Chris Wheeler

https://lnkd.in/gB_-yi-f Sharing a few thoughts on our Computational Care thesis, with a particular focus on the importance of clinical validation in building empathetic software solutions in a complicated environment. Based on the quality of conversations with founders and CEOs recently at HLTH and in the wild, now is a great time to build, deploy, and scale great software against hard problems in healthcare. We are seeing real progress, and we want to see even more bravery.

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One key reason why healthcare technologies like AI, telemedicine, and software haven't structurally lowered costs or broadened access for the entire system after decades of experimentation (excluding pure financial engineering of payer contracts) is the limited reimagining of care delivery itself, with asynchronous telemedicine as a notable exception. In the same way that digitizing physical paper failed to exploit the capabilities of a new computing medium for word processing, hosting physician-patient conversations over video does not transform the actual delivery of care. In telemedicine, many of the inputs (e.g., clinician time) and therefore cost structures of in-person care persist, which is why we often see fee-for-service telemedicine companies struggle to achieve economies of scale (i.e., growing revenues non-linearly while growing costs linearly). Until we deconstruct the components of a medical appointment – from intake and triage, to chart review, history gathering, physical examination, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up – we will continue to be underwhelmed by the disconnect between the transformative potential of these technologies and real-world patient/system impact. I’m optimistic that the emergence of reliable and performant medical AI agents will urge us to perform this deconstruction and redesign the fundamental building blocks of a “medical appointment.”

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This 👂 podcast episode and insight’s from a16z Bio + Health's Julie Yoo spoke so clearly to the fundamental challenge facing both 🩺 clinicians and 🏥 healthcare systems.  There is a huge disconnect between supply, in the availability of clinicians, and demand, in the increasing volume and complexity of healthcare needs. -     36% of physicians plan to reduce their hours next year according to the AMA -     48% of physicians reported feeling burned out in a 2024 Medscape survey At the same time, the demographic baby boomer bubble and steady increase in the prevalence of major chronic disease, which consumes up to 90% of healthcare expenditures according to some estimates, is driving demand. With this context, Yoo points to a major opportunity for AI adoption in healthcare in 2025. Yeah, a VC hyping a wave of new AI companies that will replace the decades of training and experience of clinicians, the skeptic would say.  But Yoo is thoughtful in pointing to the role AI can play, and is already playing, through solutions such as ambient, autonomous scribe solutions (of which local star Abridge is leading the pack) in not replacing, but freeing up productivity for clinicians. There is so much unstructured context in both the complexity of disease and treatment options and the social/emotional considerations that we shouldn't be looking for AI to *replace* clinicians. But companies are getting better at finding the structured, repetitive and time-consuming places where AI tools can *help* clinicians. Nearly two-thirds of doctors cited bureaucratic tasks as the leading contributor to burnout. Rigorously trained-AI driven solutions can be a force multiplier for clinicians, and I’ve seen several interviews where nurses and doctors go as far as to say some of these solutions are ”restoring their joy in practicing medicine”. Our health is precious; and we rightly want any technology engaging with it to be developed thoughtfully and thoroughly tested. This requires top AI talent and diverse and realistic training data. Pittsburgh’s strengths in both areas is why we are an emerging hub for data-driven healthcare. #AIinhealthcare #clinicianburnout #healthinnovation #digitalhealth

