< + > Digital Twins with Unlearn – Life Sciences Today Podcast Episode 26

We’re excited to be back for another episode of the Life Sciences Today Podcast by Healthcare IT Today. My guest today is Aaron Smith, Co-Founder of Unlearn, to talk about how they use digital twins to save resources in clinical trials and fast-track the most promising therapies.

Unlearn increases the statistical power of clinical trials with fewer patients using disease-specific ML models. Leading biopharma companies are applying Unlearn’s technology in real-world clinical trials today. Abbvie is accelerating Clinical Development in Alzheimer’s Disease using Unlearn to reduce control arm size by 33% and reduce time to complete clinical trials by 4+ months.

Unlearn customers design and run smaller RCTs that maintain power or boost it without additional study participants. This approach is qualified by the EMA and aligns with current FDA guidance.

Check out the main topics of discussion for this episode of the Life Sciences Today podcast:

• Tell me about your journey to Unlearn?
• How do you create value for your drug and device customers?
• How do you measure the value?
• What are 3 things you’d like to achieve in the next 12 months?

Now, without further ado, we’re excited to share with you the next episode of the Life Sciences Today podcast.

 

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Along with the popular podcasting platforms above, you can Subscribe to Healthcare IT Today on YouTube.  Plus, all of the audio and video versions will be made available to stream on Healthcare IT Today. As a former pharma-tech founder who bootstrapped to exit, I now help TechBio and digital health CEOs grow revenue—by solving the tech, team, and go-to-market problems that stall your progress. If you want a warrior by your side, connect with me on LinkedIn.

If you work in Life Sciences IT, we’d love to hear where you agree and/or disagree with our takes on health IT innovation in life sciences. Feel free to share your thoughts and perspectives in the comments of this post, in the YouTube comments, or privately on our Contact Us page. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if you have any ideas for future episodes.

Thanks so much for listening!

< + > How Health Systems Can Minimize Denials by Optimizing Initial Claims

The following is a guest article by Jennifer Miecznikoski, VP of Revenue Cycle Operations at Accuity

To mitigate the growing burden of payer denials, DRG downgrades, requests for information, audits, and takebacks, hospitals and health systems need to shift back to playing a stronger offense instead of defense.

Faced with surging payer reimbursement challenges, hospitals and health systems are finding it necessary to expand their denials management efforts. The result is a financial drain: Hospitals spent $57.23 per claim on additional administrative and workforce costs to fight denials and other adjudication issues in 2023, according to Premier Inc.

By bolstering their strategy and processes for preempting and minimizing payer claims challenges in the first place, health systems will accelerate cash flow, increase net revenue, and improve overall financial health.

There is nothing that can completely eliminate payer denials, with AI technology driving increases. But the right mid-revenue cycle approach reduces claims underpayments and streamlines the appeals process to increase the likelihood of first-level overturns.

Hospitals and health systems can succeed at improving their revenue cycle efforts and optimizing initial claims submissions and reimbursements by taking full advantage of technology, secondary pre-bill chart reviews, data and analytics, and targeted physician education. These key elements can create a virtuous process that continuously improves the critical mid-revenue cycle and total reimbursements.

1. Leverage Technology, Including AI

There are AI enhancements that can assist in finding gaps in provider documentation, improving accuracy prior to claim submission, further protecting the claim from potential underpayments, and providing an accurate clinical picture.

• Natural Language Processing

In part, this type of machine learning is fighting fire with fire because payers are using AI to detect inconsistencies in medical record documentation and coding. By running unstructured and structured medical record data through an NLP engine, this tool can pinpoint diagnoses and whether they are clinically supported in the medical record. Health systems can then follow up to confirm the chart contains pertinent clinical criteria for certain diagnoses, such as sepsis.

• EHRs Alerts

Because physicians are using EHRs multiple times a day, hospitals can further leverage this system to support documentation in real-time. When designed appropriately, alerts can prompt physicians to record complete care as they enter diagnoses, place orders, receive lab results, and make other changes to a patient’s chart.

• CDI Software for Physicians

Integrated into the EHR and EHR alerts, the software can make real-time suggestions and show clinical criteria and coding guidelines to help with physician documentation. Some software can identify errors and suggest improvements, too.

2. Incorporate Physician-led Secondary Chart Reviews

For all of the impressive progress and potential of AI and other technology, humans are and will remain essential to the clinical documentation and coding process. In all cases, health systems should treat technology-driven results as helpful first steps.

But all such documentation needs oversight, review, and signoff by physicians or other medically knowledgeable experts. A successful end-to-end revenue cycle process includes physicians in documentation improvement initiatives.

Resource constraints and staffing issues may prevent a 100 percent review of all concurrent inpatient charts, so reviews could focus on Medicare cases, and as an example, certain payers or service-specific.

3. Payer Contracting

It is important to review payer contracting and transmittals sent intermittently that update clinical criteria and other contract language potentially impacting reimbursement. Revenue cycle and contracting teams will need to coordinate to avoid department disconnects on these matters.

4. Data and Analytics

To address DRG downgrades, providers should conduct multi-faceted root cause analyses by diagnosis, payer, and other pertinent data. Some EHR systems have effective denial workflows to facilitate access to this data.

The results can enable providers to:

• Limit the number of patient records audited
• Respond more effectively to denials and other payer challenges
• Secure more favorable payer contract terms
• Provides trending for payer/physician/diagnoses

Through data analysis, a health system identified that 80% of its DRG downgrade denials were from one payer. It developed a claims strategy to decrease denials with this payer while providing critical information to shape new terms during contract renewal.

5. Deliver Targeted Physician Education to Enhance Clinical Documentation

Most denials are related to clinical validation rather than coding issues, so improving physician documentation is critical. Currently, physician education about documentation can be challenging.

Best practice is peer-to-peer physician education. Hospitals can use a standing physician service line and medical staff meetings to provide targeted education, using specific examples, about DRGs, payers, or other problem areas.

Clinical documentation, coding, and claims submissions are highly complex and dynamic. A proactive approach to leveraging technology, physician chart reviews, data analytics, and physician education in the end-to-end revenue cycle can significantly improve effectiveness at each critical step. The benefits: timely and full reimbursement for the care provided, accelerating cash flow, and increasing total revenue.

About Jennifer Miecznikoski

Jennifer Miecznikoski has served as Vice President of Revenue Cycle Operations for Accuity since 2017, where she focuses on improving operational efficiencies and ensuring compliance and quality for provider clients. She’s held RCM and HIM leadership roles at Optum, LifeBridge Health, Trivergent Health Alliance MSO, and University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus.

< + > Teladoc Health Acquires Telecare, Expanding Access to Specialist and Allied Health Care for Australians in Public and Private Health

Teladoc Health, the global leader in virtual care, today announced it has acquired Telecare, an innovative, Australian tech-enabled provider of specialist and allied health care via virtual delivery.

