1. Mental healthcare more likely to benefit from personalised data, not AI

A personalised approach provides a better strategy than AI for mental healthcare, a team of US researchers found. “We used AI tools to find associations between behaviors and mental health, and we found that these tools are not very accurate,” says lead researcher Dan Adler, a PhD candidate in information science at Cornell Tech. Tanzeem Choudhury, also a researcher at Cornell Tech, says this suggests that “the promise of wearable sensors and smartphones may lie in their ability to account for differences, track symptoms, and support precision treatment for individualized symptom trajectories.”

2. ‘Highly selective’ investors show declining interest in digital health sector

Venture funding for the digital health sector declined by 26 per cent between Q1 and Q2 of this year, according to CB Insights. Investments in Q2 fell to $2.9 billion – “its second-lowest quarterly level since 2016,” CB Insights says in its State of Venture Q2’24 Report.

3. 3 out of 4 providers and payers prioritise IT security in wake of February cyberattack

About 75 per cent of healthcare providers and payers surveyed by KLAS Research and Bain & Company have increased their investments in IT infrastructure over the past year. Although their priorities include technologies for clinical workflow optimisation and data analytics/AI, the top area of spending was for cybersecurity. The report noted that a majority of respondents reported being affected by the February 2024 cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a payment management provider and a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.

4. Healthcare leaders overwhelmingly name AI as ‘most exciting’ tech for industry

For the fourth year in a row, a survey by the Center for Connected Medicine at UPMC identifies AI as the technology that health system executives find most exciting for the industry – with 85 per cent citing the technology. Although they express concerns about security and governance, respondents say they believe that GenAI in particular could significantly benefit clinical care and decision making.

5. Most healthcare and life sciences businesses are embracing AI

Ninety-three per cent of healthcare and life sciences organisations plan to increase their spending on AI in 2025, according to a 451 Research study commissioned by Vultr. And 64 per cent expect to achieve ‘transformational AI status’ over the next two years, compared to 49 per cent for all other sectors.

6. Study: Telemedicine benefits rural residents but can hurt rural hospitals

The rising adoption of telemedicine is benefitting rural communities where visiting a healthcare provider can require lengthy travel and time commitments, according to research. However, because most remote healthcare is delivered by urban hospitals, the trend is having a negative impact on rural facilities, leading to reduced revenues and ‘the divestment of physicians, nurses and intensive care units’.

7. McKinsey: Bioengineering applications could bring $2tn in benefits

Bioengineering, which combines advances in both biology and computing, saw investments of $62 billion in 2023 and has the potential to generate $2 trillion in economic impact over the coming decade, according to McKinsey’s Technology Trends Outlook 2024. The area has hundreds of use cases and includes technologies like gene therapy that could improve human health and longevity.

8. AI is the top tech priority for healthcare execs: PwC

Executives at healthcare provider and payer organisations overwhelmingly name AI as their leading priority for emerging technology investment, with 77 per cent citing the technology, a PwC survey finds. Other tech investment priorities they identify include Internet of Things (43 per cent), augmented reality (30 per cent), virtual reality (29 per cent) and advanced robotics (25 per cent). “This is a moment of acceleration, as the industry is looking at AI to solve deepening administrative burdens and help reinvent business models,” PwC notes.

9. US survey finds concerns about healthcare record accuracy

A survey by Carta Healthcare finds that a ‘significant portion’ of respondents, especially younger people, report inaccuracies in their healthcare records: 86 per cent say they believe their records are accurate, but 45 per cent say they have had to correct or clarify information. The survey also finds ‘cautious optimism about the role of AI in enhancing record accuracy’: 59 per cent say they believe that AI could improve accuracy by detecting incomplete information or using predictive analytics, but 51 per cent express concerns about security and 41 per cent have concerns about accuracy.

10. Survey: More than half of Gen Z uses TikTok for wellness advice

Fifty-six per cent of Gen Z respondents use TikTok for advice on diets and wellness, and around one-third get more wellness advice from TikTok than from anywhere else, according to a survey by Zing Coach, a fitness app. The survey also finds that 1 in 3 don’t verify the health information they find on TikTok and 3 out of 5 report seeing health disinformation being promoted on the app. One out of 11 respondents reported that they had experienced negative health issues after following advice they found on TikTok.