A Guide to Noninvasive Liver Diagnostic Devices: Technology and Leading Organizations Explained Presented by Echosens

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Featured Story   Alaffia Health Snags $55M for AI Engine Tackling Healthcare's Waste Problem The moolah New York-based Alaffia Health raised a $55 million Series B financing round led by Transformation Capital, bringing its overall fundraising total of $73 million since its founding in 2020. Some of the company's other investors include FirstMark Capital, Tau Ventures and Twine Ventures. What problem is being solved? Many claims are still reviewed manually and inconsistently, often without full clinical context — a dynamic that can lead to overpayments, slow turnaround times, strained provider relationships and greater regulatory risk. Alaffia exists to help health plans reduce waste by making claims review faster, more accurate and easier to defend. The soundbite "At a high level, Alaffia pairs experienced clinicians with agentic AI that understands the full breadth of claims and their supporting clinical information, including the patient medical record — data that is often unstructured, siloed and overlooked," said CEO TJ Ademiluyi. The bigger picture As providers continue to adopt AI in droves, payers are under pressure to modernize their own administrative operations. Whether Alaffia's approach becomes the model for administrative AI adoption across health plans remains to be seen, but investor interest suggests the bet is gaining traction. — By Katie Adams Sponsored   A Guide to Noninvasive Liver Diagnostic Devices: Technology and Leading Organizations Explained Presented by Echosens The leading device-based solutions showcase this innovative technology and offer numerous clinical benefits. Here's a guide to how they work and what to consider. Learn More. Top Stories   Pfizer Data Readout Sets Up Broad Clinical Trial Plans in Obesity New obesity drug data Pfizer reported highly anticipated Phase 2b results for PF-08653944, the lead drug candidate from its acquisition of Metsera last year. After weekly starting doses, once monthly maintenance dosing of the injectable GLP-1 drug led to placebo-adjusted weight loss of up to 12.3% measured at 28 weeks. These preliminary results are competitive. For context, the placebo-adjusted weight loss achieved by Eli Lilly's Zepbound in its pivotal trial was 13% at the 28-week mark. The moolah After a protracted bidding war last fall, Pfizer's $10 billion offer for Metsera edged out Novo Nordisk. What's at stake Pfizer needs PF-08653944 to be successful to justify the price it paid for Metsera. While Pfizer lags behind leaders Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk and their respective weekly injectable weight loss medications, the company believes once-monthly dosing could be a competitive advantage. Pfizer frames the Metsera drug as the foundation for an obesity strategy spanning monotherapies and combination treatments. Of the more than 20 clinical trials Pfizer plans in obesity this year, 10 pivotal studies are for PF-08653944. Soundbite "We're primed to execute across an expansive Phase 3 program for '3944 targeting potential approvals starting in 2028," Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Chris Boshoff said. "And we are pursuing differentiated combination approaches with earlier-stage agents that have the potential to deliver greater optionality to address the diverse unmet needs of patients." — By Frank Vinluan Included Health Launches Alternative Plan Design for Employers   The skinny Included Health, a navigation and virtual care company, is launching into the insurance space with its alternative plan design for employers. The plan's features The new alternative plan design offers a "copay-first plan," meaning patients know what care is going to cost upfront. The plan is centered around primary care. It starts with a well-being consult, which is an extended primary care appointment that allows members to ask questions, understand their benefits and form a relationship with the provider. In addition, patients receive 24/7 support through Included Health's AI assistant named Dot, which can provide answers to questions and hand off patients to human support if needed. Patients can be connected to virtual and in-person options nationwide for a variety of needs, ranging from common care to complex care. Soundbite "Both members and employers are in a world that's a little bit stuck," said Dr. Ami Parekh, chief health officer at Included Health. "They have PPO products that are quite expensive, usually have a lot of services in them, but are hard to navigate. Then they have quite restrictive HMO products, and they actually are often both more affordable and easier to navigate, but you give up all your choice to be able to have that. … There has been, I would say, over the last two years, a desire by employers to have something that is ideally the best of both worlds, that gives members choice, but is easier to navigate." — By Marissa Plescia Stop Treating Patches Like They're Riskier Than Ransomware The problem Software patches — updates, bug fixes — are meant to address security vulnerabilities but the truth is that we're losing the patching battle and therefore the ransomware war. In October, Sophos revealed that exploited vulnerabilities – known endpoint backdoors for which a fix exists but has yet to be applied – are the leading technical cause of healthcare ransomware. This is a big problem as successful attacks can disrupt patient care and the average cost of recovery exceeds $1 million. Many healthcare organizations run critical systems on older hardware that wasn't designed for frequent updates. When these systems are tightly integrated with electronic health records and other clinical workflows, admins worry that a patch could break something essential. Yes, but … There are real dangers of not patching. Ransomware causes financial, reputational, and service-delivery damage, as evidenced last year when attackers exploited basic endpoint security failures to launch a successful attack against Change Healthcare. The result? Data theft, the cancellation of urgent surgeries, and an estimated $800 million in losses.  How to defeat ransomware The good news is that healthcare can nip this in the bud with just a few simple technical shifts. First, automate patching during off-peak hours. This goes a long way to minimizing disruptions and maximizing troubleshooting time if something goes wrong. Modern unified endpoint management (UEM) platforms solve this by scheduling automatic updates during nights, weekends, or other low-activity windows. — By MedCity Influencer Apu Pavithran  Video   Video: Doomed to deskilled dumb docs? Want to know more about deskilling? Read what a Lancet study found.

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Stop Treating Patches Like They're Riskier Than Ransomware We're losing the patching battle and therefore the ransomware war. Here's how healthcare can change its perspective, improve patching, and better block ransomware pathways. How AI and Predictive Analytics Will Shape EMS, Fire, and Healthcare in 2026 AI and analytics offer a path forward that prioritizes smarter workflows, coordination between teams, and better visibility into system performance. The organizations best positioned will be the ones that invest in responsible innovation, interoperability, and tools that make a difference in their daily work.

Webinar   Healthcare Revenue Cycle Transformation: What Do Leaders Need from Tech Vendors? Join MedCity News for this webinar unpacking findings from The AI Index in RCM, a new Smarter Technologies–sponsored report based on a survey of 125 medical billing leaders.  Watch Now

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