AI 411: December

Welcome back to AI 411, a monthly roundup of artificial intelligence (AI) announcements from across the healthcare industry.

In December, Healthcare Brew reported on Google’s announcement to open its Health AI Developer Foundation models for chest X-ray, dermatology, and pathology imaging. We also took a look back at several tech advancements in 2024, including new and notable treatments, and asked tech experts what they expect to see in 2025.

Read on for some notable health-related AI headlines from last month.

Abridge. AI scribe maker Abridge announced in a release a new partnership with Johns Hopkins Medicine on December 18. Abridge’s AI, which supports clinical documentation, will be used by 6,700 clinicians, six hospitals, and 40 patient care centers at the Baltimore-based health system.

Agilon Health and Navina. Primary care company for older adults Agilon Health and tech company Navina announced a partnership on December 18 to integrate an AI platform into the Agiolon’s services. Under the partnership, about 2,800 Agilon providers will have access to clinical data to help diagnose and treat patients.

Athenahealth. Electronic medical records company Athenahealth introduced on December 12 new automation and AI-based revenue cycle management (RCM) tools for its software suite. The company hopes to cut at least half the RCM processing that practices handle over the next three years.

Confido Health. Healthcare AI company Confido Health reported it has secured $3 million in seed funding as of December 19. The company uses its tech to manage appointments, check insurance, and coordinate care.

Dexcom. On December 17, continuous glucose monitoring sensor developer Dexcom said it would integrate generative AI into its glucose biosensing technology. Patients who wear the company’s over-the-counter sensor can use its app to get personalized weekly reports about their metabolic health status.

Medscape and HIMSS. On December 6, health publication Medscape and nonprofit Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) released research on the adoption of AI in healthcare in 2024. Researchers found that only 24% of the 800 healthcare professionals surveyed had received AI training, 72% had data privacy concerns, and 70% were worried about the ethics of AI in healthcare.

Suki. On December 18, AI scribe developer Suki introduced two new features that it developed with Google Cloud to enhance its AI assistant. Suki customers will have access to a Q&A function and patient summary feature that provides clinicians with a review of a patient’s medical history.

Update 1/7/25: This story has been updated to clarify that Athenahealth introduced additional tools to its existing software suite.