This week at the HLTH conference in Las Vegas, healthcare leaders and investors came together to network and discuss what the future of the industry should look like. Many of the companies attending the event also made news announcements, from partnerships to new products to funding rounds and more.
Below are nine notable announcements made during the conference.
Amazon One Medical teams up with Cleveland Clinic and rolls out new AI tools
Amazon One Medical announced a partnership with Cleveland Clinic that seeks to increase access to primary care for patients in northeast Ohio.
Next year, Amazon One Medical -- which offers hybrid virtual and in-person primary care -- will open a primary care office in affiliation with Cleveland Clinic. The company said that its clinic will offer same and next-day appointment availability, on-demand virtual care support and on-site lab services.
The partners said they plan to build additional clinics over the next few years.
Amazon One Medical also announced that it is launching new AI tools aimed at reducing physicians' administrative burden.
One of the new tools assists with clinical documentation, ambiently capturing what was said during a patient visit and producing a draft note that clinicians can review and edit before submitting. Another one will summarize a patient's medical records so that clinicians can have a holistic view of their health history, medications and test results.
Amazon One Medical is also releasing a generative AI tool that will help care teams promptly respond to patient messages, as well as a triaging tool that will connect patients to the appropriate care team member.
GE HealthCare launches a new product and an AI innovation lab
GE HealthCare is launching a new AI platform that harmonizes cancer patients' data and provides clinicians with summaries of their notes and reports. The platform, called CareIntellect for Oncology, also flags relevant data to help clinicians quickly understand patients' disease progression and identify potential deviations from the care plan.
The platform is expected to be available to U.S. customers next year. Tampa General Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center will be early evaluators of the technology.
Blue Shield of California strikes partnership with Salesforce
Blue Shield of California is partnering with Salesforce to streamline the prior authorization process. The two companies are building a new tool that will allow physicians and patients to receive prior authorization answers in almost real-time.
Upon the physician's request, the tool will search the patient's health records for relevant clinical information and organize it into a pre-populated electronic form. Physicians will then be able to submit prior authorization requests right away through their systems, and patients will receive an answer during their visit.
Testing for the solution begins in early 2025 with a limited rollout to start.
Noom unveils two new products to help employers address GLP-1 expenses
Noom is launching a new solution called Noom Med with Smart Rx, which is designed to support employers and health plans in delivering effective obesity care. The company partnered with Walz Health, a digital health company focused on drug pricing and distribution, to power the product.
The solution seeks to bypass traditional intermediaries in order to decrease employers' overall treatment costs. The product is being offered as a supplemental benefit, which allows employers or health plans to set for themselves the amount of financial assistance they want to provide.
Noom also unveiled a product called Noom Weight with GLP-1Rx , which delivers an obesity care program and provides employee-pay access to affordable GLP-1s. This solution is aimed at employers that choose not to directly cover GLP-1s but still want to give employees options when it comes to weight management.
The startup's main goal is to make it easier for health systems, biopharma companies and AI developers to access imaging data that will help advance their research. Having access to this data will help researchers with things like clinical trial design and algorithms training, CEO Ryan Tarzy said.
Uber Health partners with NationsBenefits
Uber Health is teaming up with NationsBenefits, a benefits administration company that partners with managed care organizations. The partnership gives Medicare Advantage members the opportunity to use health benefit cards on Uber rides and Uber Eats grocery delivery services.
The partners said they are working to enable members to shop directly for groceries on the Uber Eats app through the NationsBenefits' marketplace in the future.
Essence Healthcare gives MA plan members free Oura ring
Medicare Advantage plan provider Essence Healthcare is providing some of its members free access to an Oura ring. The smart ring is a wearable that offers data and guidance on things like sleep, activity and heart health.
Essence said it is the only MA plan provider to partner with a smart ring company.
Nvidia and Aidoc are collaboration on guidelines to accelerate AI adoption
Nvidia and Aidoc -- two companies selling healthcare AI tools -- are teaming up to create a set of AI governance guidelines.
The guidelines are named BRIDGE: the Blueprint for Resilient Integration and Deployment of Guided Excellence for AI adoption. The partners said they wanted to establish a free, open-source framework so that healthcare organizations can speed up their AI adoption process.