Telecare operates Australia’s leading virtual care clinic and provides software solutions to the healthcare sector. With over 300 virtual specialists in over 30 specialties, supporting both GP-referred appointments as well as providing virtual care services to public hospitals across Australia, Telecare helps reduce patient wait times and increases access to specialty care in underserved areas.

Teladoc Health is the global virtual care leader, with revenues over $2.5 billion in 2024 and nearly 5,000 employees. The company provides access to care for more than 100 million people and its technology enables virtual care across leading hospitals and health systems, including many of the US leading healthcare institutions, the NHS in the United Kingdom, Charité in Germany, as well as the Canadian health system and the French Social Security.

The acquisition supports Teladoc Health’s enterprise strategy, which includes expanding its international business. With a 15-year history in Australia, Teladoc Health already provides millions of Australian members access to virtual health services through relationships with insurers and hospitals. Additionally, Teladoc Health has recently deployed innovative virtual care solutions into the Australian hospital market, including a virtual neonatology solution at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, and a virtual telesurgery support system with Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service.

“Teladoc Health is improving access to care globally through virtual innovation and technology,” said Carlos Nueno, President of International at Teladoc Health. “We believe joining forces with Telecare will help us advance our mission—especially for those in regional and remote areas—by combining our technological solutions and services to support one of the leading health markets around the world.”

“Teladoc Health is uniquely positioned to help accelerate the impact of our mission,” said Michael Wang, Co-Founder and CEO at Telecare. “We are proud of what we have achieved with Telecare in the Australian health landscape and our ability to help solve access and equity issues in healthcare delivery.”

“We are confident that our hospital partners, patients, and providers will greatly benefit from the scale and expanded capabilities that this combination will deliver,” he added.

Telecare will continue to be led by its existing founders and management team and will continue to serve the Australian market under the Telecare brand.

The acquisition closed on August 8, 2025. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed; it is expected to be immaterial to Teladoc Health’s financial results for the year.

About Teladoc Health

Teladoc Health is the global leader in virtual care. The company is delivering and orchestrating care across patients, care providers, platforms, and partners — transforming virtual care into a catalyst for how better health happens. Through our relationships with health plans, employers, providers, health systems, and consumers, we are enabling more access, driving better outcomes, extending provider capacity, and lowering costs. Learn more at  teladochealth.com.

Originally announced August 14th, 2025

< + > Honing in on Key Data with Concord Technologies

A ten-year investment by Concord Technologies in AI is paying off in major enhancements to their platform. In addition to health care data exchange—which supports all types of documents from faxes to, now, secure direct messages—the Concord Connect™ platform provides what Mike Stover, Director of Product Management, calls an “end-to-end solution.”

Using both machine learning and LLMs, Concord Connect can determine what type of document it’s handling a referral, prior authorization request, lab result, prescription, etc.—and even pull out relevant demographic or clinical information. Concord uses custom AI models based on real-life healthcare data.

In most health care organizations, Stover says, clinicians’ and administrators’ in-boxes are fragmented and overloaded. When you come into a full inbox on a Monday morning, it’s hard to know where to start. But some critical patient information might be buried there, in a document.

Interoperability is especially important during care transitions, such as between acute care and the PCP. It’s easy for information to get lost and for important documents such as prescriptions not to get acted on.

Concord is working on enhancing their document handling, which they call “Straight-Through Processing for Healthcare,” to support clinical decision making and to prioritize documents for the clinicians. The Concord Connect platform can identify patients’ demographic information. The company hopes that organizations, when they come to trust the decisions made by Concord Connect, will fully automate processes.

Building on its commitment to interoperability and intelligent automation, Concord is introducing Direct Secure Messaging (DSM) as a new modality within its Concord Connect platform. DSM makes it easy to send patient information, like referrals, lab results, and care transition notes in a secure and encrypted format, helping providers coordinate care more efficiently across care settings. By integrating DSM into the Concord Connect platform, healthcare staff can manage and process their DSMs, faxes and other document in one streamlined location, reducing the administrative burden caused by disjointed workflows.

As a member of DirectTrust, Concord Technologies attended their annual conference to discuss issues relevant to all attendees, such as cybersecurity, Direct Standards, and new and on-going regulations. Watch the video for more about the conference, Concord Technologies’ work, and interoperability.

Learn more about Concord Technologies: https://concord.net/

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 Concord Technologies is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

< + > Top Medical Interpreting Providers for Federally Qualified Health Centers

The following is a guest article by Nate Klause, Content Marketing Manager at Boostlingo

Community health centers exist to remove barriers to care. For Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), language is one of the most pressing barriers. Nearly one in three patients across the FQHC system is best served in a language other than English, making medical interpreting essential for safe, effective, and equitable care. Federal law requires it, but beyond compliance, clear communication builds trust, improves outcomes, and reduces costly errors.

The challenge for FQHC leaders is choosing the right interpreting partner. Budgets are tight, and patient demand is growing across both common and less-common languages. Coverage has to extend across in-person visits, telehealth, and after-hours encounters. Increasingly, centers need more than just an interpreter—they need reliable data, strong integrations, and the assurance that service is available every time a provider clicks “connect.”

Top 10 Medical Interpreting Providers in 2025

We evaluated providers on three things that were top of mind for FQHCs in a recent healthcare interpreting study: quality for the price, consistent remote access (phone and video), and data/reporting that supports compliance and continuous improvement.

1. Boostlingo

Headquartered in Austin, TX | Founded 2016

Boostlingo specializes in on-demand medical interpreting for community healthcare. Its HIPAA-compliant phone and video platforms provide fast access to qualified interpreters across 300+ languages. Pricing offers both subscription and pay-as-you-go options, helping FQHCs stretch grant and reimbursement dollars.

Administrators get real-time dashboards and exportable reports to track usage, language mix, and policy compliance. Ongoing investment in AI-assisted features (language detection, interpreting, transcripts, summaries) positions Boostlingo as a future-ready partner. For FQHCs seeking dependable connection rates, clear pricing, and strong data, Boostlingo is a top pick.

2. LanguageLine Solutions

Headquartered in Monterey, CA | Founded 1982

One of the most established U.S. providers, LanguageLine offers 24/7 access to interpreters in 240+ languages via phone and video. Its depth of medical experience and interpreter training are proven across large health systems.

Costs can trend higher than those of some newer competitors, but LanguageLine’s combination of scale, reliability, and healthcare specialization makes it a strong option for centers that prioritize experience and breadth.

3. AMN Healthcare Language Services (formerly Stratus Video)

Headquartered in Dallas, TX | Founded 2012

AMN’s language division (built on Stratus Video) brings robust video remote interpreting that integrates smoothly with telehealth and inpatient workflows. Providers can connect quickly without disrupting the clinical encounter.

