Today's Healthcare Pulse
Abridge teams with Eli Lilly and Nvidia to expand AI scribe platform
Abridge announced a strategic investment from Eli Lilly and a partnership with Nvidia to build a foundation model for clinical conversations. The collaboration aims to broaden Abridge’s AI‑scribe services across more health systems and integrate with payers. The company already supports over 300 health systems.
Also developing:
Intuitive Surgical Lifts 2026 Outlook for Da Vinci Robot Procedure Growth
Intuitive Surgical reported a strong first quarter, posting $2.77 billion in revenue, a 23% year‑over‑year increase, and $822 million net income. Da Vinci robot placements rose to 431, driving a 16% rise in procedures and prompting the company to lift its 2026 outlook to a 13.5%‑15.5% growth range. The firm highlighted robust U.S. general‑surgery demand, while noting slower international growth due to competition and pricing pressure. A recent cyber‑attack was contained with no operational impact, and chief medical officer Myriam Curet announced her retirement, succeeded by Jaime Wong.
Neuromodulation and Nerve Ablation for Chronic Pain with NeuroOne CEO Dave Rosa — Episode 252
NeuroOne Medical Technologies, led by veteran CEO Dave Rosa, is advancing minimally invasive electrodes that combine nerve ablation, neuromodulation, and direct drug delivery for conditions like epilepsy and chronic pain. Rosa, who has spent three decades at firms such as...
FDA Expands Teplizumab-Mzwv Approval to Young Children With Stage 2 T1D
The FDA granted supplemental approval for Sanofi’s teplizumab‑mzwv (Tzield) to treat children as young as one year with stage 2 type 1 diabetes, expanding the prior 8‑year‑and‑up indication. The decision follows interim data from the PETITE‑T1D phase 4 trial, where 23 children received...
The Cleanest Port-a-John at the Fair
Kaiser Permanente released its 2025 financial results, showing a $9.3 billion net income largely driven by investment returns and a 146 percent jump in operating income to $1.4 billion. A Lown Institute study revealed a $1.5 billion tax benefit versus $963 million in charitable care,...
Immunotherapy in Locally Advanced HNSCC: Is There Still Room for New Agents?
In June 2025 the FDA approved MSD’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for resectable locally advanced head‑and‑neck squamous cell carcinoma (LA HNSCC) with PD‑L1 CPS ≥ 1, based on the KEYNOTE‑689 trial. A separate adjuvant nivolumab study (NIVOPOSTOP) showed promising results, though regulatory filing is...
STAT+: Gene Therapy Trial for Deafness Adds Evidence to Drug’s Efficacy
Researchers have reported that a gene‑therapy injection dramatically improved hearing in a Chinese clinical trial, with 90% of participants noting significant gains. The study, published in Nature, includes both children and adults, such as a 32‑year‑old who regained functional hearing....
Shields Health Solutions Partners with Columbus Regional Health to Enhance Patient Access to Specialty Pharmacy Services
Shields Health Solutions announced a partnership with Columbus Regional Health, its first Indiana health‑system collaborator, to expand specialty pharmacy services. The joint effort will initially support more than 8,000 patients with complex conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, and autoimmune...
How Climate Change May Increase Antibiotic Resistance
Two recent studies published in Nature and Nature Microbiology show that climate‑driven heat and drought can boost antibiotic resistance in soil microbes. Artificially warming grassland plots by 3 °C raised the abundance of resistance genes by roughly 25 %. Drier soils concentrate...
Curve Biosciences Announces Key AI and Clinical Advancements of Whole-Body Intelligence for Chronic Diseases
Curve Biosciences announced two major milestones: its genomic AI foundation model will be presented at the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) and its Whole‑Body Blood Test demonstrated strong performance in a real‑world liver cirrhosis monitoring study. The study enrolled...
988 Lifeline Launch Linked to 11% Drop in Youth Suicide Deaths
The nationwide rollout of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is linked to an 11% decline in suicide deaths among Americans aged 15‑34, saving an estimated 4,372 lives between July 2022 and December 2024. States with the largest increase in answered calls...
