Stay up to date on the latest in health tech, digital health and health AI news with this weekly brief. Read below for news from the week of Sept. 21 to 25.
Hims launches AI-native care for weight loss members
Hims is expanding its AI-powered care model for weight loss patients. As Hims & Hers continues to invest in AI, the online health and wellness company is taking the approach of embedding AI directly into care workflows, as opposed to building a standalone AI assistant.
This approach combines longitudinal patient data, ongoing care delivery, clinician integration and feedback loops, allowing AI to become increasingly personalized and actionable over time, according to the company.
The company’s “AI-native” care platform for Hims weight loss members is centered on a closed-loop system that remembers patient context, learns from outcomes and continuously improves over time. This puts customers in a single, ongoing conversation with personalized AI, clinicians and their care team, according to the company.
“When the customer chooses to use our AI tool and reaches out, the AI clinical engine knows their dose and treatment day, and that they haven’t reported this symptom before. It responds with an informed question about severity and either provides non-clinical direction or escalates straight to a provider. The customer now has an action plan and consistent follow-ups to check on their progress. The learnings from this outcome feeds back into the system, closing the loop and helping it get smarter for the next customer,” Mo Elshenawy, Hims’ chief technology officer, wrote in a company blog post.
“This is the moat,” Elshenawy wrote. “While legacy telehealth struggles to iterate and foundation models are becoming commoditized, closed loop systems create advantages that benefit customers and are nearly impossible to recreate.”
Unlike general-purpose AI chatbots, Hims’ AI clinical engine retains information such as treatment history, medication dosage, goals, conversations with care teams and progress over time, enabling more personalized interactions. The company says its AI is designed not just to provide advice but to help patients take next steps.
This builds on the company’s launch of an AI-powered care experience for Hers weight loss patients in August and its Labs AI feature rolled out in May.
An integrated safety layer helps keep AI responses safe, current, and personal, Elshenawy wrote. “The AI clinical engine reviews each patient’s record against this layer, with our team monitoring outputs for anomalies and working to reduce potential errors or bias in the guidance it surfaces,” he wrote.
Customers who need clinical advice are routed to a care team and the AI operates within a defined scope. AI responses are grounded in clinician-developed protocols, are independently graded for quality and are subject to human review, according to the company.
Before any new version of the AI clinical engine goes live for customers, its outputs are run through a five-layer evaluation system, including offline red-teaming, a runtime protection classifier and human-in-the-loop auditing at every step, Elsehenawy wrote.
Clinicians remain an essential part of care, he asserted.
“As we continue building our AI-native care platform, the clinical trust, closed-loop data, and a care operation we’ve built around each customer will evolve alongside it. That’s the foundation, and it’s what builds better, more intelligent care,” he wrote.
Abridge selected for VA ambient AI enterprise contract
Abridge announced Tuesday it has been selected for a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) enterprise contract for ambient AI, positioning the company to pursue deployments across VA medical centers nationwide. The enterprise contract opens the door to broader adoption across the VA, as the company is eligibility to compete for specific VA task orders as the agency continues its electronic health record (EHR) modernization effort.
The VA currently features 1,380 healthcare facilities, including 170 medical centers and nearly 1,200 outpatient care sites
Through an existing nationwide pilot deployment, Abridge is already operational on both of VA’s EHR systems – VistA/CPRS and the Federal EHR. This implementation includes thousands of clinicians across more than 75 care sites.
It is also live in primary care and Clinical Resource Hubs, which is the VA’s virtual care network.
“It is an honor to support the clinicians who care for our nation’s Veterans. We’ve worked to earn trust by meeting them where they are and preserving clinical context across providers, specialties, care settings, and the EHR migration,” said Shiv Rao, M.D., Abridge CEO and co-founder, in a statement. “As a cardiologist, I’ve had the privilege of treating Veterans at VA medical centers in Ann Arbor and Pittsburgh. We’ve built Abridge to meet the scale and complexity that an enterprise-wide deployment requires.”
“VA has demonstrated its focus on bringing commercial technology into the nation’s largest integrated health system,” said Nadia Smith, former Acting Chief Digital Health Officer at the Veterans Health Administration and a consultant to Abridge. “Seeing that work carry forward into an enterprise contract shows VA’s investment in digital health is paying off for the clinicians and Veterans it was built to serve.”
The multiple-award contract carries a total ceiling of $775.72 million over five years across all vendors who are eligible to compete for task orders, according to the Sept. 22 announcement.
Epocrates, ScriptSave partner on real-time prescription pricing for clinicians
Digital platform epocrates and pharmacy savings company ScriptSave announced Wednesday a multi-year strategic partnership to bring dynamic prescription pricing directly into clinician workflows.
“Preventing surprises and sticker shock at the pharmacy are key to addressing medication adherence,” said Marcus Sredzinski, ScriptSave/MedImpact group president, in a statement. “By combining ScriptSave’s drug pricing intelligence and epocrates’ clinical workflow, we empower clinicians to inform patients about cost and alternatives right at the moment of prescribing.”
The initial partnership establishes the foundation for future work, executives say. Future releases will include deeper workflow integrations, faster data refresh cycles, direct links to patient savings resources and streamlined coupon and discount program access.
Remergify launches membership-based virtual care platform
Technology holding company Remergify announced Wednesday the launch of AffordableTelehealthPlan.com, a membership-based virtual care platform aimed at improving healthcare access and affordability.
Through the platform, members receive on-demand access to licensed U.S. providers. Services include virtual primary care, 24/7 urgent care, teledermatology and mental health counseling. The platform runs on a flat membership model as opposed to per-visit billing.
“Healthcare shouldn’t require a copay, a commute, and a half-day off work just to talk to someone qualified,” said Stuart Fine, Remergify founder and CEO, in a statement. “Between climbing gas prices and the rising cost of everyday essentials, millions of families are forced to treat monthly health insurance premiums like an unaffordable luxury. We built AffordableTelehealthPlan.com so that a parent at midnight, a gig worker between shifts, or anyone without a plan can reach a licensed provider in minutes – and pay a price they can actually predict.”
Penn State Health to deploy Epic systemwide
Penn State Health announced Tuesday a systemwide deployment of Epic EHR slated for Oct. 31 to improve care coordination and access.
As part of the deployment, MyChart will replace the system’s current five separate patient portals to create a seamless experience. For providers, the platform will also streamline workflows, reduce manual tasks and enhance communication.
“Patients know Penn State Health for the quality of our care, and our new, unified electronic health record will help make that care easier to reach and easier to experience,” said Kyle Snyder, Penn State Health chief operating officer, in a statement. “Whether they’re seeing a primary care physician, visiting a specialist or receiving hospital care, they will benefit from a more connected experience that helps our teams deliver coordinated, high-quality care.”