For FQHCs, the appeal is integration depth, broad language coverage (200+ by phone; 40–50+ by video), and healthcare-grade QA. Pricing can be on the higher side; in return, centers get a platform widely deployed across U.S. health systems and compatible with major electronic health record (EHR)/telehealth environments.

4. GLOBO

Headquartered in Philadelphia, PA | Founded 2009

GLOBO pairs human interpreting with transparent, real-time analytics. The admin dashboard lets FQHC leaders view usage, spend, and language trends at a glance, which is useful for audits, grants, and operational planning.

Coverage includes 24/7 phone and video access with vetted medical interpreters. Pricing is competitive and scales with demand. New users may initially find the data depth extensive, but GLOBO stands out for teams that want actionable insights alongside reliable access.

5. Equiti (formerly Martti)

Headquartered in Sunrise, FL | Rebranded August 2024

Equiti continues the Martti legacy with a video-first platform designed for healthcare environments. It supports both on-demand and scheduled sessions and is built to integrate with EHRs, telehealth solutions, and inpatient workflows.

Historically, the program has offered 250+ languages overall and 90+ by video, including RID-credentialed American Sign Language (ASL). Equiti emphasizes security, interpreter training, and measurable quality. Pricing is less flexible than some competitors, but the video experience and clinical integration make it a strong fit for centers with heavy virtual-care usage.

6. Certified Languages International (CLI)

Headquartered in Portland, OR | Founded 1996

CLI delivers 24/7 medical interpreting by phone and video with straightforward onboarding and accessible pricing, which is appealing for FQHCs who want to balance volume with budget limits. Interpreters are trained in medical terminology and privacy practices.

The technology footprint is intentionally simple, which many clinics appreciate for quick adoption. CLI offers a solid quality-to-price balance for centers needing reliable remote coverage and predictable costs.

7. Linguava

Headquartered in Portland, OR | Founded 2010

Linguava serves healthcare organizations nationwide with in-person, phone, video, and ASL interpreting. The company’s community-centered approach and in-house Interpreter Academy (training program) align well with FQHC values around cultural and linguistic competence.

Linguava also supports program design and process improvements for language access. While it lacks the global scale of the largest vendors, its tailored service model and regional strength make it a good match for clinics that value local relationships and practical training.

8. Ubiqus (now Acolad)

Global HQ in Paris, France; U.S. offices | Founded 1991

Ubiqus (now Acolad) provides interpreting, translation, and transcription, giving FQHCs a single partner for language access plus multilingual patient education and outreach. Remote interpreting is available by phone and video with healthcare-trained interpreters.

The breadth is an advantage for centers that want integrated services (interpreting + translation workflows, unified invoicing, and documentation). Smaller clinics may find their enterprise posture less personal, but their scope and compliance rigor support complex, multi-site needs.

9. Language Services Associates (LSA)

Headquartered in Horsham, PA | Founded 1991

LSA offers large-scale remote interpreting in 200+ languages with competitive pricing. Its long tenure in healthcare and broad interpreter network helps clinics handle variable demand and after-hours coverage.

The platform is straightforward and dependable. While it lacks advanced bells and whistles, many FQHCs value the combination of cost, coverage, and simplicity.

10. Sorenson

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT | Founded 2000

Sorenson is a leader in accessibility services for deaf and hard-of-hearing patients, providing in-person and video remote ASL interpreting (and expanding into spoken-language and captioning).

For FQHCs, Sorenson is an essential partner for ADA-aligned access, especially when signed-language coverage must be guaranteed. Its national infrastructure supports consistent availability, with particular strength in ASL VRI.

Choosing the Right Interpreting Partner for Your FQHC

For FQHCs, choosing the right interpreting partner is about more than compliance. It is about making sure every patient can communicate clearly with their provider, regardless of language. The ten providers highlighted here represent the strongest options in 2025, offering reliable quality at the right price, dependable access through phone and video, and the data insights needed to meet reporting requirements and improve care delivery. FQHC leaders can select a partner supporting patient trust and organizational performance by focusing on these core factors.

About Nate Klause

Nate Klause is the Content Marketing Manager at Boostlingo, where he leads content strategy across healthcare and language service sector markets. He is the author of the Healthcare Interpreting Report and a speaker on language access and interpretation technology in healthcare.

Boostlingo is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

< + > Citizen Health Raises $30 Million to Build AI Advocate for Every Patient, Ushering in a New Era of Patient-Centered Healthcare

Citizen Health, a patient-powered platform transforming rare disease care, announced today it has raised $30 million in Series A funding. The round was led by 8VC, with participation from Transformation Capital and Headline, bringing the company’s total funding to $44 million since its December 2023 launch.

Founded by Farid Vij (CEO & Co-Founder), Nasha Fitter (Chief Business Officer & Co-Founder), and a team of industry veterans, Citizen Health is pioneering a new paradigm in healthcare by empowering patients—especially those with rare and complex conditions—with agency, clarity, and actionable insights. The company’s platform combines AI, community, and longitudinal health data to help patients interpret medical records, track symptoms, learn from peers, manage appointments, and connect to the next best step in their health journey.

“Today’s patients aren’t waiting—they’re searching, deciding, and expecting more,” said Farid Vij, Co-Founder and CEO at Citizen Health. “They deserve the same clarity, personalization, and intelligence in healthcare that they get in every other part of their lives. At Citizen, we’re building a personalized AI Advocate for every patient that not only helps people make sense of their health journey, but actually guides them to what they should do next—and connects them to it. This is about turning passive systems into proactive, human-centered experiences.”

Nearly half of American adults have at least one chronic illness, making self-advocacy especially important. Citizen’s ultimate vision is to provide every patient with a personalized AI Advocate, turning fragmented care into a connected, proactive, and precise experience. They are building agentic AI to take initiative, identifying and acting on opportunities to improve health in ways patients themselves might not anticipate.

“We backed Citizen because they are redefining the care model for patients with complex diseases. Citizen’s AI advocate is the foundation of a pioneering patient and caregiver experience that is already helping thousands of Americans answer previously unanswerable questions, make informed medical decisions, and accelerate new cures,” said Sebastian Caliri, Partner at 8VC who led the Series A round and joined the Citizen Board of Directors.

Vij and Fitter met at their previous company Ciitizen, which was acquired by Invitae (NYSE: NVTA) in 2021, where Vij was a co-founder. Their new venture, Citizen Health, brings together a leadership team with deep expertise in AI, healthcare, privacy, and consumer technology, with personal motivations rooted in rare disease advocacy and patient empowerment.

“Citizen has truly created a groundbreaking platform that supports individual patients looking to manage rare and complex diseases, while also giving patient advocacy groups a better way to organize their data, and pharma leaders a better way to utilize that data for drug discovery and trials,” added Mathias Schilling, Founding Partner at Headline, who also invested in the round. “It’s rare to see a company combining such expertise in AI and consumer design to impact healthcare, and we’re proud to back Farid, Nasha, and the rest of the team.”