Medication Use Up for OUD as Diagnoses Decline Among Medicaid Beneficiaries
A new JAMA Network Open study finds that while opioid use disorder (OUD) diagnoses among Medicaid beneficiaries fell from 4.2% in 2019 to 3.6% in 2023, the share receiving medication for OUD (MOUD) rose from 60.0% to 69.1% over the...
Trump’s “Most‑favored‑nation” Deals Don’t Ensure Cheapest U.S. Drug
One lie worth refuting that @RobertKennedyJr keeps repeating across hours of testimony before Congress from the last week (final Senate Finance/HELP day today): The "most-favored nation" drug pricing deals that Trump crafted with 16 cos. DO NOT by any means guarantee...
EU Promises €100m for Africa’s Healthcare as Countries Count Cost of Aid Cuts
The European Union announced more than €100 million (about $108 million) in funding for African health systems under its Global Gateway program. The money will support national public‑health institutes, health‑security measures and digital‑health tools, and backs the African Union’s goal to produce...
Real-Time Enrollment: Covered California Scales Google Cloud AI to Transform CalHEERS
Covered California is expanding its partnership with Google Public Sector and Deloitte to revamp CalHEERS, the state’s health insurance eligibility platform, using Google Cloud’s Document AI. The AI automates verification of 25 document types, cutting manual processing by 40% and...
Smartwatches Detect Incomplete Recovery Days After Patients Feel Better, Study Finds
A study of 4,795 smartwatch users tracked heart rate and HRV to define "digital recovery" after COVID‑19, influenza and strep infections. While patients reported feeling better within days, moderate‑to‑severe COVID cases required more than 60 additional days for physiological metrics...
Exercise Advice for Long Covid May Be Doing More Harm than Good
Long‑COVID sufferers have been urged to adopt exercise regimens as a low‑cost, drug‑free remedy, but emerging critiques suggest the evidence base is weak. Recent analyses highlight that many studies lack proper controls, small sample sizes, and fail to account for...
Rules-Based Systems Provide Clinical Accuracy Guardrails
Medicomp Systems CEO David Lareau argues that deterministic, rules‑based AI models act as safety nets for large language models (LLMs) used in clinical documentation. While LLMs generate rich, probabilistic text, they can also produce inconsistent or erroneous statements. Rules‑based systems...
5 Clinic Tech Upgrades That Improve Workflow
Healthcare clinics can boost outpatient efficiency by making targeted hardware upgrades rather than overhauling entire IT systems. Mounting dedicated tablets at check‑in consolidates registration, signatures, and payments, while adjustable kiosks improve digital intake capture and privacy. Standardizing staff devices—often through...
Wearable Noise Is Exploding — Trust Is the Filter
Consumer wearables have evolved from simple fitness accessories into continuous health monitors, flooding the system with unprecedented physiological data. Clinicians, however, are hesitant to rely on these streams because provenance, validation, and accountability remain unclear. Without clinical‑grade validation, wearables stay...
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Is First in Region to Offer Sedation-Free Evaluation of Upper Gastrointestinal Tract in Children
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital has become the first South Florida facility to offer sedation‑free transnasal endoscopy (TNE) for pediatric patients, using EvoEndo’s single‑use system. The TNE procedure evaluates the upper gastrointestinal tract without the need for anesthesia, IV lines, or prolonged...
Pace of N.I.H. Funding Slows Further in Trump’s Second Year
NIH research spending has slipped about $1 billion behind historic levels, delaying thousands of projects. Instead of mass grant cancellations, the agency now vets proposals with a computational text‑analysis tool that flags terms like “racism,” “gender” and “vaccination refusal.” From October...
Everyday Infections, Not Vaccines, Are Linked to an Increased Risk of Childhood Stroke
A population‑based study of 571 childhood strokes in Victoria, Australia (2017‑2023) found an incidence of 5.8 per 100,000 children, with a 42% rise over the period. Children who had a documented infection within the prior 60 days were more than...
IVF Insurance Coverage Depends on Your ZIP Code
Infertility affects roughly one in eight U.S. couples, yet access to in‑vitro fertilization (IVF) hinges on state insurance mandates rather than medical need. As of 2026, 25 states and the District of Columbia have some infertility‑insurance law, but only about...
