Healthcare Brew covers pharmaceutical developments, health startups, the latest tech, and how it impacts hospitals and providers to keep administrators and providers informed.

Healthcare Brew

Maia Anderson

Healthcare Brew delivers the latest news and trends in healthcare.

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A smiling young woman with a hearing aid talks on the phone.

Hearing aids can now be sold over the counter

The FDA began allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter in late 2022.

Newly approved OTC hearing aids could rake in billions

A collage of different tech products our reporter tried out at CES.

CES 2023 put digital health on full display 

The pervading theme was bringing healthcare to the consumer.

Shannon Young

A collage of young people in cities using their phones.

AI literally makes breathing easier

Your wi-fi router could help doctors detect and monitor breathing problems.

Every breath you take, every move you make, wi-fi’s watching you

Healthcare Innovation

Cassie McGrath

 are rapidly making their way into healthcare, Adrienne Kline is one researcher leading the way in development.

Head of AI and engineering at Illinois-based Northwestern Medicine’s Center for Artificial Intelligence at the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, Kline received $1.4 million in research grants in the last year from tech giants Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia to develop new AI technologies for both patients and healthcare administrators.

These companies regularly make investments into AI, with Microsoft pledging in January $80 billion to create AI-enabled data centers to train models and deploy AI and cloud-based applications globally.

With this funding, Kline spearheaded the creation of a medical deidentification tool called PixelGuard, which removes identifying data for safe sharing of sensitive health information. The assistant professor at Northwestern also led the creation of a multimodal cardiac platform, Project Corazon, which reads MRI slices to diagnose cardiac abnormalities.

Kline spoke with Healthcare Brew about how she’s used research grants over the past year and what she’s working on now.

While Kline was finishing her postdoctorate in the department of preventive medicine, private tech companies wanted to recruit her. She ultimately decided to stay in academia, though, because she wanted more autonomy to choose what she would work on, she said.

Since Kline was already on these companies’ radars, they contacted her with grant offers and gave her another way to collaborate on ideas she had. With National Institutes of Health funding cuts issued by the Trump administration (funding is 

 at Northwestern), industry financing provided her an opportunity to continue “really important” research, she said.

“Some of these industry partnerships are a bit of a godsend to continue to get your research pushed through and get your research published,” she said, which ultimately helps researchers try “to make a difference in the world.”

De-indeification tools, like the one she built, aren’t “sexy,” Kline said, but they are essential for protecting data sharing, including within hospitals or between industry partners.

PixelGuard does this for images, she said, meaning healthcare providers can safely share MRI slices externally, like, for example, with a health plan that wants to double-check it for billing purposes.

She worked with Amazon and IT company ScaleCapacity to develop the tool, which took about seven months from “pitch to deployment,” she said. 

Working with Nvidia, Amazon Web Services, and tech company Quantiphi, Kline also led the development of a program, Project Corazon that can read cardiac MRI scans and assess medical images “the way a radiologist would.” In other words, the tool uses AI to assist clinicians in making diagnoses.

Project Corazon is not ready to be used in hospitals yet, Kline said, but with the CDC reporting 6.7 million US residents over 20 as having heart failure, she sees the need to ease the diagnostic process.

After sitting in on a faculty meeting and hearing about scheduling challenges, Kline started drawing up plans for a new operating room scheduling tool.

When completed (she’s aiming for November or December), the tool will review items like surgeons, beds, and room availability as well as emergent patient needs to find the most efficient way to conduct procedures.

“We want high utilization, but we also want to ensure that our emergencies are handled without delay, taking into account people going on vacation or [getting] sick,” she said, “because that really ties back to hospital profit margins.”

Headshot of Northwestern's Adrienne Kline on a small blue cloud with darker blue stars nearby

This Northwestern researcher got $1.4m in grants from Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia. Here’s what she built

Adrienne Kline made de-identification tool PixelGuard and heart diagnoser Project Corazon with private industry research money. 

 using artificial intelligence (AI) as part of their workflows, and while the technology can bring increased efficiency, it can also bring a greater risk of 

 the FDA’s AI tool, Elsa, which was made to accelerate drug and medical device approvals, generated fake research studies in its citations. And in early August, the Verge 

 Google’s healthcare AI model, Med-Gemini, mentioned a nonexistent body part in a 2024 research paper.

 from Mount Sinai health system in New York released on Aug. 2 found AI chatbots are “highly vulnerable” to attacks promoting false medical information.

