Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Striking NYC Doctors To Return To Work With Tentative Deal
Resident physicians who went on strike at New York City’s Elmhurst Hospital Center have reached a tentative deal on the third day of their walkout and will return to work, their union announced Wednesday. The strike by about 160 residents that began Monday was New York City’s first strike by doctors since 1990, according to the Committee of Interns and Residents local of the Service Employees International Union, their union. (5/24)
Matt Eyles, the head of insurance lobbying group AHIP, announced plans Wednesday to resign from the trade group Oct. 2. Eyles has served as president and CEO of AHIP for nearly five years and worked at the organization for more than eight years, according to a news release. AHIP’s board of directors will conduct a national search for Eyles’ replacement, the group said. (Tepper, 5/24)
At a waterfront concert in one of this city’s swankiest neighborhoods, rappers Busta Rhymes and Fat Joe interspersed their hits about love, wealth, and wild parties with mini-lectures about hospitals’ high prices. It was a nostalgia-fueled rager — but it was also a not-so-subtle effort by a billionaire to convince Congress and other policymakers to crack down on the commanding sway of the hospital industry. (Cohrs, 5/25)
Bright Health Group has shed its telehealth business as it seeks to avoid bankruptcy. Patient intake and tracking startup Florence acquired telehealth provider Zipnosis from Bright Health for an undisclosed amount in a cash transaction, Florence CEO Aniq Rahman said. (Tepper, 5/24)
On artificial intelligence in health care —
The latest version of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot from OpenAI, is smart enough to pass a radiology board-style exam, a new study from the University of Toronto found. GPT-4, which launched officially on March 13, 2023, correctly answered 81% of the 150 multiple-choice questions on the exam. Despite the chatbot’s high accuracy, the study — published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) — also detected some concerning inaccuracies. (Rudy, 5/25)
Cancer patients looking for quick answers or support between their appointments can now turn to "Dave," an artificial intelligence chatbot trained to discuss all things related to oncology. Launched earlier this month by Belong.Life, a New York-based health technology company, Dave is described as the world’s first conversational AI oncology mentor for cancer patients. (Rudy, 5/24)
