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Primary Care Nudges, Hims Heads to Europe, and Parents Know Best
June 5, 2025
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Together with
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“As healthcare technology evolves, we’ll see a fundamental shift toward systems that silently augment clinical work rather than demanding constant interaction. This evolution will finally begin addressing the core issues driving nurse burnout.”
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Artisight Chief Nursing Officer Karie Ryan
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Even the simplest text messages can help patients get more out of their primary care visits, at least according to new research published in NEJM Evidence.
The study out of Ascension health system – “A Digital Care Plan Nudge to Improve Primary Care Outcomes” – spanned 76 primary care practices and 29,000+ patients.
- Patients were randomized to receive either usual care, or a digital nudge sent three days prior to their appointment.
- The nudges were a simple text message highlighting up to three preventative care needs to address during the visit, such as cancer screenings or vaccinations.
The results speak for themselves. The digital nudge group saw:
- An increase in appointment completions (+2.8 percentage points over usual care)
- A decrease in appointment cancellations (-1.5 percentage points)
- A decrease in appointment no-shows (-1.2 percentage points)
What about the care gaps? The digital nudge group addressed a care gap during 23.5% of visits, compared to 20.3% for usual care (P=0.08). In case anyone skipped stats class, that’s a bigger P value than we were going for, which basically means the jury’s still out on this one.
- On the bright side, digital nudges did show a statistically significant improvement to care gaps closed at 90 days (+5.4 percentage points over usual care), specifically for breast and colorectal cancer screenings, diabetes testing, and flu vaccines.
Although the study didn’t meet the primary outcome of addressing gaps on the day of the visit, digital nudges showed promise as a scalable way to improve outcomes over time by encouraging patients to be proactive with their health.
- Not a bad outcome considering that many patients arrive to primary care visits focused on immediate concerns, and springing new topics on them isn’t exactly a great way to inspire quick action.
The Takeaway
Patient activation works, and this study adds to the mountain of evidence supporting it. In the words of Ascension Chief Clinical Transformation Officer Mitesh Patel, “Most importantly, it reflects what’s possible when we combine behavioral science, digital tools, and a learning health system mindset.”
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Elevate 2025: Medallion’s Virtual Conference Returns September 17
Now in its fourth year, Medallion’s annual conference is back – bringing together healthcare leaders to explore this year’s theme: Elevate the present. Reframe the future of healthcare. Hear from industry voices like Tom Lawry, author of Hacking Healthcare, UPMC Chief Medical Information Officer Robert Bart, and many more. Reserve your spot now.
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Why McFarland Clinic Tapped Nabla to Support Clinicians
As Iowa’s largest physician-owned multi-specialty group, McFarland Clinic needed a partner that could help deliver high-quality, coordinated care across a wide range of specialties. Find out why McFarland tapped Nabla to reduce documentation burden and bring time and presence back to the patient encounter, all within their Epic workflow.
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- Hims Heads to Europe: Hims & Hers is doubling down on Europe with the acquisition of fellow direct-to-consumer telehealth company ZAVA for an undisclosed sum. The move will bolster Hims’ existing presence in the U.K. while introducing the brand to Germany, France, and Ireland. ZAVA provides virtual care for conditions such as STIs and ED to over 1.3M patients, a huge addition to Hims’ U.S. base of 2.4M customers.
- Change of Plans at Clarify: Data analytics platform Clarify Health is reportedly in talks with a trio of investment banks as it looks to find a buyer. The scoop from Axios revealed that Clarify’s valuation has seen a steep decline since peaking at $1.4B during its Series D raise in 2022, in part because the company is now generating about $5M in EBITDA losses for every $30M of revenue it brings in. Talent and data are both expensive, not to mention that “the advent of generative AI has changed the real-world data landscape drastically.”
- Parents Know Best: It turns out that asking parents a simple question during routine monitoring – “Are you worried your child is getting worse?” – could be one of the best ways to predict pediatric patient deterioration from EHR data. A study in The Lancet examined records for nearly 190k pediatric patients between 2020 and 2022, including 4.7% who were flagged by worried caregivers. Children who were flagged were more likely to need ICU admission (6.9% vs. 1.8%) or mechanical ventilation (1.1% vs. 0.2%), although the pandemic timing means that results might vary in different contexts.
