Sirona Medical CEO Cameron Andrews

Digital Health

The 50 Best Digital Health Newsletters, Influencers, and Podcasts for 2024

We’re dedicating today’s top story to bring you an updated list of the people and publications that we rely on to find the most interesting digital health stories from across the web. Assuming that you already subscribe to Digital Health Wire, these are the 50 other newsletters, websites, and podcasts to follow if you want to keep up with the latest and greatest in healthcare.

Although we stay on top of all the mainstream outlets and digital health journals, some of the best content is usually found just off the beaten path. We’re a newsletter, we love newsletters, so we’re kicking things off with our favorite healthcare newsletters. 

• Out-of-Pocket – These aren’t in any particular order… but OOP’s (still) at the top for a reason.
• AI Health Uncut – A recent find that immediately catapulted to a place on the podium. 
• Second Opinion – Some of the best word-for-word analysis you’ll find anywhere.
• Health Tech Nerds – One part DH community. One part newsletter. All fantastic.
• Hospitalogy – Healthcare business breakdowns that you won’t find elsewhere.
• The Healthcare Breakdown – Another must-add for its granular look at big news.
• Healthcare Huddle – Always delivers a deep dive on the topic du jour.
• Health API Guy – Our go-to for How to Win Friends and Integrate Systems.
• STAT Health Tech – The digestible gateway to the rest of STAT’s coverage.
• Digital Thoughts – Product management musings from a reformed pharmacist.
• X = Primary Care – Wide-ranging insights that keep PCPs at the center.
• The Frontier Psychiatrists – All over the place in the best possible way.
• Dem Dry Bones – Never fails to bring new takes to the table.
• Healthtech Pigeon – Short and sweet updates on healthtech happenings in the UK.
• Behavioral Health Tech – Solid roundup of one of the hottest corners of digital health.

When we’re done rounding up the headlines from the major news sites and back out of our morning newsletter rabbit hole, we can count on finding more fresh perspectives from these specialty publications and blogs.

• The Imaging Wire (of course)
• Cardiac Wire (of course)
• The Health Care Blog (perhaps our most glaring omission from our previous list)
• On the Flying Bridge
• a16z
• Health Populi
• The Keckley Report
• Home Health Care News
• Behavioral Health Business
• Rock Health
• Vator News
• Telecare Aware

These days most of our favorite content isn’t published, it’s tweeted. These all-stars are the ones doing the tweeting.

• Sergei Polevikov – @AIHealthUncut
• Rik Renard – @rikrenard
• Morgan Cheatham – @morgancheatham
• Nikhil Krishnan – @nikillinit
• Alyssa Jaffee – @AlyssaJoyJaffee
• Gary Monk – @GaryMonk
• Jay Parkinson MD, MPH – @jayparkinson
• Blake Madden – @B_Madden4
• Stuart Blitz – @StuartBlitz
• Andy Mychkovsky – @healthcareandy
• Jan-Felix Schneider – @jfschneidr
• Sanjula Jain, PhD – @sanjula_jain
• Julie Yoo – @julesyoo
• Chris Hogg – @cwhogg
• Erin Brodwin – @erinbrodwin
• Jessica DaMassa – @jessdamassa
• Dhruv Vasishtha – @dvasishtha

And finally, the podcasts that let our ears take over when our eyes are tired from all the blogs and tweets. We have a soft spot for founder interviews, B2B trends, and long form conversations.

• The Heart of Healthcare – Easily our most recommended addition, and we see why.
• Vital Signs – If you’ve had a hard time finding a great healthcare pod, this is it.
• Pear Healthcare Playbook – Stellar interviews with movers and shakers.
• The Virtual Shift – True thought leadership on the shifting virtual care landscape.
• HIT Like a Girl Pod – Holding up a mic to the rockstar women of healthcare.
• Bright Spots in Healthcare – A relentlessly sunny gaze on healthcare’s success stories.

It’s a lot to keep up with, but if you want the best digital health news out there, these sources will do more than get you started. You can also subscribe to Digital Health Wire and we’ll do the heavy lifting for you:)

PS – This list could easily have been a top 100, so if there’s a publication or news source that we’re crazy for not including, hit reply and let us know!

