AI in Healthcare News and Updates April 2022

Our monthly report on AI, ML, DL, and NLP in healthcare looks at who, what, where, and how the use of artificial intelligence is changing healthcare for the better. We will bring you some of the latest news and product information along with thought leader posts and our AI playlist of episodes from Healthcare NOW Radio.

In the News

KindHealth Delivers on Trend Toward All-Digital, Personalized Health Insurance
Personalized, all-digital health insurance is a leading trend in the industry, recent reports say, and KindHealth (@KindHealth), a health insurance marketplace powered by artificial intelligence, provides that customized experience for individual shoppers to major corporations. KindHealth, launched in 2015 by a team of technology entrepreneurs and health insurance experts, is a health insurance marketplace that uses AI to assess customers’ needs and match them with the plans that fit their medical needs and personal budgets.

Principal Technologies Adds Vision Surgery AI to its MedTech Portfolio
Principal Technologies Inc., which is building a diverse portfolio of investments in healthcare technology companies, is pleased to announce that it has completed an investment in Vision Surgery AI, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) technology company. Vision Surgery AI’s technology uses advanced computer vision and AI to monitor surgical teams and operating room equipment in real-time to ensure that each medical procedure is performed correctly, and that all patient vitals are constantly monitored and maintained within the appropriate ranges.

Artificial Intelligence for the benefit of customer relations: Matmut Group partners with the software provider Zelros
For many years, innovation has played a key role within the Matmut Group. Attentive to the insurtech ecosystem, the Group has formed a partnership with Zelros (@zelros), a recognized specialist in Artificial Intelligence for insurance and bancassurance players. By relying on the expertise of the insurance software provider, the Matmut Group seeks to facilitate the work of its advisors in relation to its clients.

Real Chemistry Acquires conversationHEALTH
Real Chemistry (@RealChemistry_), a global health innovation company committed to making the world a healthier place for all, announced the acquisition of conversationHEALTH (@convoHEALTH), the conversational artificial intelligence (AI) platform for the health care and life sciences industry. conversationHEALTH’s HIPAA-compliant and privacy-safe system of engagement utilizes advanced natural language processing, medically-trained natural language understanding and contextual AI to transform conversations into highly-personalized interactions via intelligent agents.

Can an image-based electrocardiographic algorithm improve access to care in remote settings?
Researchers at the Yale Cardiovascular Data Science (CarDS) Lab have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based model for clinical diagnosis that can use electrocardiogram (ECG) images, regardless of format or layout, to diagnose multiple heart rhythm and conduction disorders.

Alife Announces its $22 Million Series A to Modernize and Personalize Fertility Care with Artificial Intelligence
Alife Health (@AlifeIVF), the fertility technology company building artificial intelligence tools to advance in-vitro fertilization (IVF), announced it has raised $22 million in Series A financing co-led by existing Seed lead Deena Shakir at Lux Capital, and new investors Rebecca Kaden at Union Square Ventures and Anarghya Vardhana at Maveron, both of whom will also be joining Alife’s Board of Directors.

Zephyr AI Raises $18.5 Million in Seed Funding Led by Lerner and M-Cor
Zephyr AI, Inc. (@zephyr_ai), a high-growth healthcare technology company, announced that it has closed its highly successful seed round. The $18.5 million round was led by Lerner Group Investments LLC and M-Cor Holdings, with participation from Allen Y. Chao, AME Cloud Ventures, BoxGroup, MedStar Health, Roger W. Ferguson, Steve Oristaglio, Verily, and other strategic investors. The Company was founded in 2021 by Red Cell Partners, an investment and incubation firm that backs, builds, and scales technology-led companies in the healthcare and national security sectors.

Products

Study Demonstrates that Cardiologs’ AI Dramatically Reduces Inconclusive Apple Watch ECGs
Cardiologs (@CardioLogs), a global company in artificial intelligence (AI) cardiology diagnostics, announced the results of a new clinical study that showed Cardiologs’ deep learning AI dramatically reduces inconclusive results returned by the latest Apple Watch ECG companion app (Apple ECG 2.0) while maintaining performance (sensitivity and specificity).

