Maria Perez
Maria is an experienced writer, providing content for Healthcare Industry News since 2021. Working as a senior writer, Maria focuses on news reporting, making the complex healthcare topic comprehensible for readers. Maria’s expertise and dedication to delivering accurate stories make him a trusted source on our site.
by Maria Perez | May 8, 2024 | Artificial Intelligence, Digital Health
In-House Health has launched a state-of-the-art AI-driven scheduling platform designed to address the inefficiencies plaguing hospital staffing, particularly in nursing. Amidst an ongoing healthcare workforce shortage exacerbated by rising care delivery costs, traditional staffing methods have proven inadequate, leading hospitals to rely heavily on agencies, inflating operational costs. In-House Health’s technology aims to streamline the cumbersome, often manual process of nurse scheduling and staffing, which can dominate upwards of 15 hours a week for nursing team leaders who grapple with outdated systems like drag-and-drop interfaces or even pen and paper. By integrating artificial intelligence, the platform promises to reduce the time spent on scheduling by at least 50% and cut labor costs by 10%, presenting an advancement in operational efficiency and cost management in healthcare institutions.
The technology supporting In-House Health’s platform is sophisticated, leveraging millions of patient records to train its AI algorithms. This allows for predictive analytics that can forecast staffing needs and shift changes far more accurately and earlier than traditional methods. Such capabilities enhance the efficiency of shift scheduling and aim to improve overall patient care and safety. The improved predictability helps prevent the common pitfall of over or understaffing, which can lead to excessive overtime costs and the unnecessary expense of employing agency staff. Ari Brenner, one of the co-founders, emphasizes that the real value lies not just in saving time but in the improvement of staffing outcomes, reducing the financial implications of mispredicted staffing needs which often results in costly last-minute adjustments.
The introduction of In-House Health’s platform has been timely, with its official launch coinciding with National Nurses Week, showcasing the company’s commitment to addressing the immediate needs of nursing professionals. The platform’s development was guided by the insights of its founders, who bring a diverse range of experiences from healthcare operations to frontline nursing and technical expertise. Their firsthand experiences with the inefficiencies of traditional staffing solutions fueled their drive to innovate. The involvement of healthcare professionals like James Kerridge, who serves on the company’s Nursing Advisory Board, ensures that the platform remains aligned with the real-world complexities of healthcare delivery and nursing management. This collaborative approach facilitates the creation of a tool that not only meets the administrative needs of nurse managers but also addresses the broader dynamics of hospital staffing management.
Venture capital interest in In-House Health has been strong, with funding led by NEA and TMV, accompanied by early support from Vine Ventures and Longevity Venture Partners, bringing the total investment to $5.4 million to date. The backing by prominent investors shows the market’s confidence in In-House Health’s potential to redefine healthcare staffing. Venture partners like Blake Wu of NEA believe that In-House Health’s approach—utilizing advanced technological solutions to optimize existing resources—is a standout in the healthcare sector, which has been slow to adopt such innovations. The platform is not only seen as a technological leap forward but also as a means to achieve the ‘quadruple aim’ of healthcare: enhancing patient experience, improving population health, reducing costs, and improving the work life of healthcare providers, thereby setting a new standard in healthcare operational management.
by Maria Perez | May 7, 2024 | Artificial Intelligence
Rad AI has raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Khosla Ventures, with contributions from World Innovation Lab, as well as continued support from Artis Ventures, OCV Partners, Kickstart Fund, and Gradient Ventures. This influx of capital, pushing the company’s total funding to over $80 million, outlines the industry’s confidence in Rad AI’s innovative solutions designed to transform radiology practices worldwide. The new funding will be instrumental in accelerating the development and international deployment of Rad AI’s products, as well as in expanding the company’s team. The endorsement by such high-profile investors reflects a shared vision for the future of healthcare, where AI-driven technologies enhance the efficiency and accuracy of medical diagnostics and patient care.
The primary innovation of Rad AI lies in its capacity to alleviate the intense workload faced by radiologists through automation of the radiological report generation process. Historically, radiologists spend roughly 75% of their time dictating detailed reports based on medical imaging observations, often handling over 100 patient reports daily. With the adoption of Rad AI’s solutions, some of the largest U.S. health systems have reported a remarkable increase in operational efficiency. These include generating reports twice as fast, reducing word count by up to 90% in many instances, which contributes to decreasing radiologist fatigue and mitigating burnout risks. This streamlined process has also lead to nearly a 50% reduction in error rates for complex cases, enhancing the quality of care delivered to patients and improving the overall diagnostic accuracy.
Rad AI has used state-of-the-art machine learning and AI technologies, including the deployment of proprietary Large Language Models (LLMs) that are trained on diverse radiology datasets. These datasets, which constitute more than 80% of all healthcare data, provide an advantage to Rad AI, enabling the company to develop highly accurate and customized AI solutions. These AI models are not only adept at mimicking the individual language and style preferences of radiologists but also improve the efficiency of radiological practices. The tangible benefits provided by Rad AI’s technology are evident in its capacity to increase patient follow-up rates for actionable findings from 30% to over 85%. This capability ensures that critical conditions, such as new cancer diagnoses, are addressed swiftly and effectively, which is necessary for positive patient outcomes.