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The Wire

• Steward Files Chapter 11: Steward Health Care filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after “economic headwinds” and delays in offloading some core assets reportedly forced the move. The Massachusetts-based system provides care for more than 2 million patients each year across 31 hospitals and 400 facility locations, and will continue to do so throughout the restructuring (it’s not yet at the point of a closure). The bankruptcy filings revealed a slew of tough news, including the fact that Steward owes around $1.2B in total loans and about $6.6B in long-term lease liabilities.

• Half of Health Data Remains Untapped: Arcadia and HIMSS looked into how hospitals are using the 137 terabytes of data they produce every day, finding that a vast amount of data remains entirely untapped despite the proliferation of AI. Although four out of five healthcare leaders believe most of their data is accurate, 47% of healthcare data is underutilized when making clinical and business decisions. Healthcare leaders named enhancing data literacy (58%), using AI (47%), and addressing productivity challenges (34%) as key priorities to make data more usable.

• Trovo Health Launch: The AI-driven care expansion segment added a new competitor this week with the launch of Trovo Health, which combines specialty-trained AI software and a multidisciplinary care team to help physician groups expand their internal and patient capabilities. Trovo launches with $15M in seed funding that it will use to further build out its technology platform, clinical operations, and leadership team.

• Hybrid Care Increases EHR Work: Primary care physicians providing both telehealth and in-person care spent 6% more time doing EHR-based work, according to new research in JAMA Network Open. Doctors with no telehealth patients spent 71.3 minutes a day on average documenting, while those with hybrid care spent 14.8 additional minutes active in the EHR. The study chalks up the difference to increased multitasking during telemedicine visits, as PCPs simultaneously engage with patients and the EHR during virtual visits in ways that aren’t possible in person.

• Rush + MD Anderson: University of Texas MD Anderson is headed to Chicago, following its partnership with Rush University Medical Center. The partnership will expand access to MD Anderson’s clinical trials and advanced cancer care to Rush’s Chicagoland patient base, while giving MD Anderson its seventh such partnership across the US.

• Boosting Screening Compliance: UPenn researchers tried a variety of tools to boost mammography screening compliance, but one worked consistently: text messages to women about their appointments. In a study in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers tested different referral and reminder strategies in 25k women, finding that women who got text messages had completion rates at three months at least two percentage points higher than those who didn’t. Combining bulk-order patient referrals and text reminders had the highest response rate compared to standard outreach (15.4% vs. 12.7%).   

• GroundGame Merges With SameSky: GroundGame.Health, which connects community-based organizations with health plans and providers, merged with patient engagement company SameSky Health to better serve hard to reach populations, and raised a $17M Series A in the process. The combined company is aiming to lean in on its patient engagement capabilities to improve health outcomes while offering “last mile” services such as food delivery and health literacy education.

• The Empathy Painkiller: Clinician empathy could be the next breakthrough in pain management, at least according to a recent study of 1,470 patients with chronic low back pain. After randomizing patients to receive a year of care from either a “very empathetic physician” or a “slightly empathetic physician,” the former cohort reported lower average pain intensity (6.3 vs 6.7 out of 10) and less back-related disability (14.9 versus 16.8 out of 24). Empathy was associated with better outcomes than non-pharmacological treatments, lumbar spine surgery, and even opioid therapy.

• Panera Pulls Charged Drinks: Panera announced plans to discontinue its caffeinated Charged Lemonade and Charged Sips drinks, following two cardiovascular-related wrongful-death lawsuits and one case alleging that the drinks caused a 28-year-old woman to develop AFib. The cancellation comes about two years after the Charged drinks launched, and ahead of the breadmaker’s IPO later this year. At 390 mg, a large Charged Lemonade has more caffeine than 3.5 cans of Red Bull.

• EHR + Echo AI for Heart Failure: A new study out of Scotland showed that EHR data analytics and echocardiography AI could identify and classify patients with heart failure. The researchers used keyword searches combined with EHR filtering, and then applied Us2.ai’s echo AI solution to analyze historical echo images, before integrating analysis of routinely stored plasma samples. Out of nearly 61k EHR records, this process identified 236 patients with HFpEF and 156 with HFrEF, while the HF patients unsurprisingly had worse outcomes over a three-year follow up.

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Meet Nabla at Reuters Digital Health

Nabla will be in Digital Health Wire’s backyard in San Diego for Reuters Digital Health on May 14-15! Make sure to swing by Booth #4 to meet the team and learn more about ambient AI deployment for health systems.