners, a $4B global investment fund known for investing in disruptive technology companies. Existing investors LionBird, Aleph, and 10D, also participated in the round, demonstrating their ongoing confidence in OneStep’s technology and its potential. This latest funding will be used to scale OneStep’s operations and further develop its pioneering technology, with the goal of establishing gait analysis as a mainstream tool in health monitoring and improvement.

“Motion is life, and understanding it is key to advancing health.” said Tomer Shussman, Co-Founder and CEO at OneStep. “By empowering healthcare providers with real-time insights into how patients move, we’re helping unlock the power of gait – transforming healthcare to be more proactive, precise, and focused on improving quality of life.”

“OneStep’s gait analysis technology is truly a game-changer in healthcare, perfectly aligning with Vintage’s commitment to investing in innovations that transform patient care,” said Shira Eting, Partner at Vintage Investment Partners. “Under Tomer’s visionary leadership, OneStep will expand to new conditions, such as neurology, and to new types of use cases and customers, and will help democratize gait – one of the most important vital signs.”

“OneStep is combining transformative technology, real clinical results, and a clear business strategy to achieve a huge vision – making gait an easily monitored vital sign, critical for many medical conditions,” said Sarit Firon, Team8 Managing Partner. “Team8 is excited to support the team in taking their impressive early achievements in rehabilitation care to many more use cases, improving quality of care for patients, streamlining operations for providers, and making a huge impact in the healthcare market.”

OneStep’s technology is already in use by over 20 leading healthcare providers across key segments, including skilled nursing facilities, outpatient rehabilitation, home care, orthotics, and prosthetics. These partnerships have demonstrated clear improvements in clinical outcomes and operational efficiency, notably reducing falls and enhancing patient recovery. With a clear product-market fit and a growing presence in its core focus verticals in the U.S., OneStep is poised to become an industry standard.

To learn more about OneStep and our gait analysis technology, visit onestep.co.

About OneStep

OneStep is an AI-powered digital care platform that uses smartphone sensors to transform real-life movement into clinical insights, helping healthcare providers assess, treat, and monitor patients from anywhere. Gait (i.e. human motion) is a leading indicator of health, and by making gait analysis as simple as stepping on a bathroom scale, OneStep empowers clinicians with actionable data to improve mobility, reduce falls, and enhance patient engagement. Our FDA-listed technology eliminates the need for wearables, delivering lab-quality gait and motion analysis in seconds.

With a focus on personalized, proactive care, OneStep serves rehabilitation providers, health systems, and medical device manufacturers, helping them optimize clinical decision-making, streamline operations, and increase revenue through Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM). We’re committed to transforming gait into a vital sign and making healthcare more precise and connected- improving quality of life for millions.

Originally announced October 22nd, 2024

< + > House passes veterans healthcare package without RESET Act

The revised bill now leaves out provisions that would have increased Congressional oversight over the VA's EHR modernization partnership with Oracle, which is set to restart in 2025.

< + > Healthcare AI Automation by Vyne Medical Improves Accuracy and Trust

By taking data from a variety of sources—health care records, faxes, voice—and providing structure to unstructured data, Vyne Medical can streamline payments, initiate workflows faster, and lift burdens from clinicians so they can “hold the patient’s hand.”

In this video, President Caleb Manscill explains the goals behind Vyne Medical and some of the services they provide, with several anecdotes to show the benefits of automating the intake, storage, and curation of documents.

Manscill points out that, without automation it could take twenty minutes to enter data received from a fax, with chances of miskeying and entering a critical mistake into the record. Automation is not only important for speed and reducing the burden on clinicians, but also to increase trust in the data.

Although they started in revenue cycle management, the recent purchase of another company, Extract Systems, allows Vyne Medical to handle lab data and healthcare information management (HIM). They cross many types of departments and facilities, using what Manscill calls a “spectrum solution” to “meet the provider wherever they are.” Vyne Medical does a lot of the IT work that providers might not have the staff or funding to do.

Watch the video for more stories and discussion of how Vyne Medical fixes the “documentation gap.”

Learn more about Vyne Medical: https://vynemedical.com/

Listen and subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today Interviews Podcast to hear all the latest insights from experts in healthcare IT.

And for an exclusive look at our top stories, subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube.

Tell us what you think. Contact us here or on Twitter at @hcitoday. And if you’re interested in advertising with us, check out our various advertising packages and request our Media Kit.

Vyne Medical is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

< + > RadiantGraph Raises $11 Million Series A to Expand AI-Driven Personalized Engagement for Health Plans

RadiantGraph Empowers Payors and Health Service Organizations with AI Platforms that Deliver High-Quality, Tailored Campaigns that Impact Member Engagement and Activation

The Company has seen More than 1,400% Growth in One Year since its Launch and is Currently Processing Personalization Models for More than 3.5 Million People

The Funding will Support the Expansion of the Company’s AI Platform Capabilities, Driving Scalable Growth and Savings Within Health Plans and Health Service Organizations

RadiantGraph, a platform using artificial intelligence to drive consumer engagement for healthcare, today announced that it has raised an $11 million Series A funding round, led by M13, with meaningful participation from XYZ Ventures and True Ventures. The investment will be used to continue the expansion of the company’s platform capabilities and drive scalable growth and savings within health plans and health service organizations. The company’s seed round included Glen Tullman, CEO at Transcarent, Lee Shapiro, CFO at Livongo, Mohsin Hussien, CTO at Liveramp, Yusuf Sherwani, CEO at Pelago Health, and Chethan Bachireddy, Chief Health Officer at Harris Health.

