A new digital health caucus is born

Bipartisan lawmakers unveiled a new task force this week aimed at educating Congress on the latest advancements in health tech, ranging from generative AI to remote patient monitoring. It's certainly not the first caucus dedicated to health tech (others have focused on telehealth and health innovation) but chairs hope this one will actually move the needle.

Backed by the Consumer Technology Association, the trade group behind Las Vegas gadget extravaganza CES, the Digital Health Caucus also aims to push policy that allows breathing room for new tech development while also protecting patients' safety, members told a packed room in the Rayburn House Office Building last week.

"We need to know what' s going on," Rep. Robin Kelly, a Democrat from Illinois and caucus co-chair said late last week. "Share with us your experiences, the good ones and the not good ones too."

Ohio Republican and co-chair Troy Balderson urged attendees to hold the task force accountable for expanding access to new technologies, and to "make something of this caucus."

hospitals

What's GC's generative AI darling up to?

Also present at the launch in Washington was Palo Alto-based large language model startup Hippocratic AI, heavily financed and supported by both venture capital investors General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz. Kickstarted by a $50 million seed round last year, the startup aims to build LLMs specifically for health care customers — and General Catalyst has since touted it as a potential offering for its own network of hospital and payer partners. Hippocratic AI is training and testing the model with a handful of health systems too.

For the last year or so, the startup has been exploring non-diagnostic generative AI tools, Maulik Shah, Hippocratic AI's general counsel, said on a panel following the launch. "What if we could communicate with patients whenever they needed to, however they needed to, all the time, and get that information back to their clinicians?"

Venture capital

More on General Catalyst's hospital experiment

Speaking of the venture capital giant, its bold plan to buy an Ohio safety net hospital, and to draw in the surrounding community, is progressing. Late last week Akron Mayor Shammas Malik had a "positive and thoughtful" meeting with Marc Harrison, the former health system leader who now heads the General Catalyst entity HATCo, which is proposing to buy Summa Health. Following the deal's announcement last month, Malik and Summa patients and employees have sought details on the plan and HATCo's expected investment, he told STAT before the meeting.

"HATCo's goal is not a traditional private equity deal (focused on making cuts to an organization) but rather putting substantial resources (and technology) into preemptive patient care – a new model for healthcare," Malik said in a statement Monday. Still, he told Harrison he would like "clear assurances of the long-term funding HATCo is able to commit to Summa, as well as details about the new foundation that will be created" as part of Summa's planned transition from non-profit to for-profit status.

Preventive scan company Ezra raises $21 million

Over in New York, full body screening startup Ezra has raised a new round led by Amir Dan Rubin of Healthier Capital, perhaps best known as the former CEO of Amazon property One Medical. Rubin will join Ezra's board, the company said in a release. The new funding will help the Prenuvo competitor weave AI into its screening technology and advance toward its goal of offering 15-minute full body scans for $500.

Cybersecurity

Chicago's Lurie Children's faces ongoing outage

A pediatric hospital in Chicago was forced to take its network offline following a "cybersecurity matter" — and while it hasn't shared more details about the source or cause, experts are warning of growing attacks against health systems. Since late last week, the hospital, which uses Epic System's health record software, has been "actively responding" to the issue. As of late Monday, its website still directed visitors to a call center established in response to network disruptions. CBSNews reported that the outages have made it difficult for patients and families to reach their doctors; in some cases, patients were unable to confirm if they should still show up for scheduled surgeries.

Though he couldn't comment on the Lurie case specifically, American Hospital Association national cybersecurity and risk advisor John Riggi told me ransomware threats against providers have increased dramatically as they embrace new medical devices and sign on to new cloud services. Often, the perpetrators operate out of countries like Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, he said. "This is a national security issue," he added, explaining that halting care is especially dangerous for people experiencing heart attacks, strokes and other urgent conditions.

"It is heinous to attack a children's hospital or any specialty hospital because there may not be a nearby diversion options for their patients." he said. Read more.

Lizzy's device digest

Bill would make medical devices more accessible

Federal lawmakers are floating a bill requiring the Food and Drug Administration to come up with rules forcing device manufacturers to make devices like insulin pumps and glucose monitors more accessible to blind people, especially as diabetes is a major cause of blindness, Lizzy Lawrence reports. The rules would also cover other devices, like heart monitors. Read more on the bill here.

Apple

AI therapy, ICU training: Apple's Vision Pro health goals

The Apple virtual reality headset Vision Pro has already generated a wealth of memes, as much for its $3,499 price tag as for the company's overall bet that new, lighter-weight headsets can finally make virtual reality accessible and useful. But the consumer tech giant is serious about exploring the device's potential in health; my newsletter co-author Mario Aguilar spoke with researchers at Cedars-Sinai and Boston Children's Hospital who are already building applications offering AI-powered therapy or virtual training for staff. (The above screenshot, for instance, is from Cedars' immersive mental health chatbot app Xaia.) Read more from Mario.

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What we're reading

FDA urged to fix pulse oximeters for darker-skinned patients, STAT
Devoted Health continues losses in Medicare Advantage, STAT
Software errors caused patients to lose Medicaid coverage, Axios
Study: Telehealth availability differs by location, JAMA Health Forum

Thanks for reading! More on Thursday - Mohana

Mohana Ravindranath is a Bay Area correspondent covering health tech at STAT and has made it her mission to separate out hype from reality in health care.