Health IT news and digital transformation trends

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care is at an inflection point in how we think about applications, workflows, and the teams that support them. For years, the dominant narrative in health IT has been about cost containment: consolidating systems, reducing…

The American Medical Association is calling on federal lawmakers to enact safeguards on AI chatbots, particularly when it comes to protecting patients’ mental health. With the rapid rise of people using chatbots for behavioral and other health-related issues, the AMA…

UnitedHealth Group is betting big on AI in 2026 — $1.5 billion to be exact.  During the company’s Q1 earnings call, leaders fleshed out how that investment is materializing. “Think about it this way: A third of this is explicitly…

A video game developed by Pittsburgh-based UPMC and University of Pittsburgh researchers helped emergency physicians make more accurate trauma triage decisions for severely injured older adults than standard education. The study, published April 20 in JAMA, followed 800 physicians at…

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to reauthorize two federal telehealth grant programs. HR 3419 amends the Public Health Service Act to continue the Telehealth Network Grant Program and the Telehealth Resource Centers through 2030, raising annual…

A cybersecurity incident has encrypted data and interrupted phone and internet systems at Mauston, Wis.-based Mile Bluff Medical Center. Clinical teams activated downtime procedures, with only “limited and temporary” disruptions to services, the hospital said in an April 21 statement.…

Most health systems have deployed an ambient AI documentation solution by now, but many leaders haven’t asked the harder question: is the tool actually generating financial returns, or simply replacing dictation? Meanwhile, payers are accelerating their own use of AI…

While telehealth has become commonplace since the pandemic, some states have adopted the technology more than others. Here is the percentage of hospitals that offer telehealth in each state, according to an April analysis by Definitive Healthcare using its proprietary…

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic has joined a $4.9 million seed funding round for virtual biomarker startup ViewsML. The company is developing the world’s first virtual biomarker library, using AI to extract the insights directly from pathology images to support precision…

For rural healthcare organizations, access has become the central organizing principle behind nearly every strategic decision. This new operational reality is being shaped by a convergence of pressures. Workforce shortages, rapidly declining independent physician practices, geographic dispersion and aging populations…