Citizen Health’s Traction and Momentum

• Built over 60 engaged communities across 123 rare and complex conditions
• Partnered with 70+ patient advocacy groups, 70% of which joined organically
• 98.3% of patients share data for research, reflecting high trust in the platform
• Data already accepted by the FDA for regulatory submission
• Collaborating with over 10 pharmaceutical partners

With rare diseases affecting over 400 million people globally and 95% still lacking approved treatments, Citizen Health’s mission is more urgent than ever. The company’s approach aligns with recent FDA calls for innovation in rare disease and addresses challenges posed by shifting NIH funding and regulatory uncertainty. As genetic testing becomes more accessible, Citizen Health’s platform offers a critical solution for new disease groups seeking connection and data-driven progress.

Citizen Health will launch the first version of its AI Advocate to select communities in Q3, alongside a new product for patient advocacy groups. The company’s primary focus is recruiting top AI engineers, product builders, and designers to accelerate its mission, as well as deepening partnerships with pharma, policymakers, and patient organizations.

About Citizen Health

Citizen Health is building the future of healthcare, starting with rare disease. By combining AI, community, and longitudinal data, Citizen empowers patients to take control of their care and contribute to the richest research-grade dataset in healthcare. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, and backed by leading investors including 8VC, Headline, Transformation Capital, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and prominent angels. For more information, visit citizen.health.

About 8VC

8VC is a leading technology investment firm. Its partners have co-founded companies including Palantir, Addepar, Resilience, and Saronic, and invested in such healthcare innovators as Oscar, Cityblock, and Candid Health. 8VC manages over $7 billion in committed capital, focusing on smart enterprise platforms, healthcare, logistics, Bio-IT, and defense. For more information, visit 8vc.com.

About Headline

Founded in 1998, Headline is a venture capital firm that partners with fast-growing technology teams to make their success global. With more than $4B of assets under management, the firm invests from its network of regionally focused early-stage funds across the US, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Headline’s Global Growth Fund invests globally from Series B and beyond. The size and locations of these funds allow the firm to see local trends up close, meet winning founders, and lead rounds at every stage. Among the 300+ investments globally, Headline’s portfolio includes Acorns, AppFolio, ANGI (FKA Angie’s List), Brite Payments, Bumble, Fetch, Gopuff, Honeycomb, LucidLink, Mistral AI, Monta, NGINX, Raisin, Sonos, Segment, SEMrush, and Staffbase.

Originally announced August 14th, 2025

< + > Making Data Useful to the Patient – Individual Access

Modern health care is predicated on helping patients, as well as providers, make effective use of patient data. To do so requires access, identity verification, and smart applications to analyze the data. Thus, it’s appropriate that this video brings together leaders from companies in each of these areas.

xCures, represented by CEO Mika Newton, offers AI-based tools for aggregating, structuring, and organizing medical records.

Kno2, represented by Co-Founder and President Therasa Bell, is a Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) and large national network, bringing its clients up to date with requirements to give patients access to their data.

CLEAR, represented by Marcos Domiciano, Senior Director, Healthcare Business Development, is a well-known secure identity platform that serves health care sites as well as airports, retail, and other settings.

Newton and Bell pointed out that for the first time, thanks to the spread of standards and protocols such as CMS’s Trusted Exchange Framework and the Common Agreement (TEFCA), data is becoming available to a wide range of patients and can be processed through AI, making digital health possible.

Newton points in particular to the Individual Access Services (IAS) solution from xCures to get data in electronic form cancer patients, who notoriously have to collect and deal with huge amounts of data from different sources. Newton refers to the “Internet of medical records” as the goal.

Bell shares some sobering statistics about the state of patient access to data today. Because much health care takes place outside of clinics and hospitals, and because many EHRs are still not certified for Meaningful Use, 60-70% of every patient’s record is inaccessible. Bell says that she thinks Kno2 and other QHINs will reduce that to 20% by bringing another 150,000 provider organizations into TEFCA by the end of this year.

Interoperability was not automatic with standards adoption. Bell said her company worked with others for six months to make it work. By March 2025, every endpoint in their network could connect. Any organization partcipating in TEFCA is legally required to respond to individual access as well as they do to clinical queries.

Domiciano points out that interoperability starts with identity verification. Patient identity is currently fragmented and methods of authentication are not consistent. CLEAR, which has 33 million members, is creating a “reusable identity” that crosses all venues and meets CMS’s standards. This, Domiciano, addresses one of providers ‘main pain points.”

Bell points out that most doctors now have a verifiable identity, but many other professionals such as nurses and EMTs do not. This has to be addressed as well for effective data exchange.

Furthermore, if a match turns up the wrong records, leading to a patient receiving the records of anther patient, that’s a serious HIPAA violation. Bell says that providers need to collect the proper data on each patient to make matches certain.

Newton mentioned some of applications that are already making value of data, particularly in the areas of decision support and fitness/wellness. Interoperability can bring these processes together without making people enter their data more than once. Ultimately, the question to ask is “Are you getting the health care you should be getting?”

Check out our interview with xCures, CLEAR, and Kno2 to learn more.

Learn more about xCures: https://xcures.com/

Learn more about CLEAR: https://identity.clearme.com/healthcare

Learn more about Kno2: https://kno2.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.

< + > Eliminate 7 HIPAA Risks with One Simple Decision

It never ceases to amaze me how many people don’t understand HIPAA and the risks associated with not complying with HIPAA. If you’re a patient, I can understand not fully understanding the laws. However, I’m talking about those working at hospitals, health systems, medical practices, and health IT vendors. I think most have a general understanding of HIPAA, but it’s shocking to see some of the things these organizations do that are definitely putting them at risk when it comes to HIPAA and related privacy and security rules.

To help healthcare organizations better understand some of the HIPAA risks they face and how they can address them, Colin Hung from Healthcare IT Today collaborated with the team at Liquid Web, a HIPAA hosting provider, to create an eBook titled “Eliminate 7 HIPAA Risks with One Simple Decision.” (Full Disclosure: Healthcare IT Today is hosted on Liquid Web)

As I looked through the list, there were a couple HIPAA risks that really stood out to me. The first were related to the financial and reputational risk to healthcare organizations. The second relates to as organizations scale, they don’t scale their HIPAA compliance efforts to match.

As is highlighted in the HIPAA Risks eBook, the financial damages that come from a HIPAA violation can really add up. Sure, people generally know about the fines associated with a HIPAA violation, but there are so many other costs. Here’s a look at just a few of the various costs associated with a HIPAA breach:

Along with the financial costs, breaches almost always come with major reputational damage. While leaders would probably love to keep a breach private, there are literally laws that require a healthcare organization to share when a breach occurs with HHS and patients. HHS then shares that info on what has become known as the HHS wall of shame (Officially the HIPAA Breach Report).

