It seems like there’s an app for everything these days. You don’t have to leave your house for food, work, or social interaction (though we hope you still do on that last one). Now, we’re getting closer to testing drugs digitally, too.

Researchers published a study in npj Digital Medicine in May that used data from 59,000 Mayo Clinic patients’ electronic health records (EHRs), combined with computer modeling, to predict whether 17 existing drugs could help treat symptoms of heart failure.

The researchers checked their predictions against existing clinical trial results. They found their digital clinical trials predicted whether or not the drugs could improve several heart failure prognostic markers with about 89% accuracy, according to Nansu Zong, a biomedical informatician at Mayo Clinic and lead author of the study.

Because it uses existing data on real-world outcomes of drugs, an approach like this can’t predict outcomes of drug candidates that haven’t gone to market. But it could one day be a screening tool that helps researchers decide whether to repurpose an existing drug to potentially treat a new disease.

How might this change drug testing?—CC

If you’re a clinician, your peers may be judging you for using generative AI.

A study published in August in the medical journal npj Digital Medicine found clinicians negatively viewed their peers who use generative AI in clinical decision-making. The study, conducted by Johns Hopkins researchers, involved 276 practicing clinicians at an unnamed health system.

The clinicians viewed those who use AI to help them make patient care decisions as having a “lack of clinical skill and overall competence, resulting in a diminished perceived quality of patient care,” according to a press release from Johns Hopkins.

Tinglong Dai, Bernard T. Ferrari Professor of Business at Johns Hopkins and co-corresponding author of the study, said in a statement the stigma around AI “may be an obstacle to better care.”

Feeling called out yet?—MA

Welcome back to Signed and Scrubbed, a monthly roundup of hospital deals, developments, and bankruptcies.

We pulled together a list of provider transactions from September, including transactions from TriHealth in Cincinnati, Ohio and Hartford HealthCare in Hartford, Connecticut. Here’s the rundown.

Dartmouth Health. Lebanon, New Hampshire-based Dartmouth Health signed a letter of intent on Sept. 12 to acquire 25-bed critical access center Littleton Regional Healthcare, also in New Hampshire.

Hartford HealthCare. Hartford HealthCare signed an agreement to acquire 249-bed Manchester Memorial Hospital and 102-bed Rockville General Hospital for $86 million from real estate investment trust Prospect Medical Properties, which is in bankruptcy proceedings, Becker’s reported on Sept. 19.

See the full list here.—CM

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shoutout from your boss. It’s that satisfying.

Real jobs, shared through real communities. CollabWORK brings opportunities directly to Healthcare Brew readers—no mass postings, no clutter, just roles worth seeing. Click here to view the full job board.

• Chief Nursing Officer at MemorialCare (in person)
• RCM OPEX Specialist at Femwell Group Health (in person)
• Physician Medical Director at Concentra (in person)
• Medical Director for Complex Care, Correctional Health Services at NYC Health + Hospitals (in person)
• Director of Professional Services, Hospice at Aspen Grove Hospice (in person)