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🌟 Thank You to Dr. Joshua Tamayo-Sarver, MD, PhD, FACEP, FAMIA Trustworthy Technology and Innovation in Healthcare Book Series Consortium (TTIC) advisory board member🌟 Happy to acknowledge this insightful comment from our esteemed AB Member, repeat coauthor, and editor of our forthcoming TTIC Venture book, Dr. Josh Tamayo-Sarver. Your words beautifully capture the essence of what we strive to achieve at TTIC. 🚀 Understanding healthcare technology is almost impossible for those outside the field. It requires not just technical expertise, but a deep, integrated understanding of healthcare IT, clinical care, regulation, and the complex business landscape. This is why so many technology companies, regardless of their size, default to failure when attempting to break into #healthcareIT. The challenges are immense, and success demands more than just innovation—it requires comprehensive integration and a relentless commitment to excellence across all these domains. 🏆 This is where TTIC makes a difference. We bring together member experts, industry leaders, providing them with the support, insight, and collaborative environment needed for them to succeed which brings dramatic benefits to their employers. TTIC’s unique approach ensures that innovations are not only cutting-edge but also practical, ethical, and aligned with the realities of healthcare. 🙏 Thank you, Dr. Josh Tamayo-Sarver, for your continued dedication and invaluable contributions. Your leadership and vision are instrumental in driving the future of healthcare technology. Let’s continue to create meaningful advancements that truly transform healthcare. Together, we’re making the impossible possible. Check out the blog on where the field of Healthcare #AI must go: https://lnkd.in/gwCRwwHa #HealthcareIT #AI #Leadership #Innovation #TTIC #Medigram #HealthcareTechnology

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Lee Shapiro with 7wireVentures and I are both passionate about driving more investment in integrated care. For Healthcare Business Today, we shared our thoughts about why including oral health in overall health care technology and investment is integral to creating more unified care and achieving better patient outcomes. Read more of our perspectives on the importance of increased investment for integrative care solutions, and why we believe the time is now for digital health investors to jump on the medical-dental care bandwagon. #oralhealthVC #digitalhealthinvesting

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Here’s your recap of last week’s health IT news 🗞️ 👇 🤖 AI Clinician Assistant • Avaamo launched an AI ambient scribe solution with support for over 50 specialties with pre-trained models. • Wound AI, an AI clinical decision support solution built by VANTIQ, Telemedicine Solutions, LLC, and NTT DATA, launched and is now available 📞 AI Contact Center • Premier Inc. awarded a group purchasing agreement to TeleVox Healthcare. 🏥 AI Facility Management • Medely has integrated with Oracle, allowing users to leverage Oracle’s Cloud HCM capabilities. 🌡️ AI Remote Patient Monitoring and Triage • The Alliance for Smart Healthcare Excellence—established by care.ai, now a part of Stryker, and developed with assistance from CHIME—was established to promote the Smart Hospital Maturity Model (SHMM). 📈 Data & Analytics • Epic expanded its set of APIs available to developers to support USCDI v3. • Health Catalyst will acquire Intraprise Health, a cybersecurity provider; it was also selected for analytics and interoperability by CyncHealth, Iowa’s health information exchange (HIE). • Health Commons Project acquired OneHealthPort • Socially Determined released a new application that helps organizations access data for minors. 🧾 Orders & Fulfillment • Surescripts is expanding its Medication History for Populations product to health plans, enabling care management teams to identify gaps in care and improve outcomes. 🧑‍💻 Virtual & At-Home Care • Mass General Brigham launched a partnership with the New England Center and Home for Veterans to provide hospital at home services for veterans experiencing homelessness. • MedStar Health expanded its partnership with DispatchHealth to support care transitions.    🍎 VBC • i2i Population Health is partnering with CureMD to surface actionable data to providers at the point of care. 🧠 Food For Thought • Brendan Keeler shared an interesting post differentiating AI solutions across augmentative vs. autonomous and then further breaking down each. One take we found interesting was, “Active interfaces are fun, but ultimately have some of the same problems as Siri - they require explicit engagement and cognitive overhead to use. This means their adoption and impact often fall short of expectations - users must actively remember to use them and overcome the friction of engagement.” https://lnkd.in/eR39qFpK --- Want the latest healthcare tech news delivered to your inbox each week? Sign up here 📬 👉 https://lnkd.in/e2UJ3ckP

