Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Google Launches Own Agentic AI Healthcare Platform
Healthcare Dive: Google Cloud Debuts Gemini For Healthcare
Google Cloud has launched Gemini for healthcare, a version of its AI agent designed to be used by providers and payers in clinical and administrative settings, the company announced on Tuesday. The platform connects to a healthcare organization’s electronic health record, claims workflows and other systems to automatically surface patient records, prep paperwork and check insurance details. Google is betting those integrations will reduce clinician burnout and promote interoperability, according to the announcement. (Hughes, 11/11)
The New York Times: Why Is It So Hard To Teach A.I. Agents To Behave? Researchers Have A Theory.
The makers of A.I. want to build systems that follow human direction, without resisting or deceiving their operators. (Freedman and Castro Varón, 11/11)
More on AI in healthcare —
Stat: MDCalc Launches ‘Rumble Strip’ For Doctors Using Generative AI
MDCalc, a medical reference tool site, on Wednesday launched CrossCover, a tool the company said is meant to help clinicians trust the answers of medical artificial intelligence chatbots while preserving patient and provider privacy. (Trang, 11/11)
CIDRAP: Americans Growing More Comfortable With AI In Medicine, But They Want Providers Involved
A new survey suggests that Americans are becoming more comfortable with artificial intelligence (AI) making medical decisions—but not without oversight. The Gallup survey of more than 5,000 US adults, published this week, found that 56% of respondents who’ve seen a healthcare provider within the last year are somewhat or very comfortable with AI making diagnosis and treatment decisions as long as the provider can override them. Only 9% said they were comfortable with AI making decisions without provider review, while 38% said they’re comfortable when AI assists and the provider makes the decision. (Dall, 11/11)
In other pharma and tech news —
The New York Times: New Research Compares Long-Term Relief From 21 Antidepressants
A new meta-analysis found that certain antidepressants worked better on average than Prozac at helping people with depression feel better and stick with their treatment over the long term. The analysis looked at 21 different drugs across 115 studies to identify which drugs were most likely to help patients who planned to use antidepressants for more than three months. The study authors compared each drug to Prozac, also known as fluoxetine, because it’s a well-known drug that has been commonly prescribed, researchers said. (Caron, 11/10)
Fox News: New Weight-Loss Drug Offers Significant Relief From Chronic Knee Pain, Major Study Finds
An experimental weight-loss drug significantly reduced chronic knee pain and improved mobility in people with obesity and knee osteoarthritis, according to two clinical trials led by researchers at Northwestern University. The trials, which were funded by Eli Lilly and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, evaluated retatrutide, a once-weekly injectable medication developed by Eli Lilly and Co. (Quill, 11/11)
The Washington Post: As Gene Editing For Deafness Advances, Gallaudet University Speaks Out
The world’s leading school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students took an official position on advancing therapies, saying, “Deaf lives are not deficits to be corrected.” (Solano, 11/11)
Stat: All Of Us Data Helps Scientists Find New Variants Of Pharmacogenes
A study of nearly 100,000 Americans identified thousands of new variants in a set of genes that influence our responses to prescription drugs, thanks to the inclusion of participants from a more diverse set of ancestries than previous studies of these so-called pharmacogenes. (Oza, 11/11)