You can’t hide a breach or a HIPAA violation and thus are subject to that reputational damage. This has important business ramifications, but it also harms the patients’ trust in your organization. Do patients want to go to an organization that doesn’t protect their data? Will the patient share their health information with you if they don’t trust that you’re going to keep it private and secure? This damage to your reputation is real and happens when you are not compliant with HIPAA and protect patients’ data.

The other HIPAA risk that stood out to me in the eBook was how as organizations scale, HIPAA compliance often doesn’t scale with them. I think this is true as medical practices and health systems scale by acquiring each other, but it is also true as healthcare organizations scale their use of IT.

We all know how much consolidation has happened in healthcare. As medical practices merge, you have a merging of technology and HIPAA practices. Needless to say and unfortunately, maintaining HIPAA compliance and security of patients information isn’t often part of the M&A due diligence process. Those doing the deals make the deal happen and then deal with the HIPAA compliance later (if they ever get to it). This is problematic since it often leaves orphan systems that become a HIPAA compliance risk and old processes that create HIPAA compliance issues.

HIPAA risks pop up as healthcare organizations scale as well. As the eBook notes, if you have’t built your organizatoin on a solid HIPAA compliant hosting foundation that can scale, this becomes really problematic as more systems, features, and enhanced digital experiences are implemented. That’s a HIPAA risk that no one wants, but many forget about it as they scale.

That’s just a few of the HIPAA risks that stood out to me. Be sure to download the free eBook “Eliminate 7 HIPAA Risks with One Simple Decision” to see all of the other risks that every medical practice, hospital, and health IT company should be aware of so they can avoid those problems.

The good news for all these risks is that there is a solution. In most cases, that starts with choosing good partners who understand HIPAA compliance, are willing to sign a BAA (Business Associate Agreement), and are able to scale to whatever your technology needs may be.

This is particularly true for your web hosting provider. There are a lot of web hosting providers out there that can cheaply host your organization’s webpage, but they aren’t HIPAA compliant. Plus, cheap web hosting doesn’t scale to the HIPAA hosting needs of healthcare organizations.

What HIPAA risks do you see in healthcare? What are you doing at your healthcare organization to avoid HIPAA related fines, penalties, and reputational damage? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this important topic on social media.

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< + > This Week’s Health IT Jobs – September 10, 2025

It can be very overwhelming scrolling through 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:

• Director of Information Technology – Optima Healthcare Insurance Services, Inc.
• Data Engineer – Gabeo.ai
• Sr. Director, Applications – Sutter Health
• Clinical Risk and Safety Manager – Intermountain Health
• Vice President of Data Governance (Remote) – Premise Health
• Health Information Management Technician – Endeavor Health
• Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Information Officer – Cook Children’s Health Care System
• Director, Cyber Security Strategy and Access Governance – Broward Health
• VP, Provider Data Management – Alignment Health
• Director – Information Systems Analytics & Reporting – Woman’s Hospital
• Policy & Implementation Analyst – Cambia Health Solutions
• Utilization Review Specialist – Interface Solutions
• Director of Clinical Informatics & Applications – Nexus Health Systems
• Program Manager Community Health Initiatives and Health Equity – Saint Luke’s Health System
• EPIC Analyst – Patient Wellness & Care Management – HTC Global Services
• Specialty Health Provider Relations Specialist – Texas Health and Human Services
• Health Information Management Analyst – Baptist Memorial Health Care
• Compliance and Privacy Officer – Alameda County Health
• Information Governance Specialist – IQVIA
• Data Coordinator II – Fred Hutch

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.

< + > Think You’re Ready to Scale Globally? Read This First

Plenty of digital health companies assume they’re built to go global…until they hit a wall. Sometimes it’s compliance. Sometimes it’s culture. Most often, it’s the product itself. Scaling across borders takes more than translation. It takes planning and a willingness to rethink what already works.

Miles Barr, Chief Technology Officer at RLDatix, knows what it takes to get health IT products into multiple countries. RLDatix is successful in five different countries. In this exclusive interview at RLDatix’s global headquarters in London UK, he broke down the systems, mindsets, and assumptions that transform domestic hopefuls into global players.

Key Takeaways

1. Design for Flexibility, Not Just Fit. Even in highly regulated environments like healthcare, building overly rigid, region-specific products will limit scalability. RLDatix uses internal taxonomy mapping to handle varying country requirements without fragmenting product architecture.
2. Go Local Before You Scale Global. International success is about understanding systems, culture, and regulation. RLDatix leans on local teams and early customer feedback to avoid costly missteps.
3. Make Data Entry Disappear. The more fields you add, the fewer incidents get reported. RLDatix is using conversational AI to make safety reporting easier by extracting details automatically and pulling from EHRs to reduce the burden on frontline staff.

Build for Patterns, Not Exceptions
RLDatix didn’t localize their product with band-aids. They engineered it with flexibility from the start. By creating an internal data model that maps regional schemas and reporting standards to a shared taxonomy, they gave themselves room to grow with new technologies like AI and into new geographies.

“We offer a lot of customization,” said Barr. “But we also put in a lot of effort to map internally to a common taxonomy, because that allows us to then train AI models which we can deploy to all countries.”

Bottom line from Barr: look for common patterns and requirements. Use that insight to build reusable and flexible infrastructure to accommodate different regional needs without having to build separate versions. In other words: design for differences instead of working around them.

Know What You Don’t Know and Get Local
Global expansion doesn’t fail because of language barriers. It fails because teams don’t know what they’re missing. RLDatix stayed ahead by building local teams, leaning on local customer partnerships, and staying curious.

“The first step is to find out what you don’t know,” explained Barr. “What’s different about that country’s healthcare system? Then make sure that you build up that knowledge.”

According to Barr, RLDatix resisted the instinct to replicate success from one country to the next. This counter-intuitive approach opened the product team to new ideas. Only after understanding local requirements did they revisit what could be reused from past builds.

Remaining flexible helped RLDatix be successful in five countries and counting.

AI Is What’s Next
RLDatix’s flexible architecture means international requirements and new features can be more easily incorporated. The company recenly released Smart Entry – a new AI-enabled data entry capabilities that reduces the time required and improves the accuracy of documenting an adverse event or near miss.

“We’ve been working on an AI conversational program which first allows the person reporting just to describe what happens in natural language,” said Barr. “It then asks for specific information, rather than pointing to a form 20 fields deep.”

The company is also working on pulling additional incident details from various internal systems, like the EHR, further reducing data entry.

Less data entry means higher reporting rates for safety events, near misses, and patient feedback – something that the company has heard loud and clear from all its customers.

The Architecture for Global Success

For Barr and RLDatix, scaling globally isn’t just about local staff and supporting multiple languages. It’s about designing for difference, embedding local insight, and treating compliance as core infrastructure. They actively resist the temptation to impose their success from one country onto another. Instead, they work to understand local requirements BEFORE they roll out new solutions.

