Novo Nordisk plans to deploy advanced artificial intelligence capabilities to analyze complex datasets, identify promising drug candidates, and reduce the time required to move from research to patient.
American healthcare has long suffered from a structural mismatch: the system generates enormous demand for patient communication while the clinical workforce available to meet it continues to shrink. The World Health Organization projects a global shortage of 10 million health workers by 2030, and the gap is already visible in overloaded intake queues, missed follow-up calls, and patients left without support between appointments.
AI plays an important role-but not by fixing fragmented data on its own. The work of organizing, connecting, and interpreting healthcare information still belongs to people and the systems they build. Where AI helps is after that foundation is in place: by bringing the right information forward at the right time, reducing the effort it takes to find what matters, and supporting better decisions in the moment of care.
As OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health, allowing users to connect medical records and wellness apps for AI-driven health guidance, a new survey from Drip Hydration confirms Americans are increasingly turning to AI for medical advice. The nationwide survey explores the motivations, demographics, and regional trends behind this growing phenomenon. The data reveals where and why people are choosing AI alongside traditional medical channels in their healthcare journey.
I was in San Francisco earlier this week, debating the AI dividend with a dozen CEOs of major hospital systems at a dinner sponsored by Philips. If you're Suresh Gunasekaran of UCSF Health, which consistently ranks among the world's best in health outcomes and medical research, AI is becoming baked into a more seamless patient experience. "Being a medical student, a pharmacy student, a nurse is no longer the same in the age of AI," Gunasekaran said.
Anthropic is selling Claude for Healthcare as a HIPAA-compliant way to plug its model into the plumbing of US medicine, from coverage databases and diagnostic codes to provider registries. Once wired up, Claude can help with prior authorization checks, claims appeals, medical coding, and other administrative chores that currently clog up clinicians' inboxes and sanity. "Claude can now connect to industry-standard systems and databases to help clinicians and administrators find the data they need and generate reports more efficiently," Anthropic wrote.
Health tech gadgets displayed at the annual CES trade show make a lot of promises. A smart scale promoted a healthier lifestyle by scanning your feet to track your heart health, and an egg-shaped hormone tracker uses AI to help you figure out the best time to conceive.Tech and health experts, however, question the accuracy of products like these and warn of data privacy issues - especially as the federal government eases up on regulation.
An AI-powered appointments system developed by UK health-tech company DrDoctor could save the NHS up to £300 million a year by dramatically reducing missed hospital appointments, one of the health service's most persistent and costly problems. Missed outpatient appointments cost the NHS close to £1 billion annually, tying up staff time, wasting clinical capacity and lengthening waiting lists. DrDoctor believes its new AI platform, Smart Centre, can cut non-attendance rates by around 30% by predicting which patients are most likely not to turn up and adjusting clinic capacity in advance.
In 2035, AIs are more than co-pilots in medicine, they have become the frontline for much primary care. Gone is the early morning scramble to get through to a harassed GP receptionist for help. Patients now contact their doctor's AI to explain their ailments. It quickly cross-checks the information against the patient's medical history and provides a pre-diagnosis, putting the human GP in a position to decide what to do next.
The Rural Health Transformation Fund is a carveout that will provide $50bn over a period of five years to states who meet certain application criteria, including consumer-facing, technology-driven solutions for the prevention and management of chronic diseases, and providing training and technical assistance for the development and adoption of technology-enabled solutions that improve care delivery in rural hospitals, including remote monitoring, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other advanced technologies.
Cancer is not a monolith. "We speak about cancer like it's one disease, but it's more like thousands of different diseases," said Simone Korsgaard Jensen, CEO and founder of Radical Health. "On top of that, every single individual is so different. But right now we still treat it with a one-size fits-all approach. And that's where data and AI can especially step in to help."
