Artisight President Stephanie Lahr, MD, CHCIO

Startups

Artisight Closes $42M to Put Eyes on Operational Inefficiency

Major inefficiencies are often caused by pixel-sized pain points that are hard to see one at a time, so Artisight just closed $42M in Series B funding to help hospitals combine those pixels into high resolution images of their operations.

To unlock new efficiency gains, Artisight is turning to new methods. Its Smart Hospital Platform consists of ambient IoT sensors coupled with two-way audio and video, improving the coordination of people and processes so that clinicians can focus on caring for patients.

• In patient rooms, that looks like using cameras and microphones to support tasks such as fall prevention and pressure ulcer prevention, as well as more robust use cases like virtual nursing (popular among current partners like WellSpan).

• In the OR, the same platform is used to automate documentation, enhance communication, and provide data for real-time decision making.

• All of that data then feeds into Artisight’s platform to glean insights into process improvement and train its task-specific algorithms.

Although patients probably don’t jump at the idea of having a camera pointed at them during some of the most vulnerable situations of their lives, it’s also safe to say that many of them would prefer a camera over having their health deteriorate due to a preventable cause.

• The same goes for providers, where the tension of having an observer is offset by the fact that the same observer is helping monitor patients, coordinate supplies, and reduce administrative burden.

The Series B is going toward scaling the Smart Hospital Platform across more organizations, as well as deeper into the 11 systems where it’s already deployed. 

• Artisight is also looking to expand the number of workflows that can be improved or automated using its algorithms, and $42M should go a long way toward making that happen through new health system partnerships.

• The partnership component is key, given that Artisight trains its algorithms locally to address specific issues at each site – an approach that seems to be resonating with the partner health systems that participated in the round.

The Takeaway

While Artisight’s quest to redefine hospital efficiency involves the unenviable task of introducing cameras into delicate situations, it believes that improving the outcomes of those situations is worth the effort, and it has a roster of strategic investors who seem to share that belief.

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The Wire

• HATCo Has Its Hospital: General Catalyst’s ambitious new company HATCo has found the first health system that it intends to transform into a blueprint for tech-enabled care: Ohio-based Summa Health. Upon approval of the acquisition, HATCo will begin integrating solutions from GC’s portfolio companies throughout Summa Health’s acute, critical, outpatient, ED, and home care services. The end goal isn’t to disrupt health systems, but to reimagine a better care experience guided by five foundational principles including radical collaboration, stakeholder alignment, and value-based care.

• Apple Pulls the Pulse Ox: Apple is removing the pulse oximetry technology from its latest Apple Watches to sidestep the import ban that was just upheld for the duration of its patent appeal with Masimo, a process that could take over a year. Following the US Court of Appeals’ refusal to grant a stay on the ban while the appeal takes place, Apple will revert to slimmed down versions of its Series 9 and Ultra 2 models, which its retail stores reportedly already have on hand. Consumers who already have the Watches will see their Pulse Ox disabled via an update.

• Specialized LLMs for SDOH: Research in npj Digital Medicine demonstrated that large language models can be trained to accurately extract non-obvious social determinants of health from EHR data, potentially improving efforts to identify patients who might benefit from resource support. The finely tuned models were able to spot 93.8% of patients with adverse SDOH factors (diagnostic codes included the info in just 2% of cases), and were less prone to bias than generalist models like GPT-4.

• Epic Releases Showroom: Epic lifted the curtain on its new Showroom, which will serve as the home base for its partners while replacing the App Orchard that was razed just over a year ago. The Showroom encompasses four programs that overhaul how providers using Epic interact with vendors, including a: 1) “Supply Shop” services suite for existing customers; 2) “Health Grid” solutions for non-traditional users like life sciences and home care companies; 3) “Products” hub for approved apps; 4) “Cornerstone Partners” section for integral tech like InterSystems and Microsoft.

• CirrusMD Teams Up With Alight: CirrusMD is teaming up with Alight to close the gap between benefits navigation and care delivery by enabling employees on the Alight Worklife platform to connect with CirrusMD physicians in under a minute. CirrusMD’s unique approach overcomes traditional limitations of one-to-one encounters through collaborative virtual environments, which the partnership further enhances through Alight’s Symptom Checker and the ability to reference available benefit programs to coordinate referrals and resources. 

• Obamacare Gains Steam: ACA health plan enrollments jumped to over 20M in 2024, leapfrogging the previous record of 16.3M set last year. A few factors that are spurring the growth include Medicaid unwinding (which led to the rare occurrence of ACA enrollment growing outside of open enrollment in 2023), the White House’s investment of about $100M into enrollment navigators to assist with those looking for a plan (and has apparently been particularly effective in the South), and subsidies enacted under the Biden administration that helped cut premium costs.

• New Google AI Outperforms PCPs: Google announced a new AI system called the Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer – AMIE for short – that was tuned for diagnostic reasoning and conversation, with the kicker that it outperforms PCPs in testing with patient actors. AMIE beat out human doctors in 24 of 26 conversational measures (i.e. empathy, bedside manner), as well as all six diagnostic categories. The authors painted the results with a healthy coat of humility, pointing out that diagnostic dialog requires a high level of context and clinician skill, and that the simulated conversations likely underestimate the value of human conversations.

• Mayo Clinic Weight Loss Beta: Mayo Clinic beta-launched a new weight loss program that combines lifestyle coaching and access to medications via virtual visits with Amwell clinicians, geared toward creating sustainable change while mitigating drug side effects. The Mayo Clinic Diet Medical Weight Loss Rx program (big mouthful for a weight loss solution) gives members education, trackers, and meal plans designed specifically for those on obesity medications, which has reportedly proven 3x more effective than online weight loss alone.

• Hospitals Continue to Stabilize: KarfmanHall’s Hospital Flash Report for December showed that operating margins now stand at 2%, another sign of a stabilizing pandemic recovery as key metrics like inpatient and outpatient revenue rising year-over-year. Revenue per discharge continued to increase while expense per discharge decreased, reflecting shifts toward more effective care settings and a reduced reliance on contract labor. On the flip side, the gap between high and low performers remains “quite wide,” and the numbers don’t yet reflect the seasonal surge in respiratory illness.

• Headspace Rolls Out Unified Experience: Headspace began rolling out its unified experience for mental health and mindfulness content, allowing its enterprise customers to offer their employees meditation, coaching, and therapy within an all-in-one platform. The move looks to realize the promise of 2021’s Headspace-Ginger merger by providing seamless navigation between Headpace’s wellness content and Ginger’s clinical services, while also giving employers a comprehensive view of enrollment and engagement trends to better understand their employees’ mental health needs.

• Cancer Incidence Grows: A new American Cancer Society report shows that while cancer mortality has fallen – averting 4M deaths since 1991 – incidence is growing for 6 of the top 10 cancers. Less smoking and earlier detection have led to lower overall cancer mortality, but incidence is rising for cancers like breast (+0.6% ), prostate (+3%), and cervical (+1.7%). In particular, rising incidence is being seen in people under 50, with breast cancer killing 2.3k women under 50 in 2021, leading ACS to support earlier screening.

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