Big bets on health care AI

The ideas and innovators shaping health care

Jun 29, 2023 View in browser   By Ben Leonard, Carmen Paun, Erin Schumaker and Evan Peng FOLLOW THE MONEY The investment boom in health care AI is underway. | AFP via Getty Images Health care lags behind other sectors in using generative AI — the kind that can answer questions and generate content. But big money flowing into the sector could soon drive adoption. “Health care systems are like nuclear facilities. They don’t want to change. They need to keep running,” said Justin Norden, partner at investment firm GSR Ventures and adjunct professor of medicine at Stanford. “There’s often fear of change and adopting new tools.” Still, AI is drawing billions of dollars in investment. The particulars: The market is most mature in life sciences, which includes drug discovery, personalized medicine and clinical trials, Norden wrote in a recent report. Substantial investments —$6 billion — have been made in generative AI that aids clinicians. That’s driving improvements to surgery, note taking, workflow automation and clinical decision support. Applications like note taking are relatively straightforward to solve, and a clear market need is emerging amid widespread clinician burnout, Norden said. Funding for administrative use cases around recruiting, revenue cycle and more has only recently started to flow. What’s next? Norden is enthusiastic about the investment’s prospects for improving care and hopes the pace picks up. “The baseline stat health care people like to quote is that it takes 17 years for new innovations to become standard of care in health care,” Norden said. “We can’t wait that long.”   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.     WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE Lake George, N.Y. | Erin Schumaker This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Weight-loss drugs can help you lose the extra pounds, but they won’t make you healthy. Nutritionists told the Wall Street Journal it's still important to eat well and exercise to maintain fitness and a strong metabolism. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at bleonard@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, host Kelly Hooper talks with Katherine Ellen Foley, who gives an overview of the shifting Alzheimer’s drug landscape as pharmaceutical companies focus on developing the next class of treatments. Listen to today’s Pulse Check podcast POLICY PUZZLE Collins has a test and treat plan for hepatitis C. | Getty Images Just 1 in 3 U.S. adults with hepatitis C have been cured between 2013 and 2022, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, despite the availability of highly effective antivirals. The report also found that: — People without health insurance were the least likely to be cured. — People age 60 and over on Medicare or private insurance had the highest cure rate, but less than half of them had been cured. — Just 1 in 4 people under the age of 40 were cured. Why it matters: More than 2 million people nationwide have hepatitis C, a liver infection often spread by intravenous drug use. It can be fatal and kills more than 15,000 people annually. What’s the problem? The treatments can be prohibitively expensive — some can cost close to $100,000. Many insurance plans restrict access. It can be particularly difficult for incarcerated people to get treatment because state policies for treatment in prison vary, as STAT has reported. Hepatitis C rates are exponentially higher in prisons than in the rest of the population. What’s next? Former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins has pushed a hepatitis C test-and-treat plan that the Biden administration has requested $12 billion for in fiscal 2024. Collins told Ben it was lamentable to have an “incredibly effective therapeutic” and not be able to administer it. “That doesn't feel like what a country that cares about all its citizens would be doing," he said. A senior GOP aide previously told POLITICO there is deep skepticism in his party about the price tag, even though the Biden administration contends the Collins plan could produce $5 billion in savings over 10 years by reducing health care costs. Collins told POLITICO that he hopes the Congressional Budget Office will confirm that, making it easier to convince lawmakers to go along.   SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.     WORLD VIEW The World Bank is leading another fundraising campaign to combat maternal mortality. | Getty Images “Four and a half million women and babies die every year in developing countries from preventable conditions. Four and a half million. That’s not a small number.” — Mamta Murthi, the World Bank’s vice president for human development The World Bank and the governments of Germany, the Netherlands and Ivory Coast want to raise $800 million by the end of the year to continue helping more than 30 countries, most in Africa, improve the health of mothers, children and teenagers. Why it matters: Progress against child mortality has stalled in the past dozen years, and the pandemic put it in reverse. Maternal mortality was increasing in parts of the world even before Covid hit. Whatever the bank and the three governments can raise would add to the $2 billion committed to the cause since 2015 through the bank’s Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents. The facility provides grants to 36 countries with the highest numbers of women, children and teenage deaths — including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala and Pakistan — to improve their services. Two-thirds of the maternal and child deaths occurring in developing countries happen in those countries, Mamta Murthi, the World Bank’s vice president for human development, told Carmen. The $800 million would help expand support to seven additional countries and help more than 200 million women access contraceptives, the bank estimates. “The needs are huge,” Murthi said, “and this is a moment when governments are really short of cash.” What’s next? The fundraising campaign will culminate with an event in Berlin on Oct. 16 at the World Health Summit.   Follow us on Twitter Ben Leonard @_BenLeonard_ Ruth Reader @RuthReader Carmen Paun @carmenpaun Erin Schumaker @erinlschumaker   Follow us

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