🚨 Pulse of Innovation 🚨

Breaking news in the healthcare AI

Unlock Your Healthiest Self with S.A.R.A.H: Your 24/7 Multilingual Digital Health Ally!

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a chatbot called S.A.R.A.H - Smart AI Resource Assistant for Health. Sarah is a digital health promoter, available 24/7 in eight languages via video or text. She can provide tips to destress, eat right, quit tobacco and e-cigarettes, and be safer on the roads, as well as give information on several other areas of health. She uses generative AI as a base and has been trained with the latest information from the World Health Organization and trusted partners.

• It appears to have the skills to address most preventive healthcare-related questions on first use. We were pleasantly surprised to see its ability to interact in various languages, a tool that can be quite useful in developing countries where issues like mental health evaluation are still taboo. WHO partnered with startup companies, including Soul Machines , to create AI-powered digital people used in developing Sarah.

🧑🏼‍🔬 Bench to Bedside👨🏽‍🔬

Developments in healthcare AI research and innovations

Eko Smart Stethoscope wins FDA approval for new heart failure detection AI algorithm

• Eko Smart stethoscope recently received FDA approval for a Low Ejection Fraction (EF) detection AI algorithm on routine physical examination. This algorithm, developed along with researchers from the Mayo Clinic, is a significant development in the early detection of Low EF and heart failure.

• Heart failure impacts over 6 million patients in the US, with over half a million patients newly diagnosed every year. It is a leading cause of mortality overall and a significant contributor to high health expenditure. This Low EF detection AI software could enhance early detection, expedite treatment, and limit its progression.

• Eko has received multiple 510(k) clearances from the FDA for detecting conditions such as heart murmurs and atrial fibrillation.

  

👩‍⚕️AI in the Clinic 🏥

Real-world and practical use of healthcare AI in clinic

How do you get over the writer's block and finish that article so you can focus back on patients?

• JotBot is an AI-powered note-taking tool that will help you improve your academic writing. IT can help you get over writer’s block, brainstorm new ideas, take audio notes, and create a summary of video lectures.

• As a writer, one common strategy I adopt is to start thinking through my thoughts, tying down everything, and going back and summarizing. Now, JotBot can do that exactly for you! The feature is called “Auto Note Taking.” Clinic on “live notes” and then start talking about your project. It will not only transcribe the whole thing but also give you a summary of what you said. This is a great tool to get those juices flowing!

  

🩺 Start-Up Stethoscope 💵 

Trending startups and technologies impacting clinical practice

 Lunit: Revolutionizing Healthcare with AI, One Mammogram at a Time

• Lunit, a South Korean medical AI company, is making significant strides in the European medical device market. It has secured contracts with major hospitals and organizations for its AI-powered lung disease and mammography analysis solutions.

• The company's innovative AI technology is set to analyze approximately 100,000 mammograms annually for the next three years for the Portuguese League Against Cancer, demonstrating its potential for large-scale impact in healthcare.

• Despite the competitive landscape, Lunit stands out with its unique AI solutions, securing a strong financial position through its recent deals in the $155 billion European medical device market.

  

🤖Patients First, AI Second🤖

Ethical and regulatory landscape of healthcare AI

AI Maturity Roadmap: Way to Impactful AI use in Healthcare

• The AI Maturity Roadmap defines six key focus areas for health systems: culture, governance, business implementation, value, maintenance and operations, and information architecture. It also defines maturity level as awareness, active, operational, Systematic, and transformational.

• 24 of the AI Collaborative’s health system contributors benchmarked their progress against each section in the above-referenced 6 areas. Within this cohort, most placed themselves at level 2: active or level 3: operational.

• This roadmap showed various maturity levels as health systems approach AI from different angles and baselines. This roadmap may be a tool for guiding best practices, investments, and progress metrics for health systems’ progression in AI utilization.