Given the rising trend of AI use in healthcare, we asked executives from across the industry how leaders should respond when errors occur and what safeguards could be put in place to prevent harm.

Matthew DeCamp, an internal medicine physician and health services researcher at the University of Colorado’s Center for Bioethics and Humanities, told us there’s still “a lot of uncertainty” about who holds responsibility when AI errors occur in healthcare, as it’s not been 

However, the industry can look to existing protocols for sharing responsibility between different stakeholders, such as the AI developer and the end user, he said.

“Even before AI was involved, we found ways to divvy responsibility between, say, the maker of a CT scanner, the health system who purchased it, the radiologists who use it, and the primary care physicians like myself who might read the final report,” DeCamp said. “I think we can be reassured by this, and perhaps take a similar approach.”

Thomas Fuchs, SVP and chief AI officer at pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, told us the priority for healthcare organizations using AI “should always be patient safety and maintaining trust.”

He echoed DeCamp’s sentiment that it’ll take a group effort to mitigate AI errors, adding that the technology developers should “design systems with rigorous validation, transparency, and continuous monitoring.”

Meanwhile, the organizations that use the technology should set up processes to “detect, assess, and respond” to errors quickly and adhere to guidelines like the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s AI Risk Management Framework, Fuchs said, which was designed by the government agency to help manage risks associated with using AI.

Ethan Berke, chief medical officer and SVP of integrated care at virtual care company Teladoc Health, said that in the same way healthcare organizations have systems in place to address other kinds of medical errors, they should create systems to “track, classify, and investigate” any safety threats that may arise from using AI. Then they can use that data to prevent potential future errors.

Teladoc has more than 60 proprietary AI models, Berke said, and the company has created a “rigorous” process to test and evaluate them for “accuracy, bias, and safety” before they’re deployed.

“We all have a responsibility to ensure that AI solutions are reliable, ethical, and secure,” he said. “By investing in patient safety and quality, we’ve been able to build a program that can analyze potential safety events more quickly, address root causes, and catch errors before they even reach the patient.”

A healthcare cross made up of glowing binary code with a warning sign over the top right corner.

Healthcare execs talk AI errors and how to address them

Everybody makes mistakes; everybody has those days. 

illustrated headshot of caroline catherman, healthcare brew reporter

Caroline Catherman

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now commonplace in healthcare. Robust rules for the tech? Not so much, according to a new report.

About 88% of 233 health system executives said their system uses AI in some form, but only 18% have a mature 

 and full AI strategy, according to an Aug. 12 

 from the professional membership organization Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and Eliciting Insights, a healthcare strategy and market research company.

“I think a lot of organizations need to step back and say, ‘Oh, wait, we have 10 departments doing work with AI,’” Richard Gundling, HFMA’s SVP of professional practice, told Healthcare Brew. “We need an overall governance structure now, so each department is using it the same way, the same oversights are done.”

Responses from 115 of the sampled healthcare system executives suggest the most common use of AI is for 

 and clinical notetaking, with 42% using it for this purpose. Coding is the second most common, at 28%, followed by clinical documentation improvement, denial prediction, and 

The good news: Though most surveyed healthcare orgs don’t have a comprehensive strategy, the report shows nearly three-quarters of CFO respondents said they are at least in the early stages of developing an AI governance structure—a set of rules and regulations around how departments should use AI.

But how should they go about creating one?

, AI could hurt rather than help the organization. There have been instances of AI 

 in the journal npj Digital Medicine suggests large language learning models may recommend “inferior” psychiatric treatments when told a patient’s race.

One important step in creating these guardrails is to make sure all departments are represented in crafting AI strategy, including financial executives, clinical leaders, and human resources professionals, Gundling said.

The most common duty of governance groups is to determine a data policy for AI, according to the report. The groups are also often used to identify and vet AI vendors.

There’s a growing number of resources to help groups create a governance structure.