“We’re definitely a global company,” said Barr. “Because we built like one from the beginning.”

Learn more about RLDatix at https://www.rldatix.com/

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< + > From Siloes to Sustainability: How Digital Tools Are Transforming Hospital Risk Management & Performance Improvement

The following is a guest article by Michelle Hilburn, MSN, RN, CPHQ, CPPS, Associate Vice President of Quality Compliance and Standards at Vastian

Despite healthcare’s growing focus on patient safety and Quality outcomes, many hospitals still rely on outdated methods for managing risks and performance improvement. Handwritten logs, spreadsheets, and email chains continue to be key components when developing and driving action plans. But these standalone systems are generating more problems than solutions, and they are proving to be significant barriers to improving performance.

The fact that many hospitals still use legacy systems when the penalties for hospital-acquired conditions and patient harm events are so severe is alarming. For starters, patient outcomes are at stake, which should be enough motivation to abandon pen and paper in favor of a digital solution. Poor outcomes not only jeopardize patients but can also endanger a hospital’s financial performance and sustainability. Studies have shown that hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) cost approximately $25,000 in unreimbursed costs per case, and penalties under the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program (HACRP) are averaging $329,000 annually. Beyond these financial metrics, hospitals also risk their reputations when patient volumes, payer negotiations, and public trust are hanging in the balance based on demonstrated safety and Quality excellence.

With reputation, money, and patient well-being on the line, it is time to move beyond manually executed action plans and embrace technology that not only tracks work but drives real and sustained change.

The Weaknesses of Traditional Action Plans

It was Canadian-American psychotherapist Nathaniel Branden who once said, “A goal without an action plan is a daydream.” That fantasy can quickly turn into a nightmare if any of these circumstances are present:

• Fragmented Processes – Quality improvement efforts often live in multiple silos across departments. When corrective actions, audits, and performance data are managed separately, it leads to duplicated work, inconsistent documentation, and missed opportunities for improving outcomes and education. Leaders who lack a hospital-wide view of performance improvement efforts will find it difficult to implement or measure change effectively.
• Manual Inefficiencies – According to recent research conducted by Vastian, hospitals lose an estimated 19 million hours annually due to the lack of automation in Quality initiatives. Those hours represent valuable time spent on repetitive data entry, chasing email follow-ups, aggregating data, and creating reports. That time could, and should, otherwise be invested in proactive risk management and performance improvement activities.
• Tracking Limitations and Accountability Gaps – Manual systems introduce a high risk of human error. A single missed status update or delayed escalation can derail an entire improvement plan. Without a digital audit trail, tasks and responsibilities often get lost in the shuffle, making it hard to hold individuals accountable or advance a plan through to completion.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

Simply put, everything in healthcare is tied to improving outcomes and sustaining high reliability. The regulatory environment is more demanding than ever, with CMS Star ratings, Value-Based Purchasing performance thresholds, and Hospital-Acquired Condition penalties directly impacting a health system’s bottom line. Public performance grades from organizations like The Leapfrog Group influence patient choice and negotiating power with payers. Economic and political uncertainties have healthcare leaders scrambling to understand what’s allowed, what’s not, and what the new penalties for missteps are.

With financial, reputational, and political stakes rising, hospitals can no longer afford to simply check the box when it comes to patient safety, risk mitigation, and Quality improvement. Effective risk assessment and avoidance strategies require systems that bridge planning, execution, and long-term monitoring without the disruption and inherent challenges linked to legacy systems.

How Technology Can Radically Transform Hospital Action Planning

Since traditional action plans have reached their limits, Quality leaders must rethink their approach. Leveraging modern digital technology for performance improvement provides many benefits, including:

• Automation – Automated workflows replace hours of manual follow-up with real-time task assignment, monitoring, and escalation. When an action plan stalls or a deadline is missed, the system instantly alerts relevant stakeholders, ensuring corrective steps are taken without delay. This saves time and keeps momentum moving in a positive direction to ensure improvement.

• Data-Driven Insights – Digital solutions also allow hospitals to link historical performance data with current action plans. Leaders recognize what interventions worked before and which did not, enabling evidence-based decision-making. Data visualization and analytics highlight trends, systemic risks, and areas requiring focused attention.

• Integration – Today’s Quality management solutions unify all parts of an action plan into one system, keeping everyone on the same page with a single source of truth. By consolidating compliance tracking, corrective actions, KPI monitoring, and even incident reporting, hospitals have greater visibility into risks and performance. 

The Path Forward: Making Action Plans Actually Work

To move from “checking a box” to achieving real, sustained improvement, hospitals must shift from legacy methods to digitally enabled strategies. Quality and Risk leaders should look for technology that streamlines processes, centralizes accountability, leverages analytics, and enhances transparency. 

The result is more than just adopting new tools. It will also ignite a cultural transformation in how hospitals approach patient safety and performance improvement. Hospitals that embrace digital action planning will position themselves to meet evolving regulatory demands, strengthen patient trust, and, most importantly, deliver safer, more effective care.

About Michelle Hilburn

Michelle Hilburn, MSN, RN, CPHQ, CPPS, is the current Assistant Vice President of Quality, Compliance & Standards at Vastian, a leading provider of quality management software for hospitals and laboratories. With 29 years in healthcare, including 18 years leading Quality, Risk, Infection Prevention & Regulatory Compliance, as Director, System Director, and VP, she has spent her career championing patient safety. In her current role, Michelle provides strategic and operational insight into the development of Vastian’s Quality management software products and solutions. She represents Vastian as a member of the Leapfrog Partners Advisory Committee.

< + > Announcing Stedi’s $70 Million Series B to Build the Only AI-Enabled Clearinghouse

Announcement written by Zack Kanter, Founder and CEO at Stedi

In February of last year, I gathered our engineering team in a war room. Change Healthcare – the nation’s largest clearinghouse for healthcare claims processing – had been down for almost a full week due to a cyberattack that would ultimately render them unable to process many types of transactions for two months or longer.

It’s hard to explain the magnitude of the Change Healthcare outage to people outside the healthcare industry. Nearly 40% of healthcare claims processed in the United States flowed through Change’s platform. They processed an aggregate $1.5 trillion of claims volume annually – 15 billion claims – and they were the exclusive designated clearinghouse for dozens of payers ranging from small regional payers to UnitedHealthcare, Change’s parent company. Healthcare spend in the US is $4.9 trillion annually – 18% of total GDP – which means that when Change went down, it was processing roughly 5.5% of US GDP.

When the seriousness of Change’s situation became clear, we worked around the clock to accelerate the development of our own clearinghouse that we had planned to launch later that year. We announced a drop-in replacement for Change’s clearinghouse just a few days later, and the 7 weeks afterwards were unlike anything I had experienced in 20 years of business. We couldn’t leave our keyboards during any waking hour of the day for more than a few minutes at a time – 6 and 7 figure deals went from initial phone call or text message to signed terms in under an hour.

