JPM buzz
Mayo hires Silicon Valley startup for generative AI
Generative AI's actual impact on health care is beginning to take shape, and this week one of the nation's most influential health systems took a first step toward deploying the technology internally. Continuing the tradition of JPM news drops, Mayo Clinic announced its partnership with Sunnyvale-based supercomputer startup Cerebras on Monday to build generative AI tools into health system workflow, including combining scattered patient records into one file or collating various reports into a single discharge summary. Eventually, the technology could ingest external datasets, like genomic readouts, to fine-tune predictions about individual patients' health.
The multi-year deal, which Cerebras told me would net the startup millions of dollars, is the first major U.S. health system contract specifically aimed at implementing generative AI, a technology known for rapidly processing large volumes of data and creating its own content.
Mayo was searching for outside collaborators and chose Cerebras because of its computing capability and its experience building broad models across sectors including health care, said Matt Callstrom, who co-leads Mayo's generative AI program. And the deal gives Cerebras access to Mayo's vast data repository and health expertise, the startup's co-founder, Andrew Feldman, told me. Read more on the deal and what it means for the industry here.
Amazon brings Omada on for chronic disease care
JPM goers have witnessed almost a decade of the online retailer's leaps and stumbles in health care, and we'll be closely watching how this latest one turns out. Also at the conference Monday, Amazon's health services division launched a program aimed at treating specific conditions such as diabetes, with San Francisco-based Omada Health as its first partner. That means customers searching Amazon's vast marketplace for devices like scales or blood pressure cuffs will be shown an option to check their eligibility for Omada's chronic condition management programs. If you'd like a primer, read my colleague Katie Palmer's previously reporting on Omada's attempts to corner that market. Will the deal drive meaningful business to Omada, or boost Amazon's prospects in health overall — what do you think?
Hospitals explore new ways of making money
My colleague Tara Bannow's been closely tracking nonprofit health systems' presentations at JPM, where she's hearing a growing number say they've given up on making money off patient care and are diving into other businesses like insurance or drug development. (Read more from Tara here.) Throughout the conference, I'll be tracking whether AI presents new business opportunities for health systems too.
money, money, money
Digital health funding's four-year low
Rock Health crunched the numbers and they're a little bleak: venture funding for digital health startups in the U.S. clocked in at $10.7 billion across almost 500 deals, which is the lowest yearly total in four years. The final quarter of 2023 was the lowest since 2019's third quarter at just $1.9 billion across 122 deals.
Some of the dip is due to transitional funding options like series extensions, unlabeled rounds, and silent rounds, analysts wrote. But those options likely won't last, and the pressure's on for startups to resume labeled fundraising or seek opportunities to sell, they predicted.
Lizzy's device digest
Boston Scientific to buy Axonics for $3.7 billion
Speaking of M&A, we saw the biggest medical device deal of the year so far this week: Boston Scientific plans to buy Axonics, which sells devices for urinary and bowel disorders, Lizzy Lawrence writes. There were just a handful of medical device acquisitions last year over the billion dollar threshold, so we'll be monitoring how the deal landscape changes this year. Read more from Lizzy.
Artificial intelligence
Microsoft-backed nonprofit to test AI in health care
A new nonprofit made up of academic hospitals and tech companies is setting up a network of labs across the country to test and certify AI tools used in health care, Casey Ross writes in a STAT exclusive. The Coalition for Health AI, which is establishing the new nonprofit, plans to open labs at Mayo Clinic, Duke, and Stanford, among other sites. Coalition members include tech giants like Microsoft and Google, and it aims to invite a range of health care organizations, like rural clinics and urban hospitals, to join the new effort.
"If you don't have access to a heterogeneous set of health care data, you're unlikely to be able to validate (AI models)," John Halamka, president of Mayo Clinic Platform, a Coalition for Health AI member, told Casey. Read more on the new nonprofit and hurdles it faces.
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