Microsoft is making yet another advance into healthcare AI, launching a new platform called Copilot Health designed to help patients make sense of their health information.

The AI platform gathers data from wearables including Apple Watches and Oura rings, and pulls users’ medical records and lab results into one place, according to the Thursday announcement, leveraging all that data to give users a “coherent” picture of their health.

“Fifty million people every day come to Microsoft with health questions,” Dominic King, VP of health at Microsoft AI, said during a press briefing. “Our belief is that a true health companion needs to do more than general answers. It needs to draw on your health information in context.”

However, not everyone can use Copilot Health just yet. Microsoft opened a waitlist for the platform on March 12, with plans to open access up to the wider public once the company makes sure “everything is working as smoothly and as well as possible.”

King didn’t specify how many people would be able to join the waitlist or how long it would take users on the list to gain access to Copilot Health, though he said it would happen “relatively quickly.”

This update brings Microsoft among other Big Tech fellows.—MA

Over the last few years, the pharmaceutical industry has gone all in on direct-to-consumer (DTC) cash-pay sales for drugs that widely lack health insurance coverage.

Now, pharma is taking it to the next level by going direct to employer.

Eli Lilly launched its Employer Connect platform on March 5, which gives employers their choice of 15+ independent program administrators and pharmacies where they can access its GLP-1 Zepbound Kwikpen for a reduced price of $449 for all doses. A press release touts it as an option offering “greater cost predictability and transparency.”

In related news, GoodRx, one of Employer Connect’s program administrators, announced its own expansion into the employer market on Feb. 24: GoodRx Employer Direct. Though GoodRx is initially focusing on GLP-1s, this new approach is related to a wider change in how healthcare is delivered and paid for, Julia Croxen, VP of strategy consulting at venture fund and advisory firm Rock Health, told Healthcare Brew.

“It makes sense as an evolution of the direct-to-patient or direct-to-consumer model,” she said.

Here’s how the new model works.—CC

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Within the often-frustrating world of prior authorization, providers and payers alike have turned to AI tools for help.

One of the companies in this space, Silna Health, automates prior authorizations and other health insurance-related tasks for clinicians. The startup was founded in 2023 and has raised $27 million from funders like investment bank Bain Capital Ventures and venture capital firm Accel.

Healthcare Brew talked to Silna’s Co-founder and CEO Jeff Morelli about what it takes to lead a healthcare AI startup.

See the full conversation here.—CC