What do emojis in medical records mean?

A wonderful new study of 218 million clinical notes at Michigan Medicine explores the use of emoji in medical records. Emoji use is still rare — they were in fewer than two notes in every 100,000 notes — but those numbers may be ticking up. A total of 372 distinct emoji were identified. As Katie Palmer notes, the use of the cartoony characters in medical records could impact their interpretability with legal and patient care implications.

Health records

Epic sues another health network

EHR giant Epic Systems on Tuesday sued health information network Health Gorilla and several of its users alleging fraud and breach of contract in a complex scheme to obtain hundreds of thousands medical records for purposes other than delivering medical care. Health Gorilla denied the allegations, and said that it worked to address Epic's concerns since they came up three months ago. The company said it plans to defend itself. None of the other defendants responded to STAT's request for comment.

Though the suit is not directly connected to the ongoing legal battle between Epic and Particle Health, it shares an overlapping individual. Both cases hit on a fundamental tension between facilitating the easier access to patient data to enable health care and concerns that bad actors will abuse any window they can. Notably, both Epic and Health Gorilla have signed pledges to collaborate with each other as part of the CMS-led health technology ecosystem.

Read Brittany Trang's new story on the suit here

Medical Devices

Breakthrough updates, a pulse ox study, and more

Many medical device updates to discuss:

Katie published an update to STAT's tracker of devices that have been deemed breakthroughs by the Food and Drug Administration. In an accompanying story, she writes about the renewed push to secure automatic Medicare reimbursement for breakthrough devices. These devices receive a streamlined process at the FDA and sometimes get the designation before they have much data to show. Experts warn automatic coverage risks paying for things that may not be worth the cost. Read more here.
A study commissioned by FDA to explore why pulse oximeters don't work as well on people with darker skin tones led to puzzling results. In the study, pulse oximeters underestimated blood oxygen levels. Previous research has suggested the devices overestimate oxygen. Read more from STAT's Anil Oza here.
Welldoc announced it submitted to the FDA for clearance a feature that uses continuous glucose monitoring data to predict values for people with type 2 diabetes who are not on insulin. The company calls it a "generative AI submission." A spokesperson clarified that "[t]he submission and use of the term 'generative' describes how Welldoc has used a transformer-based architecture to accomplish what has traditionally been done via classical machine learning (ML) predictive models."
Empatica announced that EmbraceMini, its wearable designed for clinical trials, received FDA clearance to continuously monitor activity during sleep. According to FDA summary documents the device can be used to "analyze circadian rhythms and assess activity in any instance where quantifiable analysis of physical motion is desirable."

venture capital

JPM fundraises (or lack thereof)

Exactly a year ago I wrote about how venture capital investment into healthcare AI had kicked off to a roaring start at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference with multiple deals valued over $100 million. As I wrote earlier this week, that turned out to be the prelude to a banner year for AI investment.

The scene at JPM this year has been much more subdued as many of the big names that raised capital last year have focused on discussing acquisitions, partnerships, and future product directions. As one founder put it to me, "The ACTUAL work, not the fundraising."

Three investment deals that did catch my eye this week and last:

Pomelo Care, which offers virtual maternity care covered by commercial and Medicaid plans, raised a $92 million Series C round pushing it's valuation closer to $2 billion. Stripes led with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, PLUS Capital, Atomico, BoxGroup, and SV Angel.
VieCure, maker of software for oncology care, raised $43 million led by billionaire Mitch Rales and Northpond Ventures.
Operating room-focused ambient AI company Apella, raised $80 million in venture funding and debt led by HighlandX.

Health tech news roundup

Qualified Health, developer of AI solutions for health systems, announced a deal to launch AI across the University of Texas' health institutions. The company last year announced $30 million in seed funding.
CityBlock Health appointed Alberto Lopez Toledo as chief technology officer. It also picked up big names for its board: Karen DeSalvo, who was until recently Google's chief health officer, and Mario Schlosser, president and co-founder of Oscar, and former Genentech executive Cynthia Burks.
AstraZeneca acquired AI life sciences company Modella AI.
The conservative think tank Paragon Health Institute, which has a lot of sway with the Trump administration and several alums working inside it, announced a Health Care AI initiative led by Kev Coleman. Fierce Healthcare has a useful interview.

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