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AI reporting for duty
To:Brew Readers
Healthcare Brew // Morning Brew // Update
Our new report features exclusive analysis from survey respondents on how AI impacts their roles.

Exciting news: The CDC may (finally) have a permanent leader if Erica Schwartz, a former Coast Guard doctor who served as deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term, is confirmed by the Senate. At least she won’t have to work there long to break the Trump administration’s record for longest-serving CDC director.

In today’s edition:

AI use across healthcare

Food is medicine

2025’s biggest IPO

—Cassie McGrath, Caroline Catherman, Courtney Vien

AI

Tray of pills and medication

Unsplash

AI use is quickly growing across industries, and healthcare is no exception. A recent Morning Brew Inc. survey found 75% of polled healthcare professionals said their organizations have already mostly or fully embraced the technology.

The most common use case for new AI tools, according to the survey, were documentation or note-taking assistance (55%). Companies like Ambience, Abridge, and Suki have popped up in recent years to provide ambient listening devices that can build clinical notes while patients and providers meet.

While startup tools are designed to be integrated easily into an electronic health record (EHR), the EHR companies themselves also have an opportunity to build their own AI and take advantage of their existing customer bases. EHR industry leaders like Epic and Athenahealth have created scribe tools to implement directly into their systems. There are already some partnerships (like Athena’s with Microsoft) that provide users with multiple solutions within the EHR.

Read on for more insights from Chapter 1 of our new report.—CM

Sponsored By Bland AI

HOSPITALS

A food pantry within a hospital

Stop & Shop

It’s no secret that cancer treatment is a financial burden in the US. Within six months of diagnosis, a 2025 Dana-Farber study found that 1 in 3 children being treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia have food, housing, utility, or transportation insecurity. Food insecurity has also been linked to higher mortality rates among cancer patients worldwide.

That’s why Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts-based grocery store chain Stop & Shop created a food pantry in the hospital. Opened on March 25 with a $1 million donation from the store (and an extra $500,000 already committed), the pantry will begin its work with pediatric patients and their families, eventually expanding to adult patients as well.

“Our resource specialists are constantly assisting patients in finding resources to help with food, with transportation, lodging—because everything becomes that much less affordable with a cancer diagnosis, and some people come to a diagnosis already struggling to make ends meet,” Deborah Toffler, senior director of patient care services at Dana-Farber, told Healthcare Brew.

Social determinants of health, like access to healthy foods, transportation, and housing, are often linked to care outcomes for all patients, not just those with cancer. About 48 million people in the US experience some degree of food insecurity, according to the federal Household Food Security report from 2025.

See more on the partnership here.—CM

FINANCE

Headshot of Medline CFO Mike Drazin

Mike Drazin

Though Illinois-based Medline says it’s the largest private manufacturer of medical supplies in the US, outside healthcare, it’s hardly a household name.

That may have changed in December 2025, when it went public at a valuation of over $50 billion and raised $6.26 billion, making it the largest IPO of the year. Five members of Medline’s founding Mills family became billionaires.

The IPO followed on a leveraged buyout in 2021, in which Medline, then family-owned, was acquired by PE funds Blackstone, Carlyle, and Hellman & Friedman for about $34 billion.

CFO Mike Drazin, who joined Medline from Fortune 300 company Illinois Tool Works in 2018, helped the company navigate the entire journey. He spoke with CFO Brew about what he learned during the process and what CFOs should focus on when preparing to go public.

Keep reading on CFO Brew.—CV

VITAL SIGNS

A laptop tracking vital signs is placed on rolling medical equipment.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: 41.9%. That’s the share of physicians who said they experienced a symptom of burnout in 2025, compared to 43.2% in 2024. (Healthcare Dive)

Quote: “HR 1 has the potential to be much, much worse than the Covid unwinding.”—Erik Mikaitis, CEO of Cook County Health in Chicago, on Medicaid work requirements resulting in people losing their healthcare coverage (Modern Healthcare)

Read: In Georgia, bans on gender-affirming care for minors are affecting transgender adults as well. (Stat)

Please stay on the line: Instead of keeping patients stuck, Bland AI voice agents can handle calls when human reps aren’t available. Appointment scheduling, insurance authorization—Bland’s agents can do it all while remaining HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant.*

*A message from our sponsor.

New entry rules, Trump tariffs, US entry ban, work visas to America, US against immigrants, police ICE, US visa denied, Visa in passport, fee for US visa airport, illegal immigrants H-1B visa. Macro photo

Karen Vardanian/Getty Images

Healthcare leaders say a sharp increase in H-1B petition fees could strain staffing at a time of projected physician shortages. Here’s how hospitals and industry groups are responding.

Check it out

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