You’re studying the online version of STAT’s Well being Tech publication, our information to how know-how is reworking the life sciences. Signal as much as get it delivered in your inbox each Tuesday and Thursday.
Earlier this week, the Peterson Well being Expertise Institute (PHTI) issued a report that assesses well being techniques’ expertise with AI ambient scribes to this point and zeroing in on the know-how’s “monetary and operational implications.” The report says about 60 scribes are adopted out there, and whereas many pitch themselves as time savers, the PHTI finds that proof of time financial savings is proscribed. The report additionally explores how scribes might lead to greater well being care prices. My colleague Brittany Trang brings us this cheat sheet:
PHTI made some nice tables summarizing the businesses within the AI scribe area and the research which have been carried out to this point on them. However in the event you’re quick on time, skip to the “Trying Forward” part on web page 28, which covers the fundamentals: Well being techniques undertake AI scribes to deal with supplier burnout, which is why hardly anybody has put any effort into measuring every other type of return on funding. However because the know-how will get extra fashionable, well being techniques might want to justify the spending.
The report warns in a number of locations that AI instruments might improve prices in a number of methods: “On the one hand, enhanced documentation high quality might result in greater reimbursements, doubtlessly offsetting bills — but in addition resulting in unintended downstream penalties for sufferers and the market general. Then again, the cumulative prices of the software program could also be higher than any financial savings achieved by way of improved effectivity, lowered administrative burden, or lowered clinician attrition,” write the authors.
PHTI notes that the business “is grappling with the immense potential of those instruments and the evolving understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Critically, there’s a want for extra standardized methodologies and metrics to know efficiency throughout a spread of indicators and for extra analysis to know their long-term influence on effectivity.” The chart above describes some metrics that could be utilized in analysis in addition to an early take a look at what the proof tells us as we speak.
‘Black boxy’ telehealth-pharma partnerships
As drugmakers like Pfizer and Eli Lilly flip to telehealth platforms as a strategy to get their therapies to sufferers, the follow is drawing scrutiny from Senators who need to decide whether or not the relationships violate the federal anti-kickback statute. However the offers additionally caught the attention of lecturers Ateev Mehrotra, Olivier Wouters, and Erin Fuse Brown. In a brand new paper within the New England Journal of Drugs, the Brown College researchers discover how the partnerships would possibly improve entry to care however may result in inappropriate prescribing.
STAT’s Katie Palmer caught up with Mehrotra and Wouters who defined the problem of assessing the influence of the “black boxy” offers with out extra data. Learn extra right here
A diagnostic chatbot and different new ‘breakthrough’ units
We up to date our tracker of experimental medical units which have obtained “breakthrough” standing from the Meals and Drug Administration as a result of they might provide more practical remedy or prognosis than the present customary of care. The designation can ease a tool’s path to advertising and marketing authorization and may also help with publicity and generate curiosity from buyers. As STAT’s Lizzy Lawrence writes, no less than 15 producers introduced a breakthrough designation between December and mid-March.
New breakthrough units embody PathChat DX, a generative AI chatbot from Modella AI that helps pathologists diagnose circumstances. The system relies on a mannequin developed at Mass Basic Brigham. Different additions: A breast most cancers check, a breast most cancers imaging software, and two Alzheimer’s blood assessments. Learn extra right here
AI drug improvement updates
Life sciences information firm Apheris introduced that its consortium of drugmakers will contribute to OpenFold3, a Columbia College-based open supply protein folding mannequin just like AphaFold. Particularly, AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson will contribute structural information. Learn Brittany’s story explaining why that is vital.
In a research introduced at a convention this week, AstraZeneca used an AI mannequin to investigate CT scans and higher predict survival charges of lung most cancers sufferers. Developed by Altis Labs, the know-how can also be being examined in breast most cancers and colorectal most cancers scans and will help drugmakers in designing scientific trials. Learn extra right here
At its large well being occasion final week, Google teased TxGemma, a batch of enormous language fashions designed for drug improvement primarily based on the work of Google DeepMind. It’s now launched the fashions together with a paper analyzing their efficiency.
What we’re studying
Vaccine critic’s obvious choice to move HHS autism research shocks specialists, STAT
In genetics, a tense coexistence of mainstream and fringe views, UNDARK
In a primary, Eli Lilly to attach sufferers to telehealth suppliers of Alzheimer’s care, STAT