Change Healthcare has long since come back online, but our growth trajectory has only steepened. In April 2025, we were named Ramp’s 3rd-fastest growing software vendor. Last month, we signed 5x the number of customers that we signed at the height of the Change outage. Stedi has become the de facto choice for virtually every new venture-backed health tech company – and as later-stage health tech companies and traditional institutions revisit their legacy clearinghouse dependencies in the wake of the Change outage, Stedi’s cloud-native, API-first platform has become the obvious choice.

But more and more, our growth is driven by GenAI use cases from all segments of the market – from brand new startups to traditional companies coming to Stedi to build agentic functionality into their existing platform. One-third of our customer base is now made up of fully native GenAI companies, an extremely high-growth cohort that has collectively raised an astounding $5B in funding to date.

Today, we’re announcing our own $70 million Series B fundraise, co-led by Stripe and Addition, with participation from USV, First Round, Bloomberg Beta, BoxGroup, Ribbit Capital, and other top investors, which includes a $50 million previously-unannounced round plus $20 million of new capital.

Our mission is to make healthcare transactions as reliable as running water. This new funding has allowed us to double down on rebuilding the backbone of healthcare transaction infrastructure as Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) undergoes an AI-driven transformation. In addition to our best-in-class APIs, we’ve made it even easier for development teams to integrate to our clearinghouse using the new MCP server launched last week. Yesterday, we launched the Stedi Agent to power AI functionality within our platform directly.

What’s Driving the AI Boom in RCM? 

RCM is practically designed to be automatable using AI. Every claim, remittance, and eligibility check is already transmitted in a well-structured transaction, giving AI models clean, labeled data to work with. RCM workflows are rule-bound – that is, every step is governed by explicit payer or regulatory logic. Eligibility follows coverage rules; claim submissions and resubmissions must meet payer-specific requirements; denial appeals hinge on predefined evidence thresholds and deadlines. Because each decision is effectively a yes/no test against a published rule set, accuracy can be measured objectively and improvements validated quickly – ideal conditions for AI agents to learn, iterate, and outperform manual processes.

But when it comes to implementing AI workflows, development teams hit frustrating roadblocks with legacy clearinghouses. Most of the functionality offered by legacy clearinghouses is not accessible programmatically. If you’re lucky, you might be able to do basic eligibility and claim submission using an API – a distant second-class citizen to the clearinghouse’s main focus: traditional EHR integration. More often, you’re relying on brittle portal scraping, email capture, and PDF parsing to attempt to stitch together a passable workflow.

The legacy clearinghouses are unlikely to get much better. They were built pre-cloud computing (and in many cases, pre-internet), and most are the result of a series of private equity acquisitions with tech stacks that were never harmonized or modernized. As a result, the technology roadmaps move at a glacial pace – the people who built the systems have long since departed and most of the effort is expended on ‘keep the lights on’ maintenance.

Stedi’s approach is API-first: every piece of functionality available through our user interface is available via API, from the basics like eligibility checks, claims, and remits to the often-neglected aspects like payer search and transaction enrollment. Alongside our APIs, we offer a full suite of modern user interfaces that are easy for non-technical users to use.

Our thesis is simple: as more and more aspects of RCM software are subsumed by agentic workflows, companies will shift ever-greater portions of their workloads to the platforms that offer the best accessibility and legibility to AI agents that are performing actions; since other clearinghouses don’t offer ways to perform tasks programmatically, customers will continue to migrate to Stedi as they build net-new workflows, or as they find that existing workflows come to exceed the requirements afforded by other clearinghouses.

We have a single question that we use to guide our roadmap decisions: does this make it easier for humans and agents to interact with our platform? This has led to dozens of small improvements and major launches over the past several months, and will lead to many more. This latest investment allows us to continue to expand the breadth and depth of our transaction functionality in order to serve the needs of the smallest providers and the largest health systems, and everyone in between.

Most importantly, it allows us to accelerate hiring of world-class talent across engineering, product, design, business operations, and more. If that sounds exciting to you, come work with us.

Originally announced August 14th, 2025

< + > CIO Podcast – Episode 102: Clinical AI Agent with Jordan Ruch

For the 102nd episode of the CIO podcast hosted by Healthcare IT Today, we are joined by Jordan Ruch, Chief Information Officer at AtlantiCare, to talk about Oracle Health’s Clinical AI Agent! AtlantiCare is one of the first users of Oracle Health’s Clinical AI Agent, so we kick this episode off with Ruch sharing his organization’s experience with it. Then, we discuss the workflow implications the Clinical AI Agent had. Next, Ruch shares his experience with the evolution of Oracle Health and discusses why he chose to stick with them. Ruch also shares what he expects from Oracle Health moving forward and how it will impact AtlantiCare. 

We then move on to discuss the massive challenge of documentation burden and what Ruch is working on to reduce that burden. Next, we talk about AtlantiCare signing on to the CMS Interoperability Pledge to see why this decision was made and what impact they think this will have. Then we take a look at Ruch’s Vision 2030 effort to learn more about what it is and how it is going. Lastly, we conclude this episode with Ruch passing along the best piece of advice he’s been given in his career.

Here’s a look at the questions and topics we discuss in this episode:

• You’re one of Oracle Health’s first users of their new Clinical AI Agent. Tell us about your organization’s experience with it.
• I heard that AI isn’t coming for your job, but may be coming for your workflow. It sounds like that’s what you experienced rolling out the Clinical AI agent. What were the workflow implications?
• What’s your experience with the evolution of Oracle Health? Why have you chosen to stick with them?
• What do you expect from Oracle Health going forward, and its impact on AtlantiCare?
• Documentation burden has become a massive thing; how are you working to reduce that burden?
• Why did you sign on to the CMS Interoperability Pledge? What impact do you think it will have?
• Talk about your Vision 2030 effort. What is it and how’s it going?
• What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given in your career?

Now, without further ado, we’re excited to share with you the next episode of the CIO Podcast by Healthcare IT Today.

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< + > Isaac Health Raises $10.5M to Democratize Access to Dementia Care Amid Rising Public Health Crisis

The Funding Will Support the Scaling of New Technologies for Dementia Diagnosis and Care

Isaac Health, a leading health technology company for brain health and dementia care, announced today a $10.5 million Series A led by Flare Capital Partners, with participation from new investors, Industry Ventures, and Black Opal Ventures. Existing investors, Meridian Street Capital, B Capital, and Primetime Partners, also doubled down, some increasing their stake. This brings the company’s total funding to $16.3 million, enabling it to expand its partnerships and technology, which is newly available in all 50 states – realizing its goal of making specialist dementia care more accessible.

