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OpenEvidence, MAHA ELEVATE, and Innovation Heading Into 2026
December 15, 2025
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Together with
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“Diagnostics are the bedrock of effective healthcare, and they are now the critical fuel for the evolution of AI. By transforming high-volume diagnostic data into predictive intelligence, we can finally start moving from a reactive to a proactive care model.”
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hc1 CEO Bradley Bostic
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AI scribes are in the hot seat for their time savings (or lack thereof), but it isn’t clear why they haven’t been giving doctors more hours back in their day. In the latest episode of the Digital Health Wire Show, Navina CIO Dr. Yair Lewis takes us through new research that offers a possible explanation: scribes capture complete conversations, but that doesn’t mean they capture complete notes.
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Rock Health is wrapping up the year in style by updating its Innovation Maturity Curve with the hottest trends of 2025 and sharing its predictions for what lies ahead.
The curve uses three major data points to plot innovation:
- Research volume – gauges the potential of a topic through PubMed publications.
- Venture funding – tracks investment as a leading indicator of commercial interest.
- Partnership activity – uses industry partnerships as a proxy for commercial traction.
The pace is picking up. Here’s a look at the categories that defined the year:
Longevity (Maturity Score: Developing) – Companies are pushing past one-off diagnostics to see whether personalized baselines can anchor ongoing care. Function Health just hauled in a massive $298M Series B for its “operating system for human health,” and other players like Hone Health have started expanding their models with in-home services.
- Keep an eye on: How much will insights on hormones or heart health translate into adjustments that patients actually act on? Rock Health expects this segment to hinge on turning long-arc patterns into timely guidance that’s both credible and valuable.
Mental Health Chatbots (Maturity Score: Emerging) – Some AI chatbots might be shutting down, but just as many are doubling down. Slingshot burst onto the scene with $93M to build “the world’s first foundation model for psychology,” and incumbents like Spring Health have even started launching bots to evaluate the safety of other bots.
- Keep an eye on: Regulatory scrutiny is intensifying as states begin banning AI-driven therapy. Some startups might be able to navigate the roadblocks, but Rock Health thinks others might pivot to lower-risk territory like keeping patients engaged between visits.
Health Benefits 2.0 (Maturity Score: Emerging) – OOP spending continues to climb, while employers just notched the steepest benefit cost increase in 15 years. Those pressures cracked a window for non-traditional models to gain traction, such as ICHRA frontrunners Thatch and Venteur.
- Keep an eye on: The benefits pressure cooker is heating up in 2026, which means this category isn’t going anywhere. As more costs shift to consumers, Rock Health anticipates the benefits experience to start looking even more like a set of adjacent marketplaces rather than a single plan.
The Takeaway
Digital health is moving faster than ever, and AI is only going to keep accelerating innovation. Rock Health’s full report is well worth checking out for more details on these categories and other up-and-coming segments like wearables (smart rings are especially hot), precision medicine (digital twins had a big year), and climate health (think allergies and air pollution).
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Using AI to Democratize Performance Data
You’re tracking clinical performance metrics – HACs, LoS, FCOTS, and more – but does tracking translate to better patient care? Watch the on-demand recap of C8 Health’s recent expert roundtable to learn how leading institutions leverage AI to bring quality data to the bedside. Plus: See how this approach saved UTMB Health over $109k in three months.
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Ambient ROI – New Metrics From Health Systems
While Abridge’s value is clear from its rapid adoption and positive clinician feedback, discerning CMIOs, CIOs, and CFOs also require longitudinal and more precise impact measurement – including of operational and workflow processes. With a new ROI methodology, that’s what Abridge delivers for its health system partners. See how four health systems are using this new tool to measure ROI at a deeper level than ever before. Download here.
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- OpenEvidence Hits $12B Valuation: OpenEvidence is back in the headlines after The Information reported that it’s raising $250M at a $12B valuation, which would make it worth twice as much as when it raised its last nine-figure round just two months ago. “ChatGPT for Doctors” is apparently now hauling in over $150M per year with ads alone, and the latest capital injection will allow it to fuel even more R&D into the model’s ability to handle multimodal data. The raise arrives while the ink is still drying on OpenEvidence’s licensing agreement with The National Comprehensive Cancer Network, as well as the launch of its own HIPAA-secure Dialer.
- Telehealth Works for Weight Loss: The first study to evaluate both the long-term weight loss and safety outcomes of GLP-1 treatment via telehealth was just published in Obesity, and the results look great for virtual care. Researchers found that Ro’s semaglutide patients were able to achieve weight loss and safety outcomes consistent with clinical trials – losing an average of 16.6% of their body weight over 68 weeks. Ro’s obesity care program includes ongoing clinician support, 24/7 messaging, and 1-to-1 coaching from nurses.