PFAS Exposure Linked to Higher Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer Risk, Especially in Older Adults
A new study using eight NHANES cycles (2003‑2018) links higher serum perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) exposure to increased odds of non‑melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), especially in adults aged 60 and older. Participants in the middle PFDA tertile showed a 73% higher...
Esther and Anne Wojcicki Back New Healthcare Accelerator, Fund
Mary Minno launched Treehub, a six‑month residency‑venture program, and the AI Health Fund, a $10 million early‑stage venture vehicle, to back AI‑driven healthcare startups. The fund, seeded with $1.5 million—including a $1 million check from Tim Draper—has already invested in 12 companies and...
Treehub Launches Stanford-Adjacent AI Health Residency for Early-Stage Academic Founders
Treehub, a boutique residency in Los Altos near Stanford, launches to fund early‑stage academic founders in AI‑driven healthcare. Backed by the AI Health Fund, the program provides a “first check” before incorporation and runs quarterly cohorts of up to 10...
Trust, Technology and the Future of Interoperability: Solving Problems That Impact Real Lives
Healthcare interoperability remains a critical bottleneck, with missing data causing delays, medication errors, and higher readmission rates. Research shows a 79% jump in 7‑day readmissions when discharge summaries aren’t shared promptly. The 2025 CMS Interoperability Pledge, built on TEFCA and...
Readers Write: Two Curves, One Hospital Server Room: Why On-Prem AI in Healthcare Is Inevitable
The article argues that on‑prem artificial intelligence will become a standard component of hospital IT infrastructures. It cites regulatory pressure, patient‑data privacy, and the need for sub‑second response times as primary drivers. While hardware costs are falling thanks to commodity...
Emma the Joke-Telling Robot Cracks up the Care Home: Paula Hornickel’s Best Photograph
In July 2025 a German care home in Albershausen piloted Emma, a toddler‑sized social robot with googly eyes and a knitted red hat. The robot tells jokes, remembers conversations and recognizes faces, quickly engaging residents who are often isolated. Developed...
Breast Cancer Type Study 'Critically Under-Funded'
Lobular breast cancer, which makes up about 15% of UK cases, remains under‑studied and often goes undetected because it rarely forms a palpable lump. The Lobular Moon Shot Project is urging the government to fund a £20 million (≈$25 million) research programme...
The META-AF Trial
Researchers launched the META‑AF trial to evaluate metformin as an adjunct to catheter ablation in atrial fibrillation patients. The study randomizes roughly 500 participants to receive metformin or placebo beginning two weeks before ablation, with follow‑up through 12 months. Primary...
Flora Fertility Raises $5M to Build Customer-Owned Reproductive Insurance
Flora Fertility announced a $5 million Series A round to expand its customer‑owned reproductive insurance platform. The funding will accelerate product development, grow the provider network, and increase user acquisition. By letting patients pool contributions and tying payouts to treatment outcomes, the...
EMP‑01 Shows Strong Patient‑Reported Gains in Social Anxiety
What incredible news to wake up to! Some weeks ago, @ataibeckley reported positive topline results for EMP-01 (oral R-MDMA, a patent-protected version of #MDMA) for Social Anxiety Disorder(SAD). The data reported was the reduction in symptoms as reported by the treating...
Merck Expands AI Push; Roche Reports MS Drug Data
Merck adds to pharma’s AI push; Roche details MS drug results https://t.co/VmpWyLhP9A $MRK $RHHBY $TGTX $RCUS $GILD #biotech
House Bill Would Allow Hospice Patients to Receive Dialysis
U.S. Representatives Mike Kelly and Suzan DelBene introduced the Concurrent Care for Comfort Act, a bipartisan bill that would let hospice patients continue dialysis under Medicare. The legislation clarifies coverage and creates separate reimbursement for palliative dialysis provided by qualified...
