Explore

TrendlineTrendline
Oura Acquires Counsel Health for $625 Million to Integrate Biometric Data with On-Demand Medical Care

Oura Acquires Counsel Health for $625 Million to Integrate Biometric Data with On-Demand Medical Care

Oura Acquires Counsel Health for $625 Million to Integrate Biometric Data with On-Demand Medical Care
Rapid ReadRapid Read
UT Health San Antonio Expands Virtual Primary Care Options for Patients

UT Health San Antonio Expands Virtual Primary Care Options for Patients

UT Health San Antonio is enhancing patient access to primary care by offering two new virtual care options for existing patients in Texas: E-Visits and On-Demand Video Visits. These services are accessible through MyChart, allowing patients to receive care for common health concerns without needing an in-person appointment. E-Visits enable patients to submit questionnaires about their symptoms via secure messages, with a clinician providing a personalized treatment plan within one business day. On-Demand Video Visits offer live video consultations with a clinician, allowing patients to discuss symptoms and receive recommendations from home. Both options are designed to provide convenient and timely care for issues such as coughs, sinus problems, headaches, and urinary tract infections. According to Ramon Cancino, MD, MBA, MS, executive director of UT Health San Antonio Primary Care, these virtual services aim to support patient health by providing convenient access to quality care.
Rapid ReadRapid Read
UPMC Enhances Patient Portal for 2026, Integrating Advanced Digital Health Features

UPMC Enhances Patient Portal for 2026, Integrating Advanced Digital Health Features

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is significantly enhancing its patient portal for 2026, aiming to provide seamless digital health management. The primary access point for adult patients, MyUPMC, serves as a centralized hub for personal health records, allowing users to review lab results, schedule appointments, and manage billing. The updated infrastructure utilizes advanced interoperability standards, including FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), enabling patients to aggregate health records from non-UPMC providers. Distinct platforms are available for different patient groups, such as the UPMC Children's Patient Portal for pediatric care and inpatient bedside tablets for admitted patients. Key features include instantaneous access to clinical data and diagnostics, AI-driven scheduling algorithms, and integrated telehealth and virtual urgent care options. The system employs robust security protocols, including 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for data at rest an...
Rapid ReadRapid Read
UK Government Funds Five Health Tech Research Hubs with Over £52 Million for AI-Powered Health Solutions

UK Government Funds Five Health Tech Research Hubs with Over £52 Million for AI-Powered Health Solutions

The UK government is investing over £52 million into five health tech research hubs to develop advanced AI tools aimed at improving early diagnosis and facilitating healthcare closer to home. This funding, provided through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will support technologies designed to help individuals manage their health, detect diseases earlier, and alleviate pressure on the National Health Service (NHS). The hubs will concentrate on critical health areas including dementia, brain injuries, cardiovascular disease, respiratory infections, and the use of eye scans to identify other health conditions. Planned innovations include AI systems that integrate blood tests, brain scans, and memory assessments, smartphone applications analyzing coughs, and wearable health monitors. Researchers will also develop tools for real-time head injury assessment and AI-powered support for managing cardiovascular disease at home. Science minister Chris McDonald highlighted the initiative during a visit to Sunderland...
Rapid ReadRapid Read
AI-Assisted Echocardiogram Interpretation Reduces Cardiologist Time by 46%

AI-Assisted Echocardiogram Interpretation Reduces Cardiologist Time by 46%

A randomized study conducted in California, known as AI ECHO INSIGHT, investigated the effectiveness of AI-generated preliminary interpretations of 1,200 echocardiograms. The study found that AI-assisted reports were comparable in accuracy to preliminary reports prepared by sonographers and cardiologists. Specifically, substantial changes were made to 50.6% of AI-generated preliminary interpretations versus 49.7% of human-generated preliminary interpretations. A significant outcome was the reduction in cardiologist interpretation time, which decreased from 8.5 minutes to 4.6 minutes per exam, representing a 46% time savings. Dr. Keane K. Lee, MS, noted that while AI's accuracy was expected, the extent of time reduction for cardiologists was a surprising finding.
TrendlineTrendline
The Cigna Group Leverages AI for Enhanced Personalized Healthcare Experience

The Cigna Group Leverages AI for Enhanced Personalized Healthcare Experience

The Cigna Group Leverages AI for Enhanced Personalized Healthcare Experience
Rapid ReadRapid Read
University at Buffalo Research Center Utilizes AI to Combat Addiction, Emphasizing Community Engagement