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AI and Med Tech in Focus   Implantable Device Reverses Opioid Overdoses Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed an implantable device that detects and reverses opioid overdoses by autonomously administering a dose of naloxone. Naloxone is a drug that binds to opioid receptors and blocks the effects of heroin, fentanyl and other opioids. Called iSOS, the device has sensors that continuously monitors a user’s respiratory rate, heart rate, body temperature and blood oxygen saturation and uses machine learning algorithms that are trained to recognize the signs of overdose using the cardiorespiratory data collected by the sensors. When the device detects a suspected overdose, the device buzzes and sends an alert to a user’s phone. If the alert is not cancelled, iSOS administers a rapid shot of naloxone.  The device is about the size of a stick of gum and implanted under local anesthesia. It has a wireless rechargeable battery that lasts 14 days and a 10-milligram refillable drug reservoir. ISOS has been shown to be effective in reversing the effects of overdose 96% of the time and could help people who are at the highest risk of re-overdose. Because the naloxone dose is automatically delivered in a “closed loop” survival is not predicated by timely intervention of a first responder or a bystander Further research is being done to miniaturize the size and optimize battery life. VC Investors are always adjusting their "Play Book" with a variety of options for investing. Mikal Ventures is one of those alternatives, offering curated solutions to real world problems. Reach out if you have questions on how we can be of assistance and bookmark https://mikalventures.com/ for additional insights and information.

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Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs)– Automation and AI is now attainable for you to help overcome the unique challenges your organizations face on a daily basis. Matt Sanner from Polaris Optimization Group and I are teaming up to host an insightful webinar on how Droidal automation and AI can optimize your RCM and administrative operations leading to growth, stability, and enhanced patient outcomes. Whether you’re just starting or already exploring these technologies, this session will provide actionable strategies to integrate AI and automation into your workflows. Register today!

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Healthcare is highly suited for AI automation, with many opportunities to improve accessibility, affordability, and outcomes. AI can drive efficiencies across various functions, though it will inevitably reduce the need for some human roles. #higherorder #ai #automation #healthcare #healthtech

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🎥 Exciting update: I recently joined Jody Tropeano Greene to discuss the DiMe Seal, a milestone in building trust and accountability in digital health. Check out our conversation here: https://lnkd.in/epMHYU5x 🌟 Launched at HLTH 2024, the DiMe Seal recognizes high-quality, trustworthy digital health software products. Since its debut, we’ve seen incredible momentum: 🏥 Healthcare systems and payers across the US are looking to the DiMe Seal to help de-risk their digital health software purchases 🌍 Digital health software developers across the world are recognizing the value of the DiMe Seal to distinguish their products in a crowded market 👉 Are you a developer of digital health software products? Pursue the DiMe Seal and join the leaders setting the standard for quality and trust in healthcare innovation. Register today and use the code HLTH25 for a 25% discount https://lnkd.in/eTb6rRbj Let’s continue to raise the bar for digital health together! 🚀 #DigitalHealth #DiMeSeal #HLTH2024 #Innovation #TrustInHealth

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Imagine swallowing the competition whole. That's what many players in tech do via roll-up strategies, gobbling up smaller firms to deliver richer solutions and amass greater market share. Where else are roll-up strategies common? // HEALTHCARE Picture being a patient at a medical practice that’s been part of a roll-up in Healthcare Services. It's an industry ripe for roll-ups due to its fragmented nature and potential for greater efficiency. // CONSUMER SERVICES Or let's say you needed your HVAC serviced, and notice your local repairman is now part of a bigger Consumer Services entity? Centralized management and scale economy turn these localized businesses into roll-up targets. // FINANCIAL SERVICES Think about your insurance agent or wealth management advisor. They're working in complex, highly regulated environments. In the Financial Services sector, roll-ups offer an effective way to consolidate expertise, streamline operations, and enhance customer offerings. // MANUFACTURING Now, imagine driving past factories under a new name — the result of Manufacturing and Industrial Services roll-ups. Bulk purchasing reduces costs, enhances production capabilities, and expands geographical footprints. // REAL ESTATE Lastly, envision your real estate brokerage firm. The industry sees roll-ups as a strategic move to increase market penetration, enhance service offerings, and hike up portfolio value. Roll-ups play a huge role in most industries, rather like a snowball rolling downhill, gaining momentum, and size. Are you seeing roll-ups in your sector or considering M&A?

