As AI tools are rapidly making their way into healthcare, Adrienne Kline is one researcher leading the way in development.

Head of AI and engineering at Illinois-based Northwestern Medicine’s Center for Artificial Intelligence at the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, Kline received $1.4 million in research grants in the last year from tech giants Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia to develop new AI technologies for both patients and healthcare administrators.

These companies regularly make investments into AI, with Microsoft pledging in January $80 billion to create AI-enabled data centers to train models and deploy AI and cloud-based applications globally.

With this funding, Kline spearheaded the creation of a medical deidentification tool called PixelGuard, which removes identifying data for safe sharing of sensitive health information. The assistant professor at Northwestern also led the creation of a multimodal cardiac platform, Project Corazon, which reads MRI slices to diagnose cardiac abnormalities.

Here’s how she’s used her research grants so far.—CM

Walgreens has completed a deal to be bought by private equity firm Sycamore Partners, and pharmacy experts are worried it’ll bring with it layoffs and pharmacy closures.

Rumors of the takeover began swirling last December, and Walgreens executives confirmed in March they had signed a definitive agreement with Sycamore. As part of the deal, Walgreens and its subsidiaries are to be split into five separate, privately owned companies: retail pharmacy chain Walgreens, pharmaceutical wholesaler the Boots Group, specialty pharmacy company Shields Health Solutions, post-acute care company CareCentrix, and primary care clinic chain VillageMD.

Under Sycamore’s ownership, Walgreens will be led by CEO Mike Motz, who previously worked as CEO of Staples US Retail, a company the private equity firm acquired in 2017. Former Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth will continue to serve as a director, company execs said in an Aug. 28 press release.

So far, industry experts have expressed worry.—MA

There’s an old adage that health is wealth, but it can also be costly—particularly for employers that cover health insurance for their workers.

Companies expect healthcare to become even costlier next year, according to a recent survey of 121 employers covering 7.4 million US lives conducted by the Business Group on Health (BGOH).

The firms surveyed expect their costs to rise by a median of 9% next year, up from 8% this year, according to the report. Employers saw their actual costs surpass projected costs in 2023 and 2024 by less than one percentage point.

Weighing obesity treatment. GLP-1 medications were cited as one top culprit contributing to this projection, with 72% of employers reporting the drugs were driving healthcare costs to a “very great” or “great” extent at their organizations, according to the report.

Keep reading on HR Brew.—CV