New Receptor Enables Bat Alphacoronavirus Entry Into Humans
Discovery of a new receptor by which alphacoronavirus from bats can get into human cells and the potential for transmission https://t.co/LE5sTVyfkS @Nature https://t.co/aszqnDMQqE @NatureNV https://t.co/ejnvrvr6BO
Private‑Equity Hospital Takeovers Cut Staff, Raise ER Deaths 13%
"When private equity firms acquire hospitals, they cut clinical staff to boost profits — and emergency room death rates rise 13%." — from INCORRUPTIBLE by Eric Ries, out May 26 https://t.co/QemqcsZZbq
Why Your Doctor Gets It Wrong—And a Simple Shift That Would Fix It
A growing body of research shows that diagnostic errors affect at least five percent of American adults each year, translating to roughly 800,000 permanent disabilities or deaths annually. The problem stems from systemic flaws—lack of error tracking, insufficient patient history,...
Doctors Profit Millions From No Surprises Act Loopholes
The big surprise of the No Surprises Act: Doctors are cashing in on the consumer protection law, getting paid $440,000 for breast reductions and $14,000 for steroid injections. Latest investigation with @sangerkatz: https://t.co/keJwqqAeLX
Redefining ‘First‑in‑Class’ Amid Faster Competing Therapies
How do we define “first in class” when there are others further ahead? This example is from Atheron Therapeutics w/ a CCNE1 degrader #aacr26 https://t.co/s22biREUrt
2025‑2030 Dietary Guidelines Raise Protein Targets, Ignite Expert Backlash
Health and Human Services and Agriculture unveiled the 2025‑2030 Dietary Guidelines, upping daily protein goals to 1.2‑1.6 g per kilogram of body weight. The shift replaces the MyPlate graphic with an inverted food pyramid and has provoked sharp criticism from nutrition...
Schwartz's CDC Success Hinges on Kennedy's Authority
Is Erica Schwartz a good pick for #CDC director? Experts say as long as she reports to Kennedy, it doesn't much matter. “She could be terrible, she could be great. But it’s really: What is the secretary going to allow?”...
CDC Vaccine Efficacy Report on Halved Winter Hospitalizations Shelved
The #CDC report that showed the #Covid vaccine halved the risk of a recipient needing emergency care or hospitalization this winter has been shelved by HHS, @bylenasun reports. https://t.co/tCNx8LSIKn
Restrictions on Obesity Drug Coverage Force Patients to Pivot
Insurance giants CVS Caremark and other carriers are pulling popular GLP‑1 obesity drugs such as Zepbound and Wegovy from many formularies, leaving millions of patients without coverage. GoodRx data shows 12 million people lost Zepbound and another 12 million lost Wegovy between...
A $440,000 Breast Reduction: How Doctors Cashed In on the No Surprises Act and Arbitration
The No Surprises Act, passed in 2020 to shield patients from unexpected out‑of‑network bills, created a government‑run arbitration system that insurers must honor. Plastic surgeon Dr. Norman Rowe has leveraged that system to secure $440,000 payments for a single breast‑reduction surgery,...
Northwestern Longevity Clinic Launches Gait‑Based ‘Circuit Breaker’ Study to Gauge Biological Age
Northwestern University's Longevity Clinic has begun the ‘Circuit Breaker’ study, employing gait analysis to estimate participants’ biological age. The initiative seeks to compare age metrics across U.S. and Japanese cohorts while focusing on historically underserved groups.
Breastfeeding: Effective, Multifaceted Support Needed.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF identify exclusive breastfeeding as the single most effective preventive intervention for child mortality, also delivering long‑term health, environmental and economic benefits. A recent UK randomised controlled trial (ABA‑feed) found that peer‑support counselling did not...
5 Subtle Signs to Discuss With Your Doctor
The article highlights five often‑overlooked symptoms—vaginal dryness, snoring, recurrent pelvic discomfort, morning headaches with fatigue, and unexplained mood shifts—that patients frequently omit during medical visits. It explains how each cue can signal underlying conditions such as vulvovaginal atrophy, sleep apnea,...
Researchers Identify High Rates of Untreated Hypertension in Young Veterans
A new study in the Journal of the American Heart Association examined over 1.1 million post‑9/11 veterans, average age 33, and found that 45% meet clinical criteria for hypertension. Among those with high blood pressure, roughly half were never diagnosed and...
IBS Fast Fact. IBS Symptoms Can Mimic Endometriosis
Endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are frequently confused in women because they share bowel pain, bloating, and irregular stool patterns. Studies show that up to 50% of patients diagnosed with endometriosis also meet the clinical criteria for IBS. When...