It’s time for This Month in Digital Health, where I highlight news articles that caught my attention and offer my take on why I think they matter. Along with the requisite stories about AI in healthcare, this month – fittingly when the Boston area is about to hit record high temperatures for this time of year – we’re looking into climate change and healthcare.
It’s all about meaningful AI utilization now. As half of healthcare organizations have now deployed generative AI, according to a McKinsey survey, attention has turned to tool integration and ROI. That means leaders are looking for meaningful transformation, not even more revenue cycle automation; that often comes down to using AI to solve readily identifiable problems. Meanwhile, because we just can’t have nice things, HHS wants to ditch requirements for transparency in AI tools, because reasons.
Add “climate change” to healthcare’s risk management agenda. First, the bad news: Hospitals in areas vulnerable to climate change haven’t done much to address climate-related health risks, in large part because of socioeconomic disparities. Next, the good news: Looking at climate change as a health equity issue and using existing long-term planning frameworks can help manage these risks. Plus, hospitals are reducing waste – no minimal matter, as the industry accounts for more than 8% of carbon emissions – and EMS and mobile clinics are buying hybrids.
Now, for a bunch of interesting odds and ends.
- CMS and FDA want to speed up the coverage process for breakthrough medical devices, making them available through Medicare two months after they get their breakthrough designation. About 40 devices would qualify.
- Having struggled to make progress of any kind in chronic condition management, retail health is turning to GLP-1s. Amazon One Medical, for example, is offering cash-pay and insurance-covered options. I’m not planning to hold my breath.
- The FDA has kicked off two real-time clinical trials and hopes to launch a pilot for more. The idea is that continuous data collection will eliminate the traditional time lag between predefined phases of a trial.
- A Mercer survey found employer health costs are set to rise close to 7% in 2026 – an increase step enough that the impact is spreading beyond benefits budgets to the bottom line. Good times.
- A JAMA paper found “found little evidence of substantial, statistically significant, or systematic changes” for nonprofit hospitals working with management consultants. Color me glad I ignored the voice in my head 10-25 years ago telling me, “You should try to get a consulting job.”
That’s all for now. Tune in next month when I’m sitting in front of the AC waiting for summer to end even though it hasn’t technically started yet. (One of my most unpopular opinions is that I strongly prefer the colder months of the year.)
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