It was great to connect with friends, partners, and the broader healthcare ecosystem in Nashville last week. A few key themes came up time and again: AI moving from theoretical ideas to pilots and the cybersecurity crisis. Let’s dive in.
Two big announcements stole the show – Abridge’s $250M raise + Mayo Clinic pilot (70 mins saved per visit) and Cleveland Clinic’s selection of Ambience after testing multiple scribe technologies. Specialty-specific tools (e.g., wound care documentation) are the sleeper hit as clinical teams want “AI that speaks their language.”
Surgical tray optimization tools (reduce 30% waste) and med delivery bots synced to Epic got more buzz than flashy exoskeletons. ROI focus is clear: “If it doesn’t cut labor costs or med errors, we walk” – CommonSpirit exec.
65% of health systems are tapping the brakes on enterprise AI buys, fearing Epic will bake these tools into Cosmos or Cheers. But startups like Rhapsody are countering with FHIR-based “sidecar” AI that plugs into existing workflows.
VCs are all-in (80% of pitch decks led with AI), but health systems insist on 6-9 month validation sprints. The billion-dollar question: Who scales first – EHR giants, specialty-specific AI, or infrastructure players?
The Change Healthcare attack loomed large, with 259 million Americans—three in four—affected by healthcare data breaches in 2024 alone. John Riggi of the American Hospital Association emphasized that 70 million records were compromised independently of Change, primarily through third-party vendors.
While AI enhances threat detection, it also introduces novel risks. Zscaler highlighted the rise of AI-driven phishing campaigns, including deepfake voice calls impersonating hospital executives to bypass multi-factor authentication. Vanderbilt’s CIO noted a 300% increase in AI-generated attacks targeting their systems, necessitating $20 million in additional defensive investments.
Despite advanced tools on the market, Riggi revealed that 42% of breaches stem from insufficient IT-security collaboration, with many organizations lacking dedicated cybersecurity personnel to act on vendor alerts.
Despite their prominence at HLTH 2024, GLP-1 agonists were scarcely mentioned at ViVE—perhaps reflecting different innovation priorities across healthcare conferences. There's significant opportunity for more partnerships between technology vendors, pharma companies, and payers in this rapidly evolving space. Epic's Aura platform quietly added support for continuous glucose monitoring data, suggesting future AI applications could create valuable bridges between technology vendors, pharma, and payers in addressing obesity management at scale.
While AI’s role in reducing burnout was celebrated, systemic issues like nurse shortages (projected to reach 48,000 by 2034) received limited attention. Mayo Clinic’s AI-driven documentation tools for nurses emerged as a rare exception, highlighting a need for broader workforce-centric innovations.
While ViVE 2025 highlighted many of the challenges facing healthcare, it also showcased a growing momentum for change. The energy was palpable, with real efforts underway to create a more efficient, equitable, and innovative healthcare system.
At Redesign Health, we see this as an opportunity to be a driving force in this transformation. We’re committed to partnering with founders who share our vision of building solutions that address these challenges head-on. Together, we can turn today’s buzz into tomorrow’s breakthroughs and help shape a brighter future for healthcare. Learn more about our core thematic areas and how we’re driving impact.
If you’re interested in finding ways to work together, reach out to buildwithus@redesignhealth.com.
.webp)