The American Medical Association released an AI governance toolkit April 29 with an eight-step module highlighting steps such as designating an executive to be accountable for AI’s outcomes and establishing a vendor evaluation policy.

Other groups like the public-private Coalition for Health AI—a collaboration between providers, tech companies, and other health organizations—have 

 a robust AI implementation and assessment process to ensure AI is developed safely and companies 

.“Even if you feel like you’re behind the curve, you can still catch up,” Gundling said.

A medical cross made out of binary code held behind yellow and black safety guardrails.

Health systems are adopting AI faster than they’re adopting safeguards

While 88% of health systems are using AI, only 18% have mature governance.

Karen Fischer

Though UK-based pharmaceutical company Compass Pathways reached its primary endpoint from its June 23 Phase 3 trial to use synthetic psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), investors were seemingly underwhelmed. That same day, shares plunged 46% to a record low of $2.35 a share for the biotech firm.

But Kabir Nath, CEO of Compass, defends the results of the trial, telling Healthcare Brew the team isn’t focused on share prices. The results are significant, he said, and ample bipartisan support in 

 means this changes nothing about the quest for more research into psilocybin to treat certain mental health disorders.

The psychedelic healthcare market has been ramping up since June 2023 when the FDA 

 for biopharmaceutical firms interested in pursuing research on psychedelic drugs to treat psychiatric and substance use disorders. The three main drug compounds of interest were psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA. 

Trial participants were patients with TRD—a diagnosis given after first-line treatments such as antidepressants fail two or more times to manage symptoms—and were living with multiple episodes of chronic depression for an average of three years. 

“This was a population with a high-level of suicidal thinking [in the past],” Nath said. 

The first of Compass’s two Phase 3 trials started with patients completing a Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). This is a common way of 

 in adults through a seven-point scale response rate.

Patients were then randomized into two groups: one that received a placebo in the form of a sugar pill and the second that was given a single 25mg dose of psilocybin on the first day. Researchers checked on patients for safety the following day and again two weeks later, then administered another MADRS test six weeks after the first dose.

Study results showed that after one dose of psilocybin, patient symptoms improved with an average 3.6-point decrease in MADRS scores, which is positive from both clinical and trial perspectives. 

The subsequent stock drop can be attributed to the fact that investors had their sights set on a five-point MADRS decrease, which would be a stronger finding for a new field of study, even with 

Psychedelics are an effective alternative to traditional pharmaceuticals for mental health disorders, according to the 

, because they can target serotonin receptors and forge fresh neural pathways in people with severe depression. Over the last decade in the US, the CDC reports that rates of depression have increased 60%, and 1 in 10 adults have taken medication to combat it.

By 2031, the global psychedelics market is 

—Compass, Jamaica-based Minerco, and Canada-based Numinus Wellness—are working on developing psilocybin-based products. Minerco and Numinus are developing raw psilocybin materials or manufacturing processes to produce pharmaceuticals while Compass is actively developing a therapeutic for TRD.

Aside from other common treatments like SSRIs, Spravato (an esketamine nasal spray) by Johnson & Johnson is another drug in the US market used for treating TRD. It received initial FDA approval in 2019 and was approved as a standalone treatment for major depressive disorder and suicidal ideation in January. (There’s 

 over its status as a psychedelic drug, however.)

But psychedelics have been hit hard by roadblocks to FDA approval. In August 2024, pharma company Lykos Therapeutics’s MDMA therapy to treat PTSD and other mental health disorders was 

. According to Lykos, this came following questions about its efficacy as a new body of research and whether existing interventions already address the need for this population, Healthcare Brew previously reported.

Compass has a second Phase 3 trial underway with preliminary results expected sometime in the second half of 2026. Psilocybin doses will be administered twice at three weeks apart, and the dosages will vary between 1mg, 10mg, and 25mg.

Nath is optimistic about the existing and growing bipartisan support for alternative treatments to depression, including 

 from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Lynn Marie Morski, president of the Psychedelic Medicine Association, is also optimistic about the future of psilocybin research, even if these trial results were not what investors expected.

“[Psilocybin] is being investigated for such a wide range of indications that I believe it will still eventually get FDA approval for one or more of those, and show itself as a very versatile and safe option,” she told us.