- MAHA ELEVATE: CMS is on a hot streak with the acronyms and new models, most recently unveiling MAHA ELEVATE – “Make America Healthy Again: Enhancing Lifestyle and Evaluating Value-based Approaches Through Evidence.” The voluntary model aims to integrate lifestyle and functional medicine into Original Medicare by providing $100M to fund up to 30 pilots targeting chronic disease prevention. CMS said it will evaluate the cost and quality of the interventions to inform future decisions around including them in Medicare.
- CMS Taps CLEAR: In other Medicare news, CMS is bringing CLEAR’s digital identity platform to Medicare.gov early next year as part of its broader effort to strengthen fraud prevention and access. The CLEAR1 platform is specifically designed to address increasingly sophisticated identity threats like deepfake impersonations, and it will soon be used to support account creation, account recovery, and data access for Medicare beneficiaries and their providers.
- Primary Care Pulse: Pearl Health’s latest Primary Care Pulse Report highlighted a widening gap between participation in advanced payment models and the capabilities needed to succeed in them. While two-thirds of physicians participate in VBC, only 46% believe their orgs are equipped to deliver proactive care, and just 34% report having access to tech that supports outcomes-based performance. The report also showed that only 35% of physicians agree that their revenue model supports improving patient health, and even less (27%) say their compensation enables holistic care.
- AIwithCare Launch: Mass General Brigham announced a “breakthrough” for clinical trial patient identification through the spinout of its latest startup AIwithCare. Over a third of trial costs are tied to screening, and AIwithCare is setting out to slash that percentage by deploying patient-matching AI in the EHR. MGB spins off around 30 companies a year, but this is the first to leverage retrieval-augmented generation AI, which retrieves relevant information from trusted data sources and then uses it to generate accurate answers – as opposed to traditional LLMs that rely on training alone.
- Payors Under Pressure: A HealthEdge survey of over 550 health plan executives found that cost management remains the top concern for most payors. According to 85% of respondents, regulatory pressures stemming from OBBBA are dragging down margins, and “IT and business alignment” is now a higher priority than member satisfaction, provider satisfaction, and care delivery. While 76% of health plans said their members see them as a partner in their care journey, it wasn’t too surprising to see that only half of consumers felt the same way in a separate HealthEdge survey earlier this year.
- ECU Brings on Artisight: North Carolina-based rural system ECU Health is deploying Artisight’s Smart Hospital technology across its facilities, starting with five hospitals and expanding to more in the coming year. Artisight fuels its AI platform with a combination of computer vision, voice recognition, and RTLS data to equip hospitals with a real-time “sixth sense.” The always-on system proactively detects dangers and coordinates interventions to protect patients while reducing the burden on care teams.
- Rural Provider Shortages: Rural communities are already struggling to find enough primary care physicians, but recent forecasts suggest that the shortage will only continue to grow over the next decade. The Commonwealth Fund’s State of Rural Primary Care Report outlines why rural counties will have to increasingly rely on APPs to fill the gap, and how that likely won’t be enough to offset other disparities like a lack of telehealth access. These disparities have also been contributing to significantly higher utilization of EDs and other costly care sites, a trend that hasn’t exactly been helped by rural hospital closures.
- FDA Adds AI Agents: The FDA is rolling out agentic AI capabilities for all of its employees to support their regulatory workflows. The new capabilities will reportedly harness various AI models to assist with multi-step tasks, such as pre-market reviews, post-market surveillance, and inspections. The agency launched its first AI assistant called Elsa back in June, and although early users went as far as to call it “the stupidest big fuss they ever made,” over 70% of staff has now used the tool.
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Withings and Babyscripts Tackle Maternal Health
Babyscripts is teaming up with Withings Health Solutions to tackle the leading cause of maternal mortality in the U.S. – hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including preeclampsia. Learn how remote patient monitoring with BPM Pro 2 is helping Babyscripts keep mothers safe through personalized support when they need it most.
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Under the Hood of Navina’s AI
Navina’s AI engine harnesses over 600 proprietary algorithms to transform fragmented patient data into actionable clinical intelligence at the point of care. It’s shaped with the expertise of physicians to turn multiple data sources (EHR, HIE, claims, care gap files, etc.) into contextualized insights like suspected conditions or evidence for care gap closures – each linked back to the original source. Download the whitepaper to see examples of Navina’s AI in action.
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- Next Generation Ambient Technology and Agents: The ambient AI transformation is already sweeping across health systems, reducing administrative burdens and improving patient outcomes. So, what’s next? Tune into this on-demand session to learn how systems like Carle Health and Denver Health are leveraging Nabla to eliminate Pajama Time and build a future where agentic AI unlocks true workforce sustainability.
- Enrollment Timelines, State by State: Provider enrollment delays are shaping access to care, revenue timelines, and even workforce strategy. Ever wonder how they’re impacting organizations near you? Check out Medallion’s 2025 Geography of Payor Enrollments to see state-by-state enrollment times, how delays are compounding workforce shortages, and why you should factor this into your 2026 planning.
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