First we had smartphones, then smartwatches. Now, we’re entering the age of smart hospitals.

Nvidia-backed health tech Artisight announced in July it had secured an additional $40 million on top of its previous $51.3 million in funding to accelerate the adoption of its AI-based smart hospital platform across the country.

Founded in 2015, Artisight’s platform puts its Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU)-powered devices into patient rooms to monitor care, prevent safety issues, and enable remote collaboration across facilities.

CEO and co-founder Andrew Gostine told us the company plans to expand to about 1,000 more hospitals in the next 18 months. It’s currently in use at 417 hospitals, he said, including facilities in York, Pennsylvania-based WellSpan and Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine health systems.

See what a smart hospital entails here.—CM

In June, the head of the National Health Service (NHS) in England, which operates the public healthcare system, announced a commitment to incorporate robots into most minimally invasive surgeries by 2035.

This is an effort to reduce patient wait times and free up beds for operations like joint replacements and hysterectomies. Currently, 1 in 5 (or 70,000) minimally invasive surgeries are robot-assisted in the UK annually, the NHS said in its announcement. The goal is to raise that number to 90%, or 500,000, a year in the next decade.

In comparison, the US is the world leader in robotic surgery, with the American Hospital Association reporting 2.6+ million surgeries in 2024 involving robots from da Vinci, the leading medical robotics company in the US. That figure is up 17% from the year prior.

The surgical robot market is worth $3 billion, according to a 2023 analysis by consultancy Bain and Company, which also reported that 78% of US surgeons are interested in adopting the technology.

Here’s how robotics are changing surgery.—CM

UnitedHealth Group has finally gotten federal approval to buy home health and hospice company Amedisys.

It’s a bit of positive news after months of financial struggle for the vertically integrated healthcare goliath.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued to block the $3.3 billion buy on Nov. 12 alongside the attorneys general of Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York. They argued it would eliminate competition between the companies, two of the largest home and hospice care providers in the country.

Then-US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement at the time this “unlawful consolidation and monopolization” would threaten “vulnerable patients, their families, and healthcare workers.” The suit said that if the merger proceeded in its original form, UnitedHealth would control 30% or more of home health or hospice services in eight states.

Find the latest here.—CC