Payors and health services organizations play a vital role in the healthcare outcomes of their members, but the traditional approach to member engagement is broken. Members face an increasingly difficult-to-navigate healthcare system and have come to expect more personalized communication, delivered on the platforms they use.

Despite this, companies have been unable to deliver this level of personalization to their members at scale. They are largely held back by cobbled-together platforms and data point solutions that require significant technical investment before they can have a real-world impact. Healthcare needs a singular consumer engagement platform that makes it possible to understand all aspects of a person’s health needs, models how to best engage them, and delivers communications across multiple channels, from direct mail to voice AI.

Since its launch in September 2023, RadiantGraph has shown an almost immediate impact, empowering healthcare organizations to deploy AI models that deliver high-quality, tailored communications, as well as consumer enrollment and engagement campaigns. RadiantGraph does this by solving the entire lifecycle – starting with a built-in health data engine to digest disorganized healthcare data, developing AI and ML models for their member population, automating content generation and orchestration, and more recently, creating voice AI interactions. Without RadiantGraph, healthcare companies spend years and millions of dollars on manual processes and point solutions that lack this cohesion and functionality.

In the past year alone, RadiantGraph has seen growth of more than 1,400%, processing personalization models for more than 3.5 million people, helping its customers deliver major improvements on the status quo. For one client, the company’s predictive models have demonstrated a more than 12x improvement in identifying members likely to enroll in a program, while another saw almost 3x improvement in identifying individuals who could avoid costly surgery with proactive early intervention.

“Healthcare needs its own consumer engagement platform. AI capabilities have become exceptionally powerful and can help us pinpoint how to engage each consumer, based on their unique needs. But, without a platform that solves healthcare problems on day one, companies are spending tens of millions cobbling together point data solutions and systems that just haven’t worked,” said Anmol Madan, Founder and CEO at RadiantGraph. “This funding will accelerate our ability to help payors and healthcare organizations see the positive impact of consumer engagement on their KPIs and bottom line.”

Healthcare has traditionally struggled to connect with members and encourage participation in programs. The adoption of AI and digital health tools has had little business impact, with health plans averaging an NPS of just 6 for new members. In fact, most members who need digital health solutions aren’t discovering them.

Though AI solutions are making inroads, many companies still rely on paper communication and one-size-fits-all approaches that end up being discarded or ignored. In an economic climate where profitability is an important concern for many payors, RadiantGraph has proven itself to be a valuable partner. The platform brings AI consumer engagement to companies, replacing legacy solutions to increase retention and acquisition, with the goal of improving enrollment in programs, as well as net promoter score with members and star ratings.

“Engaging consumers is a major bottleneck across healthcare and is a crucial problem to solve. While startups are raising large rounds to build healthcare-specific AI capabilities, Anmol and the RadiantGraph team understand the limitation is not the AI technology itself but rather the real-world impact from its adoption. This team has the AI and healthcare expertise to pull off personalized engagement at scale and we couldn’t be more excited to back them” said Latif Peracha, Partner at M13, who led the deal.

RadiantGraph accelerates the program adoption curve by drawing actionable member insights and launching AI-led campaigns in weeks, versus the years it would take a company to build a less efficient platform from the ground up. This results in faster and more impactful member engagement, and the ability for companies to save millions in development and staffing costs to build their own system from the ground up.

RadiantGraph has also expanded its platform with new capabilities, Intelligent Personalization, and Integrations, which offer an expanded approach to data management and targeted member communication. Intelligent Personalization is designed to identify member segments, use AI to train tailored approaches for members, and provide a recommended approach for each member with the goal of treating each member as an individual. The Integrations capabilities allows organizations using leading cloud platforms AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Snowflake, and Databricks to integrate their data with AI-driven personalization within hours – a significant improvement over the current timeframe of months or years.

About RadiantGraph

RadiantGraph is on a mission to help healthcare organizations leverage AI and machine learning to better understand and engage with consumers. Personalization drives higher consumer adoption and engagement with health benefits and improves clinical engagement and long-term healthcare costs. Eight out of ten employees say they would use their health benefits more if they were offered an experience tailored to their individual needs.

RadiantGraph’s platform today supports leading health plans and healthcare organizations in substance abuse, mental health, chronic conditions, MSK, and other complex healthcare. RadiantGraph is led by Anmol Madan (ex-CDS Livongo, Teladoc, and Co-Founder/CEO Ginger); joined by an experienced team of healthcare leaders formerly from Livongo, Teladoc, Ginger, Wheel, and more. Funded by True Ventures, M13, XYZ Ventures, Remus, and other notable investors, RadiantGraph was recently listed as one of Business Insiders “25 Healthcare Startups Set to Take Off in 2024.” Learn more at radiantgraph.com.

Originally announced October 10th, 2024