Rad AI’s growing influence and adoption across the U.S. healthcare industry are testament to its impactful solutions. The technology is now utilized by more than a third of all U.S. health systems and by nine of the ten largest U.S. radiology practices. This widespread adoption highlights the time savings and improved patient care enabled by Rad AI’s platform. The company’s commitment to reducing the administrative problems for radiologists while simultaneously enhancing patient outcomes has made it an important component of health system workflows. As Rad AI continues to expand its reach and refine its technologies, the potential for its AI-driven solutions to revolutionize healthcare practices globally is immense. The recent investment will further propel Rad AI’s mission to lead the transformation of healthcare through advanced AI, ensuring that radiologists can focus more on patient care and less on the time-consuming aspects of their work.
by Maria Perez | May 7, 2024 | Artificial Intelligence
Suki has recently secured a national group purchasing agreement with Premier Inc., a healthcare improvement company. This partnership is a big opportunity for Suki, providing it with potential access to a network of over 4,350 hospitals and healthcare systems—a reach that surpasses its current market presence by a factor of 16. This extensive reach could help Suki to enter a leading position in the healthcare AI assistant market. The agreement enables Premier’s vast network, which includes 300,000 providers, to access Suki’s services at rates pre-negotiated by Premier, ensuring affordability and value. This deal outlines Premier’s confidence in Suki as a superior choice over other AI tools and streamlines the procurement process for member hospitals and health systems, simplifying their transition to advanced technological solutions. This alliance is seen as a strong endorsement of Suki’s technological capabilities and its potential to enhance clinical efficiency.
The arrangement between Suki and Premier reduces the bureaucratic issues associated with the adoption of new technologies within healthcare settings, making it easier for health systems to integrate Suki’s solutions. The efficiency of this partnership is highlighted by the accelerated contractual process, which reduces the typical acquisition timeline from months to just a few days. Such rapid integration is crucial in the fast-paced healthcare sector where time savings translate directly into enhanced care delivery and cost reductions. Suki’s AI tool offers an ambient listening feature that automatically drafts clinical notes during patient-clinician interactions, which helps in reducing the clerical load on healthcare providers. This capability is helpful in improving the accuracy of medical records and supports the health systems’ coding and billing operations, optimizing reimbursement processes. The ease of Suki’s integration with major EHR systems further ensures that it complements existing workflows rather than requiring health systems to overhaul their technological infrastructure, making it an attractive proposition for many of Premier’s members looking for efficient, scalable solutions.
In terms of functionality, Suki’s AI tool is designed to seamlessly integrate into existing clinical workflows across various specialties and settings, from ambulatory care to inpatient environments. This integration includes compatibility with major EHR systems such as Epic, Cerner, Meditech, and AthenaHealth, which facilitates a broad adoption across different healthcare settings. Suki supports diverse documentation strategies, allowing healthcare providers to either start their clinical notes in Suki and pull relevant data from the EHR, or vice versa. This flexibility in documentation approaches is necessary for addressing the unique needs of different clinical specialties and individual provider preferences. By automating routine tasks such as ICD-10 and HCC coding, and facilitating effortless dictation and data queries, Suki improves the productivity of healthcare providers and contributes to higher accuracy in clinical documentation, which is necessary for quality patient care and optimized health system reimbursement.
The partnership between Suki and Premier is set to play an important role in defining the future landscape of AI in healthcare. The evaluation process that led to Premier’s endorsement of Suki involved extensive demonstrations and reviews of customer references, which proves the reliability and efficacy of Suki’s AI solutions. This validation is likely to encourage other health systems to consider similar technological advancements, setting a precedent for the adoption of AI tools in the sector. As AI continues to become more popular in the healthcare industry, its potential to transform care practices becomes increasingly apparent, promising not only to enhance operational efficiencies but also to improve the overall healthcare experience for providers and patients. With plans for joint marketing initiatives, Suki and Premier aim to support widespread adoption of AI solutions, showcasing the benefits such as time savings, cost reductions, and improved care quality that these technologies can bring to the healthcare industry.
by Maria Perez | May 2, 2024 | Artificial Intelligence
Transcarent’s recent Series D funding round is an important moment in the company’s journey to redefine healthcare through technology. Led by General Catalyst and 7wireVentures, with additional funds from new players like Geodesic Capital and Memorial Hermann Health System, this round propels Transcarent’s total investments to $450 million, at a valuation of $2.2 billion. This financial boost is earmarked for the enhancement of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, aiming to refine and expand the tools necessary for healthcare professionals to manage patient care more efficiently. Transcarent’s CEO, Glen Tullman, has expressed that the company, having achieved desired scale, is now focused on leveraging AI to improve its commercial reach and streamline healthcare delivery. This pivot reflects a broader industry trend where health tech companies are increasingly integrating AI to transform both backend operations and patient-facing services.
