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The investment opportunities for generative AI in health care
OpenAI’s ChatGPT has prompted a boom in interest in how generative AI technologies might change health care that has already resulted in high-profile investments.
A new report by venture capitalists from GSR Ventures and Maverick Ventures explores the potential for the novel tech across the health care ecosystem. Of interest, the authors chart uses on a matrix based on the complexity of the application and its level of adoption. Many of the simpler, more developed opportunities, like medical note taking and patient communication have already gotten a reasonable amount of attention. But applications in emerging fields like personalized medicine are difficult and still in their infancy.
The report also spells out the challenges startup founders face. Some, like long sales cycles, are established foibles of the health care system, but others are particular to this AI moment. Huge players like Google and OpenAI have made AI implementation as simple as an API call, the authors write, concluding that “as these models grow in popularity due to their efficiency and accuracy, new startups face the challenge of maintaining their technology defensibility in the industry.”
Can AI provide a lifeline to 988?
Counselors who answer calls to crisis lines are carefully trained to manage sensitive situations and to complete important checks like screening for suicide risk. The quality of their work is reviewed at random, a process that’s inefficient and may not pick up problems. And the challenge is getting more difficult as crisis lines face a surge in demand following the launch of the 988 Lifeline last year.
Protocall Services, which operates crisis lines, and Lyssn, a startup that develops AI which automatically reviews recordings of behavioral health encounters, have teamed up to see if they can use tech to improve quality. The companies were recently awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop and test AI that checks whether counselors properly screen for suicide.
A company aims to parse AI options
Buying an AI tool in health care is a lot like buying a used car. It’s difficult to discriminate between clunkers and sturdy models, especially when staring into the eyes of charismatic salesperson. But newly-formed Dandelion Health says it can help customers take a deeper look under the hood. The New York-based company has compiled data from three very different health systems in Texas, California and South Dakota to independently test algorithms for their generalizability and vulnerability to bias. The firm’s first pilot will be free of charge and focus on algorithms that use electrocardiograms to predict heart problems, a hot area of AI development.
Read more from STAT’s Casey Ross here.
MRI enhancer company nabs $30 million
MRI tech company NVision Imaging, based in Germany, scored $30 million in funding in a Series A round, the company announced Thursday. It also earned $19.5 million from the German government. NVision develops metabolic agents injected into patients who undergo MRIs, enabling more sensitive, in-depth images to diagnose and analyze cancer. Rather than simply scanning images for a tumor, for example, doctors might be able to find cancerous tissue based on how it interacts with sugar.
“That allows you more sensitivity, so even if the morphology looks normal, the metabolism is different,” Sella Brosh, CEO of NVision, told STAT’s Lizzy Lawrence.
Brosh plans to use the funding to build and deploy its system, which involves the injectable agent as well as a machine that amplifies its magnetic signal. It’s partnering with Siemens Healthineers to install its system in 50 cancer centers by 2025. “We’ve been a heavily focused R&D company,” Brosh said. “This has been in the works for more than 6 years. It’s all about getting getting the systems in the hands of the strongest cancer centers in the world.”
FTC dings genetic testing company over data policies
The Federal Trade Commission has reached a proposed settlement with genetic testing company 1Health.io over allegations it stored genetic data and health records in publicly accessible AWS cloud storage and deceived consumers about the privacy of their data and their ability to delete it. The company, which is also known as Vitagene, sold DNA test kits that offered consumers information about ancestry and wellness.
As part of the settlement, the company will have to pay a $75,000 fine, which the FTC will use for consumer refunds. 1Health.io will also be required to abide by standard data privacy and security practices, like obtaining informed consent for sharing data with third parties, and to conduct biennial data security assessments from a third-party assessor for 20 years.