- Amperos Debuts Amanda: The RCM AI arena has a new contender after Amperos Health landed $4.2M of seed funding and announced the launch of its AI biller Amanda. Branded as “the world’s first multi-modal AI coworker for denials and collections,” Amanda reportedly differentiates itself through its reasoning ability. Amanda checks claim information in payor portals, decides when to call payors to escalate, and weaves in data from both the portal and a customer’s PM system during the call.
- Everybody’s Doing It: More than 2% of U.S. adults are now taking GLP-1s for weight loss, up nearly 600% over six years. FAIR Health’s analysis of 51 billion commercial health claims showed that weight loss now accounts for roughly half of all GLP-1 users, and about 4% of Americans were taking the drugs in 2024 after adding the T2D use case to the mix. One of the positive side effects of GLP-1s is that bariatric surgeries have plummeted 42% since 2019.
- DispatchHealth + Medically Home: DispatchHealth and Medically Home officially closed the merger they first announced in March, forming one of the largest hospital-at-home providers in the country. The combined company, AKA DispatchHealth, provides high acuity in-home care across 50 major metros through partnerships with 40 health systems. Now that both companies’ tech and clinical expertise under one roof, Dispatch is leaning in on three core service lines: hospital-at-home, emergency care, and transitional care for patients at high risk of readmission.
- AssistIQ Series A: AssistIQ raised $11.5M of Series A funding to expand the reach of its AIQ Capture supply chain management platform. AIQ Capture was designed alongside Northwell Health to close revenue gaps by providing hospitals with real-time visibility into the supplies being used for surgeries or other high-cost procedures. The health system also announced that it’s rolling out the technology to operating rooms in two of its hospitals.
- Pieces Links With Baxter: Pieces Technologies inked a distribution partnership with Baxter to get the Pieces Inpatient Platform in the hands of more U.S. health systems. The Pieces Inpatient Platform functions as an end-to-end partner for multidisciplinary care teams by condensing EHR data into concise Working Summaries, pre-drafting progress notes and discharge summaries for physicians, and reviewing encounters for care determination to assist with utilization management – all within existing workflows.
- Walmart Serves Everyday Health Signals: Walmart debuted a new Everyday Health Signals platform to promote healthier eating through AI-driven insights. Everyday Health Signals leverages Walmart.com user data to generate personalized diet and nutrition insights, complete with grocery lists tailored to each member’s taste preferences and health goals. The program is initially launching with NationsBenefits for MA members, with expansion to more health plans on the menu for later this year.
- FDA Rolls Out Elsa AI for Product Review: The FDA rolled out its new AI tech for helping the agency review medical product submissions. First announced in May, the FDA said the Elsa generative AI platform was designed to open up bandwidth for scientific reviewers by accelerating clinical protocol reviews, shortening the time needed for scientific evaluations, and identifying high-priority inspection targets. Sounds great on paper, but STAT’s coverage quoted FDA employees as saying Elsa’s rollout was “rushed” and that the agency was “overinflating its capabilities.”
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Simplify RPM & Maximize Patient Engagement
Engaging patients at critical moments is essential for success. With Withings Health Nudges feature, care teams can send tailored messages to the screen of the blood pressure monitor— offering personalized support when they need it most.
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Create Efficient Primary Care Access With K Health’s Clinical AI
Keeping up with patient access feels like a losing battle? Hartford HealthCare, Cedars-Sinai, and Hackensack Meridian Health found a new approach. K Health partners with health systems to scale high-quality 24/7 primary care access without sacrificing quality. Learn how K Health’s peer-reviewed clinical AI and Virtualist model are transforming how leading systems deliver care.
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- Humans of Healthcare – AltaMed’s Multilingual Community: AltaMed, the nation’s largest Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC), is partnering with Abridge to serve its majority-multilingual population. Everyone deserves access to cutting-edge healthcare technology, no matter what language they speak. Learn more here.
- Navina AI “May Be Essential for Thriving” in VBC: Innovation lab Phyx Primary was left with only one conclusion after its independent evaluation of Navina’s AI Copilot: AI “may be essential for thriving” in value-based care. Physicians using Navina saw a 40% reduction in clinical review time, a 32% decrease in burnout, and lifted STAR quality ratings by 1.9 points. The experience scores were just the icing on the cake. Get the full report to learn more.
- Ensuring Compliance With Medical AI Scribes: AI scribes are transforming how providers document patient encounters, but new innovations come with new compliance risks. Head over to Playback Health’s quick-start guide to maintaining compliance in the age of AI, and see how Playback Health Pro is giving providers peace of mind with 100% data ownership, SOC 2 verification, and HIPAA-compliant encryption every step of the way.
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