Across the field, Morski said she has her eye on psychedelic therapies like biotech MindMed’s LSD-based therapy for generalized anxiety as well 

person with hands in their lap on left, brain and a hand holding mushrooms on right

Support for psychedelic treatments means full steam ahead at Compass, despite stock drop

Investors were seemingly not satisfied with psilocybin trial results, but the psychedelic health community disagrees.

In 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico.

The storm led to a collapse of the island’s healthcare system, a 

 reported, following power outages and a lack of disaster management plans that contributed to 3,000+ deaths. 

 in 2017 that Puerto Ricans living on the island already had low access to healthcare before the hurricane hit. Years after the storm, the region faced ongoing staffing shortages and issues with federal funding that restricted care, 

That’s why, in October 2017, Emmanuel Oquendo and Israel Figueroa founded BrainHi, a health tech company with an AI receptionist called Lara, which completes administrative tasks for providers. The tool can answer missed calls and schedule appointments, and is designed to reduce clinicians’ workloads. Some of the company’s clients include NeoMed Center, Ashford Hospital, Manatí Medical Center, and Mennonite Healthcare System, all based in Puerto Rico. 

Oquendo spoke with Healthcare Brew about his goals for the company going forward.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Do you solely serve Puerto Rico at the moment? Are you looking to expand?

When we launched, we were very focused on that critical moment in Puerto Rico [after Hurricane Maria], and how we can help our island and providers.

 face a unique challenge, just like Puerto Rico, where the staff is often overwhelmed by daily demand, and they’re not able to serve all the patients. So what we found is that Puerto Rico is not the only place in the US that may find these sorts of issues and may need automation. Puerto Rico remains to be the core of our company, but we work with health centers in Florida and in other places in other parts of the US.

You introduced AI for administrative tasks before its current rise in popularity. What have you learned from this experience?

We’ve been working nearly a decade on this.

We’re not only focused on the AI component but we offer a full digital front-door platform that serves as a host for all the communication that is happening, and it facilitates and streamlines a collaboration between AI and the human side. That’s what’s given us a great advantage as we expand now and accelerate growth because now that we are gaining a ton of traction and there’s 

, we’re ready for this. We’re ready—not only with the technology, but we deeply understand the workflows and the integrations that are required to really 

What separates AI receptionist Lara and BrainHi from your competitors?

In addition to the comprehensive platform, we stand out in a crowded place of 

 because we’re looking beyond transactional interactions. Our focus is on building a trusted, long-term relationship between the AI and patients because we believe that the next frontier for AI is to create human connection at scale.

Let’s say that Lara has a call with a patient. As soon as we get that first call, we start creating a profile on that patient that goes far beyond what is documented in the electronic health record.

What we found is that getting all these personal notes about the patient and understanding what they need allows us to personalize that relationship much more. We still believe that AI is not there yet in terms of being completely human, if you will. But by being very diligent on understanding the patient’s needs, understanding their preferences, actively listening to the patient, and taking notes on the conversation, we’ve seen that it greatly impacts engagement.

Emmanuel Oquendo, founder of AI administrative company BrainHi

Meet Emmanuel Oquendo, founder of AI administration company BrainHi 

This founder made an AI admin tool in response to Hurricane Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico. 

Nicole Ortiz

 is a tried-and-true tradition in the TV and marketing worlds. Healthcare? Not so much.

But that hasn’t stopped point-of-care digital health company PatientPoint from participating in the annual event the last two years.

Typically, upfronts include a presentation from major media networks and then a commercial commitment component from companies interested in advertising with that media company’s programming, Kasha Cacy, chief media officer at full-service agency Known, told Healthcare Brew. Often these presentations are full of glitz and glam, 

At traditional upfront presentations, the goal is to lock in Q4 TV inventory, get a competitive price advantage, and find advertisers for popular programming like live sports and events. “Those three factors tend not to be as strongly at play in a healthcare space as they are in electronics or some of the other spaces,” Cacy said.

