Homelessness was declared a public health emergency in Los Angeles in late 2022, with an estimated 43,699 people who are unhoused in the city and 72,308 people unhoused in LA County.

People experiencing homelessness are twice as likely to end up in the emergency department compared to people with housing, according to one 2023 study. But emergency departments are experiencing overcrowding across the country, and appointments are expensive for both the patient and the hospital due to frequent and complex medical care that’s often further complicated by mental health issues within this population.

At the same time, it’s difficult to provide consistent care for people experiencing homelessness.

“There has been a demonstrated need…for this specific population to get some stabilizing healthcare in a way that’s more affordable than getting it in the hospital,” Brittnee Hill, director of interim housing and enriched residential care for LA County’s Housing for Health, told Healthcare Brew.

Learn more about the facility here.—CM

When you think of direct-to-consumer erectile dysfunction (ED) treatment, you might think of platforms like Hims or Roman. Now GoodRx, perhaps best known for offering prescription drug discounts, wants a piece of the nearly $3 billion ED drug market.

In June, the company announced an ED telehealth treatment service that includes a virtual consult, prescriptions, and “discreet delivery” of medications to most states, starting at $18 per month.

This will be the company’s first-ever “conditions-specific” subscription service. It decided to step into this market after its in-house research found a gap in the ED care market, and plans to leverage brand loyalty and trust in order to grow, Katelyn Pelak, VP and head of product management at GoodRx, told Healthcare Brew.

“We chose ED as our starting point because it represents a high-demand, high-barrier condition where we know we can make a meaningful impact,” Pelak said.

Find more on what GoodRx has planned here.—CC

With AI wearing ever-more hats in all kinds of workplaces, researchers are scrambling to devise tests that grade how well the technology actually performs in its myriad roles. In healthcare alone, several new benchmarks aim to gauge AI’s prowess in medical settings.

But none of the current tests look at how well AI can summarize real-world medical studies, a new report from startup Atropos Health claimed. The authors proposed a new framework to evaluate this skill on nine major models from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

This kind of summarization is important because large linked databases of electronic health records (EHR) and automation tools have made real-world evidence more abundant and accessible, the authors wrote. As a company that uses AI to generate real-world evidence reports, Atropos has a vested interest here as well.

Keep reading on Tech Brew.—PK