AI agents in health care, explained

Everybody is talking about AI agents, or products that string together AI and computer systems to help complete a task. Depending on the application, it might resemble tools we've all been using for years, like automated phone systems or chatbots, or something more complex. In health care, agents are being used for everything from helping with scheduling and pre-surgical screenings, to assisting with research and developing care plans.

It's a booming field, and we want to help you stay on top of it. STAT's Brittany Trang updated our generative AI tracker with over 40 health systems that are now using AI agents, and her new story answers burning questions about the tech to get you up to speed.

research

Instant test results: Costs vs. benefits

A new study from researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center shows how giving patients instant access to test results creates new behaviors that can create challenges for health systems. As STAT's Katie Palmer reports, Vanderbilt tracked how 290,000 patients at the medical center viewed their test results online and found that 37% refreshed the portal as they waited for results to appear. Some patients clicked to check their results as many as 16 times.

Patients now have quicker access to their test results thanks to federal rules that prohibit information blocking. But doctors complain that some test results can be difficult for patients to interpret on their own, leading to unnecessary anxiety and calls and messages from worried patients. In her story, Katie explores how health systems like Stanford are dealing with the problem, including using AI to offer patients faster interpretations.

The SPACs that didn't go well (many of them)

At the height of the digital health investment boom from 2020 t0 2022, many companies went public by merging with so-called special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), or companies that raised capital and went public specifically for this purpose. Even at the time, experts warned these startups were going public with little scrutiny and that young companies with high valuations were a risky bet for public market investors.

Following the recent bankruptcy of 23andMe — one of the 23 companies in the health tech world that went public via a SPAC — investor Halle Tecco took stock of just how that experiment went. Short answer? Not very well. Just one company, Hims & Hers Health, is trading above its opening valuation. Even Talkspace, which is profitable and growing, is still trading well below its peak. And then there are bankruptcies and companies that have been taken private amid sputtering financial prospects. We've covered a few of these unravellings but there have been more than we could track.

Read Tecco's analysis here.

Digital health

Industry news

Transcarent's $621 million acquisition of Accolade closed this week. The combined company now counts 20 million members across 1,700 employer customers.
At Google Cloud's conference this week, the company announced a number of updates designed to make it easier to build and use AI agents, including a developer kit and a protocol that allows AI agents to talk to each other. Google also announced a partnership with Seattle Children's Hospital on an AI agent that helps clinicians access information within the hospital's expert-vetted standard clinical pathways for more than 70 diagnoses.
In relevant but not health care specific news: Meta released a new version of its Llama large language model and OpenAI raised $40 billion.

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What we're reading

AI scribe technology lets me focus on my patients, not a screen, STAT
The 2025 AI Index Report, Stanford HAI
Are AI-generated medical notes really any worse?, RAND
On an RFK Jr. road show, MAHA goals take precedence. Measles prevention less so, STAT