Today, more than seven million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s dementia, with numbers projected to grow to over 12 million by 2025. With Americans also waiting an average of 36 months for an appointment, many are losing crucial time for preventive care for cognitive decline. To combat this, Isaac Health offers an AI-enabled brain health platform that combines expert clinical care with scalable digital infrastructure, including patented AI screening capabilities, to detect, diagnose, and manage dementia from home. Its cutting-edge technology and predictive machine learning can quickly identify patients with different cognitive and brain health conditions and pair them with a team of specialists that offers center-of-excellence level care, resulting in 73 percent of patients with improved neurocognitive function over the course of six months, and an improvement against cognitive goals in only three weeks for 92 percent of patients.

“Adults over age 65 are the largest and fastest-growing group in the U.S., and that means that the number of persons developing, living with, and affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other causes of dementia is going to continue to skyrocket,” said Dr. Joel Salinas, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Isaac Health. “Our health system simply isn’t equipped to meet the scale and complexity of these specialized care needs, and, as a result, patients face excessive delays, missed windows for intervention, and increasing rates of emergency visits and hospitalizations as disease progression and caregiver burnout intensify. This raise enables Isaac Health to step up and fill these care gaps at a time when we face a growing public health crisis.”

“Cognitive and brain health is one of the most pressing and underserved areas of healthcare, with far-reaching implications for patients, families, health systems, and payers,” said Ian Chiang, Partner at Flare Capital Partners. “We are impressed by Isaac Health’s ability to provide clinically effective conservative dementia management and active treatment with anti-amyloid therapy to reduce healthcare services utilization for its Medicare & Medicaid partners while maintaining a stellar patient experience. We are thrilled to partner with Isaac Health and support the expansion of the reach of its tech-enabled virtual neurology services to patients and families across the country.”

This new funding will accelerate the buildout of Isaac Health’s proprietary tech platform to deliver care at a national scale, along with the expansion of its network of partnerships with health plans and health systems to meet the rising demand for improved brain health and dementia care, outcomes, and access, especially for underserved populations. These new buildouts include:

• Expansion of Isaac Health’s virtual care infrastructure and smart care management tools that support both patients and caregivers throughout the disease journey to preserve independence, quality of life, and avoid preventable health crises
• Enhancement of AI-driven detection for earlier and more accurate diagnosis at the population level
• Predictive clinical decision support systems to guide proactive treatment and ongoing care
• Data and analytics capabilities to measure outcomes and optimize care pathways

“Innovation in dementia care has lagged behind the urgency of the crisis, and now we’re seeing an inflection point where technology can finally bridge the gap,” said Julius Bruch, Co-Founder and CEO at Isaac Health. “Our Series A marks a pivotal moment for the future of dementia care and reflects investor confidence in both the magnitude of the opportunity and the urgency of the moment. With the right infrastructure in place, there is a narrow window to lead in this emerging category and redefine how millions of people receive cognitive health care in the years ahead, and we’re proud to be leading the charge.”

Originally announced August 14th, 2025

< + > Bonus Features – September 7, 2025 – ECG Management Consultants launches a curated marketplace of AI-enabled health technology partners; IKS Health appoints their very first Chief AI Officer; plus 24 more 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.

News

• The Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP/ONC) issue an enforcement alert to end information blocking as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Administration name it a top priority.

Studies

• iRhythm Technologies reports use of Zio led to an increased detection of AFib (6.8% vs 5.4%) and a shorter time to diagnosis (103 days vs 530 days) than usual care.
• Organizations across regulated industries are racing towards digital transformation, but 90% of leaders state that fragmented and siloed identity data significantly undermines their ability to deliver the seamless, personalized, and positive experiences their customers expect today, reports Verato in a new study.
• A new study posed a series of questions about hematologic malignancies to ChatGPT 3.5 and had hematology-oncology physicians rate the answers’ usefulness and accuracy on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). They found no question achieved a score greater than 4 or 5, with most scores ranging from 3.0 to 3.8, noting a neutral stance.

Partnerships

• Stratipath and Visiopharm partner to combine their regulatory-compliant solutions for enhanced breast cancer diagnostics – an initiative that will be presented at the upcoming European Congress of Pathology (ECP) in Vienna, October 2025.
• Patches Kids Care partners with Regent Surgical to jointly develop and operate outpatient pediatric surgery centers, with the first location in Houston.
• Janus Health joins Cipher Collective as one of its seven inaugural members, granting access to JanusIQ.
• MCG Health and Avo partner to launch an AI-assistant that tackles hospital length of stay.

Products

• CalmiGo releases a new Clinician Dashboard for the CalmiGo Plus device, enabling clinicians to monitor patient progress and engagement with treatment plans, which in turn allows clinicians to track patient progress and modify treatment plans based on real results.
• AI-powered engagement platform Ostro launches Airmark, a solution that turns static rep-triggered and other brand-based emails to healthcare professionals into responsive, compliant conversational AI.
• Using advanced AI and computer vision, Artisight is the first Smart Hospital platform capable of autonomously documenting operating room activity into a patient’s EHR.
• Hyro launches Proactive Px, an outbound patient experience program featuring a free component to assist with expected coverage disruption caused by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
• Leading healthcare consulting firm, ECG Management Consultants, launched Cipher Collective – a curated marketplace of AI-enabled health technology partners powered by ECG.
• Phillips introduces an innovative telemetry platform to help address challenges such as staff shortages and alarm management.
• Onvida Health and Ambience Healthcare announced the launch of frontier ambient AI capabilities directly in Epic’s Hyperspace and Haiku applications.
• Valant releases AI Note Assist – a secure AI-powered clinical notes feature designed for behavioral health providers.
• PointClickCare announces an enhanced AI-powered ED Optimization solution to deliver instant, actionable, AI-informed insights from skilled nursing facility stays directly to emergency department care teams.

Sales

• Following a rigorous evaluation and successful pilot, Hartford Healthcare has selected Abridge’s AI-powered ambient clinical intelligence platform.
• NYC Health + Hospitals upgrades to Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications to better streamline business processes and support the delivery of high quality healthcare services.
• Providence Healthcare – New St. Paul’s Hospital in Canada adopts Borda Technology’s next-generation IOT solutions through a partnership with Plan Group, the electrical and technology contractor for the project.

People

• Aledade appoints two national health experts to the board of directors — Shawn Guertin, former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at CVS Health, and Joneigh S. Khaldun, M.D., current President and CEO at the Public Health Accreditation Board.
• Mike Coffey is appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer at Clearwave.
• IKS Health appoints Ajai Sehgal as their very first Chief AI Officer.
• Imad Ahmed is appointed to the dual role of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer at ReferWell.
• MedeAnalytics appoints Justin L. Neece as Chief Growth Officer.
• Adam Spice, Chief Financial Officer at Rocket Lab, becomes a Board Member at Propio.

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.