The interest from investors in this round shows a growing recognition of Transcarent’s potential to disrupt traditional healthcare models. According to Glen Tullman, CEO of Transcarent, this unsolicited investor enthusiasm was sparked by Transcarent’s successful engagement with high-profile customers, demonstrating the platform’s efficacy and appeal. Transcarent’s platform offers a unified suite of healthcare services, integrating medical care, surgery, pharmacy, and mental health services, simplifying the healthcare process for employers and enhancing user experience. The company’s commitment to AI is evident in its development of diagnostic and operational tools that aid healthcare providers in delivering care. For example, AI-driven analysis in the Transcarent Clinic helps in quickly diagnosing common conditions based on symptoms and patient history, streamlining the treatment process, which in turn can lead to better patient outcomes and reduced administrative issues.
In a shifting healthcare industry, where traditional telehealth services face operational challenges and employers grapple with ‘point solution fatigue,’ Transcarent’s AI innovations offer a promising alternative. The integration of AI into Transcarent’s services helps to cut through the clutter of disparate healthcare options by providing a streamlined care platform. This platform supports accurate and swift health assessments and customizes care pathways by intelligently analyzing patient data. This capability is necessary in a post-pandemic world where efficiency and precision in healthcare are more important than ever. Tullman also highlighted the broader market dynamics, including the strain on legacy healthcare providers and the growing demand for integrated care solutions, as key factors driving investor interest and business growth for Transcarent.
Transcarent’s approach aims to fundamentally change how healthcare costs are managed and reduced. The use of AI in their platform serves to enhance the decision-making process for healthcare providers, ensuring that patients receive the most appropriate care quickly and conveniently. This improves the patient experience and aligns with the company’s goal of reducing unnecessary healthcare expenditures. With the Series D funding, Transcarent is poised to further develop its AI tools, making them more accessible to healthcare providers and expanding their impact. The company’s growth and innovation have not only attracted a substantial number of users—over 4.3 million people through employer or insurer access—but have also established a strong model for future expansions in the healthcare technology space. This model focuses on creating value-based, patient-centered solutions that are sustainable and scalable, addressing both immediate healthcare needs and long-term industry challenges.
by Maria Perez | May 1, 2024 | Artificial Intelligence
Quest Diagnostics is setting a new course in healthcare innovation with its acquisition of PathAI’s diagnostic laboratory. This move is designed to enhance Quest’s artificial intelligence and digital pathology capabilities, making it a pivot point for both companies. Quest’s acquisition involves PathAI’s high-tech digitized laboratory in Memphis, Tennessee, which will now serve as Quest’s AI and digital R&D and solutions center. This facility will support Quest’s specialty pathology businesses, including AmeriPath and Dermpath Diagnostics, which focus on delivering precise diagnostic services across various therapeutic areas. The integration of PathAI’s laboratory into Quest’s operations is poised to leverage AI to elevate the standard and efficiency of diagnostic services. Quest has also secured a license to utilize PathAI’s AISight™ digital pathology image management system. This system will be employed across Quest’s pathology labs and customer sites throughout the United States, demonstrating an integration of PathAI’s advanced technologies into Quest’s extensive service network.
This acquisition reflects a broader industry trend towards digital transformation in pathology, a field traditionally reliant on physical slide analysis. Digital pathology, as facilitated by PathAI’s technology, allows for the creation and sharing of digital images of tissue slides, which can be distributed electronically, reducing the need for physical transport and expediting the diagnostic process. This capability speeds up the diagnostic process and extends the reach of pathology services to areas with limited access to specialized medical professionals. The adoption of digital pathology can alleviate the current workforce pressures caused by the nationwide shortage of histotechnologists. These professionals are necessary for the preparation of tissue slides, an important step in the diagnostic process of various diseases, including cancer. By centralizing slide preparation at equipped facilities like Quest’s, hospitals can maintain focus on in-house professional interpretation of these slides, streamlining operations and enhancing diagnostic accuracy.
AI technology in pathology involves sophisticated algorithms that can detect patterns in digitized images, indicating potential diseases. This capability can augment a pathologist’s ability to focus on areas of concern, potentially leading to earlier and more precise diagnoses. Quest’s historical commitment to AI and automation spans several of its laboratory and business functions, aiming to improve operational efficiency and accuracy across its services. By incorporating PathAI’s AI innovations, Quest improves its diagnostic capabilities and sets a new standard for the integration of AI in pathology, potentially transforming diagnostic practices and patient outcomes on a large scale.
Quest’s acquisition of PathAI’s diagnostic lab is expected to have implications for the healthcare industry, particularly in the field of oncology and other specialized areas of medicine. This partnership aligns with Quest’s long-standing expertise and extensive scale in pathology, aiming to expand its impact and operational efficiency. The acquisition promises to enrich Quest’s portfolio with advanced digital and AI tools, improving its ability to deliver high-quality, efficient, and accessible pathology services. This move is particularly timely, as it coincides with a growing demand for innovative diagnostic solutions in the face of increasing cancer rates and other complex medical conditions. As Quest integrates PathAI’s technologies and expertise, it represents an evolution in the area of healthcare diagnostics, supporting a future where advanced technology and partnerships lead to better patient outcomes and more efficient healthcare delivery.
