Innovation

Miami-based Nicklaus Children's Hospital has launched a virtual reality driving program for autistic and neurodivergent teens preparing to take their driver's exam.

The Gates Vascular Institute at Buffalo (N.Y.) General Medical Center is partnering with brain-computer interface company Synchron to launch a trial exploring restoring functionality to patients with severe paralysis. 

Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Chicago joined in a $1.7 million seed funding round for health wearables data company Rook.

Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health has launched Culmination Bio, a biotech company that plans to help analyze millions of data points to predict, prevent and treat disease.

Cleveland Clinic and IBM have installed the first healthcare quantum computer at the health system, SDxCentral reported March 20.  

Nuance Communications, a software and conversational artificial intelligence company owned by Microsoft, launched Dragon Ambient Experience Express, a clinical documentation application that uses OpenAI's newest model, GPT-4.

Forty-seven percent of hospitals and health systems reported that they are turning to artificial intelligence to help alleviate staffing and labor insufficiencies, a March 15 survey from the Health Management Academy found. 

Health data platform Zus Health has closed on $40 million in new financing and partnered with primary care technology platform Elation Health.

UnityPoint Health Ventures, the venture capital arm of West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health, is participating in a $15 million funding round for telehealth platform OpenLoop.

Healthcare organizations lack the technical skills, bandwidth and staff to deploy and scale artificial intelligence into their clinical workflows, VentureBeat reported March 15.