, a healthcare influencer known as “Dr. Mike” and a family practice provider who’s known for being outspoken online in an effort to debunk misinformation, to the stage. The company’s presentation also featured a conversation about marketing channels with the Point of Care Marketing Association (POCMA) and media agency IPG Mediabrands Health, as well as a panel by marketing research and tech company Circana.

Though when it came to the commercial engagement element of an upfront, “what it seems like PatientPoint was doing was the first [presentation] part,” Cacy said.

PatientPoint is featured on waiting room and exam room screens at more than 30,000 locations, according to the company, and its main advertisers are major pharma companies. So entering into a marketing event where advertisers try to catch the eye of companies that use a screen to reach audiences (or patients, in this case) doesn’t feel like a total stretch, Cacy said.

That reach PatientPoint offers advertisers as well as its “behavior-changing content” that’s sponsored by pharma companies and pharmacies is what makes tapping into upfronts such an enticing opportunity, Chief Marketing Officer Kyle Barich told us.

“The most important thing for us to do is to be where our customers are and where their concerns are,” he said. “All of these [advertising] folks are looking for new ways of getting quality audiences. They need to target audiences, need to get outcomes. So they’re going to upfronts to try to find new ways of doing that.”

Plus, point-of-care—which is defined as when a patient interacts with providers for care, according to POCMA—is a growing segment in healthcare, and PatientPoint is one of its major players. An April 

 from POCMA showed point-of-care revenue for 17 of its members has grown 171% since 2019, reaching $803+ million in 2023.

So, with a company like PatientPoint finding value in upfronts, could we see more healthcare companies flocking to make presentations in years to come?

Cacy said it’s still a “very specific category,” where it makes most sense for Big Pharma companies looking to advertise on screens.

“If I look at what PatientPoint did, I think it was less of an upfront and more of what I would describe as an innovation day, like, ‘here’s what our product road map is, here’s what our new products are,” she said. “That doesn’t specifically scream upfront to me.”

Though that doesn’t discourage Barich, who’s planning to make next year’s upfront presentation “bigger and better.”

“It’s Disney and Amazon and YouTube—and now PatientPoint,” he said.

Mashup of a woman with a microphone on the left, a doctor pointing to an x-ray on the top right, and people clapping on the bottom right

This healthcare company takes part in marketing upfronts. Is it working?

PatientPoint is using the TV industry’s favorite pitch forum—upfronts week—as a marketing tool. 

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

This month, health tech companies saw big fundraisers and announced new products that use AI to support patient care.

Let’s get into it. Here is your roundup of health-related AI updates from May.

Akido, a Los Angeles-based care delivery company announced a $60 million Series B funding round on May 15. Funding was led by venture capitalist Oak HC/FT. The money will be used to bring to more patients the company’s system, ScopeAI, which supports medical appointments with AI tools that listen, take notes, and build clinical reports.

New York startup Complement 1, a health tech that uses AI to personalize lifestyle treatments for patients with cancer, announced a $16 million seed round on May 13. The platform helps people experiencing issues with sleep and pain through lifestyle adjustments including “physical activity, nutrition, and somatic practices,” and the funding round was led by Owl Ventures and Blume Ventures.

San Francisco-based virtual provider Omada Health launched a new product called OmadaSpark on May 20. It’s an AI agent that will work with the company’s patients to provide nutrition education, support, and care for healthy eating.

 Massachusetts-based AI-based pharmacy tech company Scripta launched a new GLP-1 navigator in its app on May 20. Members can now see advice and resources related to weight management on the company’s Rx Navigation platform, which provides patients with pricing information on weight loss medications.

Voice AI company SoundHound AI, based in Santa Clara, California, announced May 29 a partnership with Minneapolis-based health system Allina Health. Under the partnership, SoundHound AI will deploy its AI agent Alli, which will answer phone calls and help manage appointments.

Hoboken, New Jersey-based publication and research company Wiley announced May 5 a new collaboration with Amazon Web Services to create a generative AI agent that supports searches for scientific literature. According to a press release, “the AI agent will demonstrate how researchers can conduct comprehensive full-text scientific literature search” of Wiley’s journals. The approach is different from traditional searches because it will allow for not just abstract-only searches but also method- and results-based searches, the company said in the release.

Healthcare Brew monthly series on AI Startups