Bunkerhill Health CEO Nishith Khandwala

Grats to Spain for getting a beautiful victory, grats to Argentina for putting up a great fight, and grats to Bunkerhill Health for closing its Series B so we have something besides soccer to talk about.

We’re still working on getting Messi and Yamal on the DHW Show, but we managed to grab Bunkerhill CEO Nish Khandwala for a conversation on how to shorten the distance between good ideas and working solutions. Catch the full episode to learn how agentic AI is making that possible, and what the next chapter for health systems could look like if they’re limited by imagination instead of technology.

Thanks for tuning in.
Jason

Startups

Bunkerhill Lands Series B to Turn Ideas Into Action

Bunkerhill Health might take its name from a short-lived medical drama, but all signs point to it sticking around for the long haul after landing $25M of Series B funding from a stacked investor roster led by Khosla Ventures.

Bunkerhill isn’t going after one workflow at a time. Its Carebricks platform lets health systems transform their ideas into AI agents that work across any clinical or operational use case – turning the data that hospitals already generate into action for the patients who need it.

• That includes everything from automating administrative work and navigating prior auths to reviewing cardiac imaging for early signs of heart disease.

• The value prop propelled Bunkerhill’s revenue over 20x just last year, which no doubt helped attract big names like Sequoia, Optum Ventures, and Y Combinator to the round.

The pitch flips the usual script. Instead of a vendor showing up with a fixed solution, health systems bring the clinical judgment and the problems that need solving.

• Carebricks brings the execution, running the work as AI agents that reason across disparate data sources, take real action, and grow more capable as they work together.

The proof is in the customer pudding. Carebricks is live at over 15 health systems, including some familiar faces like Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Intermountain Health, and the University of Texas Medical Branch.

UTMB alone has 20+ agents in production across the organization:

• In its first month, a coronary calcium detection agent flagged a patient at imminent risk of a heart attack, leading to a life-saving triple bypass.

• A nephrology triage agent cut specialist wait times by more than 50% by escalating urgent cases and routing others to telemedicine.

• A lung nodule agent addressed urgent incidental findings 80% faster and doubled guideline-concordant follow-ups.

Vinod Khosla summed it up well: the bottleneck in healthcare AI was never the technology, it was getting health systems to actually run it.

• Bunkerhill will use the new capital to expand Carebricks to new partners, while also expanding the platform’s capabilities so existing partners have even more ways to actually run it. 

The Takeaway

Healthcare has plenty of good ideas. It even has a couple that eventually end up improving care. Bunkerhill is making sure fewer good ideas get lost along the way, and it just raised $25M to fine-tune its compass.

The Distance Between an Idea and Reality

Almost every good idea in healthcare already exists. The hard part is building it. Bunkerhill Health CEO Nishith Khandwala believes shortening the distance between ideas and solutions will be the defining feature of healthcare’s next chapter, and his new essay lays out how agentic AI is making it happen – not by being the hero, but by giving heroes the tools they need. 

What Clinicians Need From AI After the Pilot

Clinical AI has moved from novelty to fixture in everyday practice. The harder question now is: what makes it deliver lasting value rather than stall after rollout? Abridge is hosting a conversation with leaders from Adventist Health and Rady Children’s Health to answer that exact question on Friday, July 24th. Reserve your spot to hear what they’ve learned as AI has expanded across their organizations – from large multispecialty medical groups to pediatric care settings.

The Wire

• RPM in the Crosshairs: Third-party remote patient monitoring vendors were caught offside in CMS’s proposed rule for the 2027 MPFS, which would bar reimbursement for RPM services unless they’re performed by clinical staff that’s directly employed by the practice doing the billing. Medicare started covering RPM in 2018, and reimbursement ballooned to over $500M by 2024. That same year, an OIG report showed that 43% of beneficiaries receiving RPM weren’t getting at least one of the three required components: devices, education/setup, and treatment management. The initial response to the proposed change seems to be that those would be some pretty good levers to pull before taking the nuclear option. Stay tuned for a deeper dive on Thursday.

• Brook + SRHO: Not an RPM company to let a little proposed rule ruin its momentum, Brook.ai announced a strategic partnership with SRHO – The National Association, the nation’s leading consortium of Strategic Regional Healthcare Organizations representing over 275 hospitals across 20 states. The partnership will see Brook’s agentic AI remote care platform deployed across SRHO member health systems to enable continuous care beyond the walls of their institutions. Brook blends clinician-governed agentic AI with dedicated remote clinical teams to enable earlier risk identification and stellar results: a 50% reduction in all-cause readmissions, 74% hypertension control, and 71% long-term patient retention.

• AI Head-to-Head: ARISE just gave us one of the best head-to-head tests of clinical AI models to date. The Stanford and Harvard-backed research network evaluated 45 LLMs and 4 clinical RAG systems on NOHARM, which evaluates how often AI-generated recommendations could result in patient harm across 1,100 physician-derived clinical scenarios spanning 10 medical specialties. The full study is a surprisingly good read if you have a full cup of coffee, but long story short Doximity Ask took the crown, outperforming OpenEvidence, GPT-5.6 Sol, and Claude Fable 5 along the way.

• Neko Banks a Big One: Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s full-body scan startup Neko Health scored a $700M Series C to break into the U.S market. Unlike most competitors, Neko skips the MRI and relies solely just on blood tests and a proprietary mix of sensors to assess patients’ health. The hour-long workup runs about $350, which over 100k people across the U.K. and Sweden have forked over for same-day data on their skin, heart, blood, and metabolism.

