While HHS works to set regulations and guidelines for artificial intelligence's use in healthcare, the agency is also putting the technology to work in its own day-to-day operations, according to a Dec. 20 Politico report. 

Invitae, a biotech company focusing on genetic testing, laid off 15% of its staff as the company initiated a cost-cutting plan. 

EHR vendor Meditech is joining the Cancer Moonshot initiative, a project formed by the Biden administration that aims to cut the cancer death rate by at least half within 25 years and improve the lives of people affected by cancer. 

Robbinsdale, Minn.-based North Memorial Health is selecting Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite to integrate financial, supply chain and human resources operations in the cloud in a bid to cut expenses and improve employee and patient satisfaction.

St. Louis-based Mercy has created its own chatbot that serves as a virtual assistant that can help patients schedule appointments and refill prescriptions.

The Coordinating Center of the Augmented Intelligence in Medicine and Healthcare Initiative by Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente is funding five healthcare organization's research projects focused on using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. 

York, Pa.-based WellSpan Health is using a $1.5 million donation to launch a new nursing innovation unit.

Rapid progress in AI technology provides innovative solutions for healthcare organizations to address financial and workforce challenges with equal intensity, Politico reported Dec. 15.

In 2023, digital health and medtech companies focusing on brain-computer interface technology and the staffing crisis raised $200 million or more.

San Francisco-based UCSF Health is aiming to deploy healthcare artificial intelligence tools "enterprise wide," according to Sara Murray, MD, chief health AI officer and associate chief medical information office of the health system. 

Multiple health systems, payors and healthcare companies have agreed to the voluntary commitments set forth by President Joe Biden to promote the secure advancement of artificial intelligence.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic is partnering with Fresenius Kabi to purchase 10,000 of the company's tech-focused smart pumps.

In a move to enhance efficiency, Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare has been conducting pilots with Google's healthcare-based AI tools. 

A survey from Wolters Kluwer Health found that 86% of Americans are concerned about the sourcing of information from generative artificial intelligence when it is used for healthcare purposes. 

Large language models may not always exhibit poor performance in clinical reasoning and, in specific restricted scenarios, could surpass the capabilities of clinicians, according to a Dec. 11 study published in JAMA Network Open. 

Healthcare technology company Medtronic will partner with Cosmo Pharmaceuticals' medical device business unit to expand the use of artificial intelligence. 

GE HealthCare CEO Peter Arduini was tapped to lead the board of directors of AdvaMed, a medical technology trade group.

St. Louis-based Mercy named its artificial intelligence cancer treatment algorithm after Jiajing Chen, a data scientist who helped develop the algorithm and died from cancer in January, St. Louis Business Journal reported Dec. 8.

Despite the recent decline in digital health funding, healthcare investment firms have still been able to raise more than $100 million for investments since August.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Advocate Health has expanded virtual nursing to 12 hospitals and cared for 10,000 patients using the care model in 2023.