Khosla doubles down on his AI replacing doctors thesis, suggesting there will be a fully computerized AI PCP practicing medicine within 5-6 years It’s always interesting to think about healthcare change through the lens of a techno-optimist to think about what change might be afoot. Given where AI is today, and how quickly it’s progressing, it’s not hard to imagine a world where Kholsa is generally right about the technology capability being there.
“Within 5 to 6 years, the FDA will approve a primary care app qualified to practice medicine like your primary care physician,” he said onstage at the STAT Breakthrough Summit in San Francisco.

Khosla’s prediction comes amid brimming hype around the potential of artificial intelligence to improve health care. Though there has been a flood of scientific papers this year weighing in on the potential of generative AI, Khosla has for years argued that health care will be transformed by technology. Perhaps his most famous speculations on the subject came in a 2016 paper titled “20 Percent Doctor Included,” which predicted 80% of what doctors do could be replaced by technology.

An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration supported drugmaker Perrigo's application to sell the oral contraceptive Opill without a prescription.

In a unanimous vote, 17-0, a panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration recommended that the agency approve the first over-the-counter birth control pill.

If approved, the pill would be sold by Perrigo under the brand name Opill. It is a so-called progestin-only pill that contains only a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone to prevent pregnancy. Most pills also contain estrogen. While the FDA typically follows the recommendation of its advisory committees, it isn't required to.

In comments after the vote, panel members explained their support for the prescription-free pill.

(McKinsey Reports): In our new survey, nurses provided a breakdown of the average time spent during a typical shift across 69 activities (see sidebar “About the research”). They also reported their views on the ideal amount of time they would like to spend on these same activities. In looking at ways to redesign care activities, we found the potential to free up to 15 percent of nurses’ time through tech enablement, or automation, and improved delegation of tasks (Exhibit 1). Leveraging delegation and tech enablement could reduce and redistribute activities that nurses report being predominantly responsible for. The subsequent reduction in time savings could improve nursing workload and their ability to manage more complex patients. When we translate the net amount of time freed up to the projected amount of nursing time needed, we estimate the potential to close the workforce gap by up to 300,000 nurses.

Bloomberg’s Priya Anand reviewed over 1,200 of Papa’s internal incident reports and found a number of disturbing allegations.The article highlights a few examples of these allegations, including a Papa customer who has filed a criminal complaint against a Papa Pal for criminal sexual conduct while the Pal was on the job. Papa Pals appear to receive very little on the job training, which invites questions about whether more oversight is necessary of the model, although Papa cites less than 1% of complaints are safety related. At least one health plan in New York has scaled back its rollout of Papa because of its concern about the health plans members receiving harassing phone calls from Papa Pals. Some Papa members are also harassing Papa Pals while they’re on the job. (Taken from Health Tech Newsletter)

A cancer test company incorrectly informed around 400 patients that they may have developed cancer, a company said, after there was a software issue with its telemedicine provider.

Grail Inc, an American biotechnology company, developed an early-detection blood test called Galleri, created to identify more than 50 types of cancer before symptoms appear, per Reuters.

According to an internal company document seen by the Financial Times, 408 patients were erroneously sent letters saying the test had detected a sign in their blood potentially indicating cancer.

Grail said telehealth company PWNHealth accidentally sent the letters due to a software issue — that has now been resolved — and that it "was in no way related to or caused by an incorrect Galleri test result," per Reuters.

Karoo Health, the only provider of cardiac value-based care enablement, announced today the closing of an oversubscribed Seed round of $3.4 million, with First Trust Capital Partners, LLC as lead investor. The investment supports Karoo's launch this summer and the expansion of its distinctive, value-based cardiac care model.

Karoo combines dedicated on-site and virtual care teams with value-based technology to help cardiology networks, health plans, and health systems transition to and succeed in outcomes-driven initiatives and contracts, efforts that are sorely needed for improving patient health and lowering overall cost of care in cardiology.

Google will embed its generative AI technology into computer systems at Mayo Clinic and other health systems to make it easier to search vast repositories of patient data and automate administrative tasks.

An executive at Mayo Clinic said the hope is to get Google’s powerful AI engine to run on Mayo’s data, so that it can more quickly deliver granular details about patients that often get lost in far-flung systems. Dredging up that information might help find the right treatments, improve diagnosis, and remove administrative waste that adds cost to patient care.

Expert advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Friday voted unanimously in favor of expanding the approval of Leqembi, an Alzheimer’s disease treatment from Eisai and Biogen, further clearing the way for what could be the first widely available medicine that delays the disease’s progress.

The group voted 6-0 that an 1,800-patient study of Leqembi confirmed its benefits for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, recommending the FDA widen the drug’s limited approval. The agency, which is not required to follow the suggestions of its advisers, is expected to make a final decision on Leqembi by July 6.

Friday’s panel vote, coupled with the FDA’s positive statements about Leqembi’s benefits, suggest Eisai’s medicine will win a broader approval next month. Eisai, which co-markets the drug with Biogen, set a list price that works out to $26,500 per year for a person of average weight. Wall Street analysts expect the treatment to eventually become a blockbuster.

Various types of technology enable the delivery of digital therapeutic interventions, including mHealth apps, wearables, and artificial intelligence.

The fundamentals of what is next in digital health. Click the link below to check all that is new and view the full lecture from Dr. Daniel Kraft.

NextMed Health is a unique interdisciplinary community dedicated to catalyzing and accelerating the arrival of a new, human-centric, technology-enabled health age. NextMed Health is the evolution of Exponential Medicine, and is also chaired by Dr. Daniel Kraft, bringing together a global cross-disciplinary mix of leading health(care) and biomedical innovators in physical, virtual and hybrid settings.

The global digital health market size is expected to reach USD 1.5 trillion by 2030 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 27.7% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research.