• The Case for Self Triage: Mount Sinai’s “Check Symptoms & Get Care” digital front door appears to be a dependable substitute for physician triage outside of business hours. In an NEJM Catalyst case study, the AI-driven solution posted 88% to 96% agreement with doctors and zero patient safety incidents across 60k+ visits and 22k completed sessions. A vast majority of that usage came after hours (71%). One finding that stood out: when patients were asked where they planned to seek care before showing them a recommendation, 62% of those with a clear plan were headed to the wrong venue, and most were about to seek less care than they needed.

• GLP-1 Use Soars: Taking GLP-1s for weight loss is now about as common in the U.S. as being left-handed. A Gallup poll found 11% of Americans are using these drugs to shed pounds, up from 3% in 2024, and 15% have tried them at some point. Brand-name GLP-1s make up 68% of usage, compared with 19% for custom-mixed versions. That gap could soon close, with compounded users more likely to switch from brand name than vice versa (35% vs. 10%).

• Corner Cops $32.5M: Corner Health secured $32.5M of Series A funding to empower more NPs to launch and scale their own primary care practices through its Cora AI-native practice operating system. Cora automates the full spectrum of primary care operations including patient comms, billing, lab orders, scheduling, and referrals to help NPs step into leading roles and fill the shortage of >80k physicians. Corner’s CEO believes the platform will improve care relationships by allowing NPs to focus on fewer patients and “spend 2-3x more time with each one.”

• hellocare + Cottage Health: Cottage Health is deploying hellocare.ai’s platform across its five-hospital network following a successful pilot of the virtual care, patient engagement, and patient safety technologies. The expanded partnership makes Epic’s patient portal available on hellocare bedside screens and brings AI-powered fall prevention and detection to all Cottage Health inpatient rooms. hellocare partners with over 100 U.S. health systems, counting Cottage Health and at least six others that signed enterprise agreements this year. 

• Supply Chain Cybersecurity Threats: Fortified Health Security’s mid-year report revealed health systems remain largely unprotected from cyberattacks. Compared to the first half of 2025, this year hospitals have seen 60% more severe security problems, but only 6% of risks have been addressed (down from 25% last year). The most vulnerable areas are the big ones: supply-chain management and identity/access control. The report emphasizes prevention as the solution, especially against increasingly common “smash-and-grab” AI attacks which often go unnoticed until it’s too late.

• Baptist Health Taps Vega: Vega Health is partnering with Northeast Florida’s largest health system to help integrate AI into Baptist Health’s growing hospital-at-home program. The HaH initiative has already served over 100 patients since its February launch, but clinicians note eligibility screenings are taking time away from hands-on care. That’s where Vega steps in, supporting clinical teams with an AI screener that searches every inpatient chart for eligibility criteria, then surfaces best-match patients to be evaluated by clinical staff.

The Agentic Platform for Your Environment

Your care plans. Your patients. Every health system is unique, which is why Tucuvi tailors its agentic platform to the day-to-day realities of care delivery at each of its partners. With configurable protocols and seamless EHR integration from day one, LOLA is the AI voice agent care teams trust to reach every patient. See LOLA handle real care workflows with your use cases today.

Beyond Weight Loss: How Engagement Drives Employer ROI and Outcomes

Enrollment is the easy part. Nearly every program in the weight management space can point to a solid sign-up number, but the harder question is what keeps members engaged months later. On July 22, Withings Health Solutions, 9amHealth, and Harvard University are hosting a live conversation to answer exactly that. Reserve your spot today to learn about the gap between enrollment and sustained engagement, and what actually closes it.

State of Payor Enrollment and Credentialing

AI is changing the way that healthcare leaders tackle provider network management. Medallion’s latest report breaks down the biggest challenges, emerging trends, and how automation is transforming the landscape. Get the insights you need – read the full report today.

The Resource Wire

• Better Health Through Virtual-First Primary Care: For patients, positive health outcomes are driven by strong relationships built on trust with health systems and providers. Hear how Ovatient’s fully EHR-integrated, virtual-first care approach is helping primary care patients like Tito Santiago reach their care goals and build a stronger relationship with The MetroHealth System.

• Making the Case for AI: Healthcare organizations have a lot to gain from implementing AI that can enhance coding accuracy and quality metrics, but securing buy-in from leadership is a crucial first step. Check out Navina’s new guide by Dr. Michael S. Barr to see exactly how to demonstrate clear financial benefits, ROI potential, and alignment with organizational priorities to help ensure AI projects are successful.

• Evidence, in the Flow of Care: Heidi brings trusted guidelines and peer-reviewed research directly into clinical workflows so decisions don’t stall care. Clinicians get clear, evidence-based answers without leaving the conversation. No ads, no limits, and no outside interests getting in the way of care. Find out how with Heidi Evidence.

The Industry Wire

1. Biopharma firms ride high into Q2 reporting season. 
2. UnitedHealthcare beats expectations during second quarter. 
3. Are payors backing away from pledges to reform prior authorization? 
4. U.S. Senate votes to salvage WISeR prior auth pilot project.
5. Hospitals look for help to automate RCM processes. 
6. FDA officials retreat from policy guidelines from previous officials. 
7. Is data on ultrasound-directed gene therapy “too good to be true?”
8. Deaths from coronary artery disease fall in U.S. 
9. Editors at diabetes journal rebel after claiming censorship. 
10. California farm linked to cyclosporiasis outbreak preps wider recall.