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September 21, 2026 l Issue #344

🔍 Top Insights

1. Most health systems deploy AI tools without formal IT approval. What are the risks? 
2. ARPA-H to invest $62M to build agentic AI agent for heart care
3.  Novo Nordisk, Anthropic partner on AI drug discovery 
   

The Big Unlock Podcast 

As technology companies expand beyond traditional “swim lanes,” health systems must become more thoughtful about selecting platforms that can address multiple needs while avoiding fragmented solutions. 

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The Advocate Program is about bringing generative and agentic AI to the bedside that can essentially do everything a clinician can do over the phone and take that through the regulatory pathway so it can open up this entire field for everyone. 

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Exclusive Offers for The Big Unlock Community

Featured Resource: Generative AI: Unlocking the Next Chapter in Healthcare

AI Agents won't replace healthcare teams. They'll work alongside them.
The next evolution of Generative AI isn't a single chatbot.

It's intelligent AI agents that can collaborate, retrieve information, automate routine tasks, and support clinicians across complex workflows.
The opportunity isn't simply automation, but enabling clinicians and staff to focus on higher-value work while AI handles repetitive, information-intensive activities.

In Generative AI: Unlocking the Next Chapter in Healthcare, we explore how AI agents fit into the future of healthcare—and why governance and human oversight remain essential as these capabilities evolve.

The future isn't human or AI. It's human expertise amplified by AI.

Funding and M&A Moves

• Hello Patient acquires Converse Health to broaden workflow automation 
• Inspiren raises $70M for AI senior care platform 
  

🤖 AI in Action

Use Case of the Week:  AI-Accelerated Stroke Treatment    

Health System: Houston-area hospitals 
    

Houston hospitals are using AI to analyze brain CT scans, identify suspected large-vessel-occlusion strokes, and immediately alert stroke teams. At one hospital, the AI-enabled workflow reduced the average time required to administer clot-busting medication and move patients into surgery from 84 minutes to under 25 minutes, saving nearly an hour during a time-critical emergency. Clinicians remain responsible for validating the findings and determining treatment. The results demonstrate how AI-powered imaging analysis and automated care coordination can improve emergency response times, accelerate treatment, and potentially protect patients from severe neurological disability. 

📊 Industry Spotlight

1.  How AI Creates a Capability Mirage 
2.  Research: Gen AI Is Collapsing Creative Processes 
3.  Humana study links pharmacy care coordination to lower costs, fewer hospitalizations for cancer patients  

🧠 Thought Leadership

• Health Literacy is the Missing Link to Better Patient Outcomes and Digital Healthcare Transformation 
• How BigRio Designed a Scalable Patient-Reactivation Model for a Leading U.S. Health System
• A Leading Research Institute Reinvents Outcomes Research with AI-Assisted Coding
• How AI is Helping Physicians Reclaim Time and Attention

💬 From the Frontlines

"We are at the very beginning of understanding how humans and AI are going to interact in clinical medicine.”

— Dr. Ami Bhatt, Chief Medical Officer, WHOOP (The Big Unlock Podcast  Episode #224) 

📅 Upcoming Events

• World Medical Innovation Forum I Sep 22-23 I Boston  
• GAI Insights Conference I Sep  28-30 I Boston
• Meditech Conference I Sep 29-Oct 1 I Boston 

Open Jobs

• C-level Due Diligence Expert/ Advisor 
• Epic Willow Inpatient
• Epic Willow Ambulatory