University at Buffalo Research Center Utilizes AI to Combat Addiction, Emphasizing Community Engagement

The University at Buffalo (UB) Center for Addiction and Artificial Intelligence Research (CAAIR) is actively employing AI and machine learning to address the complex challenges of substance use disorders. CAAIR combines community engagement with interdisciplinary pilot studies to ensure the responsible and equitable application of AI in addiction research, treatment, prevention, and recovery. An inaugural project, led by research scientist Chi-Hua (Richard) Lu, will use machine learning to identify patterns in polysubstance use from large healthcare datasets, aiming to personalize treatment approaches. Another study, led by Md Mohaimenul Islam, will investigate whether GLP-1 receptor agonist medications can reduce alcohol-related health events, using AI to identify optimal patient beneficiaries and ensure equitable outcomes across diverse populations.
Rapid ReadRapid Read
AWS Health Impact Initiative Commits $100 Million to Advance AI and Cloud Technology in Underserved Health Communities

AWS Health Impact Initiative Commits $100 Million to Advance AI and Cloud Technology in Underserved Health Communities

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched the AWS Health Impact Initiative, a five-year, $100 million commitment aimed at providing AI and cloud technology to organizations serving underserved communities in healthcare. This initiative seeks to bridge the gap between prototype and production for smaller non-profits and organizations working in areas such as expanding access to care, advancing women's and children's health, and ensuring access to healthy food. The program emphasizes the importance of involving organizations closest to these communities in the development and application of AI in healthcare. Applications for the initiative are currently open, with several organizations already highlighted as catalytic support recipients, including Admera Health, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Care 2 Communities, Eve's Ark, and U.S. Hunger. The goal is to ensure that AI solutions are built with data representative of the communities they aim to serve, addressing a common challenge where most health AI is trained ...
Rapid ReadRapid Read
U.S. Patients Open to AI in Healthcare with Provider Oversight, Survey Finds

U.S. Patients Open to AI in Healthcare with Provider Oversight, Survey Finds

A new survey by the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America indicates that U.S. patients are largely receptive to the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into medical care, provided that healthcare professionals maintain ultimate control over decisions. The nationally representative survey, conducted from August 12 to 24, 2026, involved 5,330 U.S. adults. It revealed that 56% of patients are comfortable with AI making diagnosis or treatment decisions if a provider can review and override them. However, this comfort level drops significantly to 9% when AI makes such decisions without any human oversight. Similar trends were observed in diagnostic imaging, where 53% supported AI-assisted decisions with provider override, compared to only 13% without review. For medication decisions, 49% were comfortable with AI under oversight, versus 11% without. The survey also highlighted that nearly nine in 10 healthcare providers (89%) used AI for work in the past year, but only 20% had received forma...
TrendlineTrendline
Wearable Technology Industry Splits with Emergence of AI-First and Clinician-First Health Coaching Models

Wearable Technology Industry Splits with Emergence of AI-First and Clinician-First Health Coaching Models

Wearable Technology Industry Splits with Emergence of AI-First and Clinician-First Health Coaching Models
Rapid ReadRapid Read
AI Phone Assistant 'Dora Care' Undergoes Trial for Long-Term Illness Monitoring in NHS

AI Phone Assistant 'Dora Care' Undergoes Trial for Long-Term Illness Monitoring in NHS

An AI-powered phone assistant named Dora Care is currently being trialed by the NHS to assist clinicians in monitoring patients with long-term illnesses. The virtual assistant is designed to conduct safe and empathetic phone consultations, initially focusing on individuals with osteoporosis, a condition affecting 3.5 million people in the U.K. The project aims to address staffing shortages in fracture liaison services and potentially reduce the estimated £4.5 billion annual cost of fracture treatment for the NHS. Researchers at the University of York are investigating the technology's ability to safely support routine check-ups. A key challenge involves ensuring the AI can be empathetic and provide appropriate information for medical decisions, which linguistics experts from Newcastle University have addressed by analyzing human clinicians' empathetic behaviors and integrating them into Dora's conversations. The two-year project, led by Ufonia in partnership with the Universities of York and Newcastle, has...
TrendlineTrendline
Personify Health to Launch Enhanced Wellbeing Platform with New Capabilities in 2027

Personify Health to Launch Enhanced Wellbeing Platform with New Capabilities in 2027

Personify Health to Launch Enhanced Wellbeing Platform with New Capabilities in 2027