A new tool to tackle healthcare issues is stepping up to the plate: virtual agents.

Virtual agents, also known as chatbots or AI voice agents, are offered by electronic health record (EHR) giants including Epic, Athenahealth, and Oracle as well as major US insurers like UnitedHealthcare and Elevance to help users with tasks such as estimating healthcare costs and scheduling appointments.

These agents communicate with patients via voice or chat in order to lighten administrative load during staffing shortages and save money amid financial strain. Some healthcare leaders even see the potential for AI voice agents to help improve access to care and patient outcomes. In a Q4 2024 survey from consultancy McKinsey, 55% of healthcare leaders said one of generative AI’s greatest potentials was in improving patient and member engagement.

“We see these technologies as a catalyst for transforming care,” Sonja O’Malley, the general manager of business development and licensing at Cleveland Clinic Innovations, told us.

The worldwide healthcare AI voice agent market was estimated at $468 million in 2024 and is predicted to reach over $3 billion by 2030, per Grand View Research.

Here’s more on how the tech works in healthcare.—CC

AI is all over healthcare, from inpatient rooms to everyday appointments to x-rays and imaging. Following a partnership announced on Jan. 27 between tech giant Nvidia and outpatient surgery startup Oath Surgical, AI will also enter the operating room (OR).

Oliver Keown, CEO and founder of Oath and a medical doctor from the UK, created the company with the “view of building a surgeon-led, AI-powered, and value-based model for surgery that was outpatient at its core” and didn’t just layer “broken” technology on top of the existing system.

The company has raised $35 million, he told Healthcare Brew, owns and operates three surgical centers in Portland, Oregon, and has a network of 175 surgeons and 20 ambulatory surgery centers.

Surgeries pull a lot of data across electronic health records, financial information, operating systems, inventory, and medical devices like robots and video feeds. With this new partnership, Oath is taking its technology to the next level by using this data to provide surgeons with real-time information and documentation to make procedures more efficient.

Here’s more on the partnership.—CM

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Eighteen years after co-founding Immuneering, CEO Ben Zeskind is still chasing the same goal: turn cutting-edge science into better lives for cancer patients.

The oncology biotech’s top drug candidate, atebimetinib, is currently in a Phase 2A clinical trial. It’s being tested as a treatment for pancreatic cancer, which is expected to cause nearly 53,000 deaths in the US this year, per the American Cancer Society’s 2026 cancer statistics report.

Zeskind told Healthcare Brew about what it takes to develop a new cancer drug.

See the full conversation here.—CC