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Cofounders Capital Fund II is on a roll! Another huge announcement, this time from Pattern Health on its merger with Greenlight Health Data Solutions, Inc.

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Another large funding round in the virtual behavioral health space. It's interesting to note Talkiatry's focus on a physician-centric care model with W-2 providers, as opposed to most of the other players who are delivering care with 1099 mid-level therapists. However, it's still not clear to me how they are measuring care quality and outcomes, which is the foundation of true value-based care.

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Today, Arcadia launched our latest innovation — a new precision medicine solution that empowers healthcare providers with AI-driven insights to identify undiagnosed or misdiagnosed conditions and act quickly to improve care quality and patient outcomes. We launched with an initial AI model developed by Atropos Health, which helps providers quickly and efficiently connect impactable patients with the latest evidence-based treatments to extend health span while reducing total cost of care. We’ll deliver more models throughout the year. As I begin the day in San Francisco for the 2025 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, I expect value-based care to be a key topic of conversation given the strategic opportunity to invest in enablers that deliver better patient outcomes and enable sustainable growth. At Arcadia, we’re not just talking about accelerating the transformation of healthcare delivery systems to focus on value and outcomes—we’re delivering on it. Six months ago, we acquired CareJourney to help organizations identify and act on opportunities through data. Together, we’re making good on the promise of optimizing performance and driving growth for healthcare organizations. Learn more about our precision medicine solution and how we’re shaping the future of healthcare by enabling high-value care that improves patient outcomes and reduces costs: https://lnkd.in/eteUEZ5n

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I never realized the magnitude of the clinical and financial impact care teams could have by finding and addressing clinical #malnutrition until I started working with Josiah Meyer. Most leading hospitals identify less than 1/3 of the patients where they could make a difference (and even then do it too late to change LOS) falling short of ideal care while also missing out on material revenue. I'm really looking forward to speaking with Richard Riggs about how Cedars-Sinai has fundamentally changed the game here. Their team achieved remarkable outcomes for patients and for the hospital. What I find exciting is that HealthLeap AI allows all hospitals to function as if they had a top-tier data science team and software development team, especially in areas where we can show the current reality of AI making a difference. If you'd like to learn more or have a nutrition or medical leader at your hospital interested in amplifying the impact care teams can have - with continuous high precision screening of 100% of patients and workflow automation to reduce effort - please join us! #healthcare #innovation #AI

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Taking stock of primary care today and looking ahead.... Increasing presence, market share for non-traditional providers - payers, advanced primary care providers, primary care enablers. Question marks over retail's presence in primary care and what care models and patient populations they might need to focus on to be a force. #VBC #populationhealth #primarycare #caremodels

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Can generative AI healthcare agents help the underserved and close healthcare gaps? Just maybe! Congratulations to WellSpan Health under the pioneering leadership of Roxanna Gapstur and Mark Kandrysawtz, MBA on the their of launch of Hippocratic AI's health care agents. One of the first interesting use cases is using the agent to close colorectal screen gaps by leveraging the ability of the AI to speak multiple languages. https://lnkd.in/g3pjCRm4

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How is AI reshaping healthcare as we know it? Recently I had the privilege to discuss this topic on a panel with Missy Krasner, Fawad Butt, Monica Chmielewski and Aaliya Yaqub, MD at TEDAI San Francisco, where we dove into this question. In this latest article, we explore the transformative potential of AI across healthcare—from diagnostics to patient experience, and even the ethical challenges we face. We’re just scratching the surface of what AI can accomplish in medicine. How do you see AI impacting your field, or what challenges do you think lie ahead? I’d love to hear your thoughts! 👇 #HealthcareAI #DigitalHealth #Innovation HOPPR

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