Companies In The Artificial Intelligence In Healthcare Market Are Introducing AI-Powered Surgical Robots To Improve Precision
According to The Business Research Company’s research report on the artificial intelligence in healthcare market, AI-driven surgical robots are gaining prominence among the artificial intelligence in healthcare market trends. Various healthcare fields have adopted robotic surgery in recent times. Robot-assisted surgeries are performed to remove limitations during minimally invasive surgical procedures and to improve surgeons’ capabilities during open surgeries. AI is widely being applied in surgical robots and is also used with machine vision to analyze scans and detect complex cases. While performing surgeries in delicate areas of the human body, robotic surgeries are more effective than manually performed surgeries. To meet healthcare needs, many technology companies are providing innovative robotic solutions.

To Read and Noted

Why is AI adoption in health care lagging? – By Avi Goldfarb and Florenta Teodoridis, The Brookings Institution (@BrookingsInst) – Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have improved rapidly over the past decade, largely driven by advances in machine learning, which is closely related to data science and statistical prediction. Several aspects of the health care system involve prediction, including diagnosis, treatment, administration, and operations. This connection between machine learning’s capabilities and needs of the health care system has led to widespread speculation that AI will have a large impact on health care.

No longer science fiction, AI and robotics are transforming healthcare – From PWC (@PwC) – AI is getting increasingly sophisticated at doing what humans do, but more efficiently, more quickly and at a lower cost. The potential for both AI and robotics in healthcare is vast. Just like in our every-day lives, AI and robotics are increasingly a part of our healthcare eco-system. We have highlighted eight ways that showcase how this transformation is currently underway.

Stanford center uses AI and machine learning to expand data on women’s and children’s health, director says – By Victoria Hsieh, The Stanford Daily (@StanfordDaily) – Stanford’s Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging (AIMI) is increasing engagement around the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to build a better understanding of data on women’s and children’s health, according to AIMI Director and radiology professor Curt Langlotz. Langlotz explained that, while AIMI initially focused on applying AI to medical imaging, it has since expanded its focus to applications of AI for other types of data, such as electronic health records.

Three Ways To Leverage AI In Healthcare – By Anthony Capone, President, DocGo, Forbes Councils Member (@Forbes) – While artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for decades, its use in the healthcare industry remains in its infancy, with plenty of room for increased acceptance and adoption. Today, the most common use of AI in healthcare is hospitals leveraging the technology for patient flow and bed management. This can be a challenging process, as it requires a systemwide view across various units. When patient data is not sufficiently shared across systems, hospital staff can lack information beyond their own unit or department. In the long run, this often slows things down. AI enables hospital staff to remain fully informed, allowing for potentially shorter hospital stays and enhanced bed management.

Using artificial intelligence to advance healthcare globally – From Baylor College of Medicine (@bcmhouston)- It may be surprising to learn that artificial intelligence (AI) is as old as the computer. Although its origins date back to the 1940s and 1950s, no other concept evokes as much fear as AI, but its ability to assist with medical treatment generates hope. For over a decade, Baylor Global Health and Rice University’s Department of Bioengineering has researched how to use AI for gastrointestinal (GI) cancer screening. They are finding ways to use microendoscopy technology for cancer screening by reducing the cost of it and making platforms that are small and battery-operated.

Why artificial intelligence in health care needs regulation – By Chris Mazzolini, Medical Economics (@MedEconomics) – No policy is a policy. And when it comes to advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), not having a policy could have serious implications for the patients, physicians, and every sector of the health care industry. That was the point made by Brian Scarpelli and Sebastian Holst during their presentation titled “A modest proposal for AI regulation in healthcare,” held during the HIMSS22 Global Health Conference in Orlando. Scarpelli is the senior global policy counsel for the Connected Health Initiative and Holst is principal with Qi-fense, a consulting group that works in AI and ML.

Linh C. Ho, Chief Marketing Officer of Insurance tech provider Zelros shares, “Artificial intelligence (AI) is continuously advancing at an extraordinary pace. With roughly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data being created every single day, a portion of that information is valuable consumer information that is being used to teach AI how to draw conclusions about what people need and want before the thought even crosses their mind.” 

Here are 5 things that consumer data, combined with ethical AI is making possible:

  • Lowered policy premiums for consumers due to better data.
  • More accurate and timely risk assessment, which speeds up policy approvals.
  • Automated contracts, integrations and infrastructure which frees up insurance agents time to focus on client needs.
  • Personalized policy recommendations, based on real consumer spending data.
  • Better up sell and cross sell opportunities for agents, due to more accurate data.

Our AI in Healthcare Playlist