The healthcare giant’s forecasted decline in revenues signals an industry-wide pivot from expansion to cost discipline.

Clinicians and staff adopt “shadow AI” tools to move faster, exposing gaps in hospital AI strategy.

A new Rx refill program cuts out physicians, raising fears over safety—tougher regulatory oversight is likely to come.

AI scribe tools that transcribe doctors’ notes save doctors only a minimal amount of time, according to a recent UCLA Health study. Healthcare AI scribe developers already face high provider churn due to a crowded market and the ease of switching between competing products. They must now prove their product's value extends beyond time savings (modest or significant) to include areas like improving patient care, enhancing the patient experience to drive retention, or ensuring more accurate clinical notes for billing and coding.

The majority (86%) of healthcare professionals say AI affects their treatment decisions, although the degree ranges from significant to slight, per a recent DHC Group survey. Healthcare professionals are open to more AI use in medical practice, but they still prefer it as a support tool. Pharma companies should focus on advisory, not decision-making solutions that can help save physicians’ time and add clinical context.

With tighter rules looming for D2C drug ads, pharma must strengthen its marketing efforts to healthcare professionals (HCPs). Delivering data-driven outreach and credible clinical content on digital channels that physicians frequent will be key to sustaining drug awareness and prescriptions amid declining HCP access.

Leading healthcare AI startups, including OpenEvidence, Abridge, UpToDate, and Doximity, are rolling out new products and capabilities in the race to compete for physician adoption and investment funding. Companies could gain an advantage by making their products easily integrated into clinicians’ existing workflows, such as their EHRs. Startups should also showcase the outcomes of their technology to influential stakeholders like medical associations to help establish credibility at the clinician level.

Doctors started paying more attention to information and ads for new weight loss drugs months before they began prescribing them, according to research from ZoomRx. The study tracked obesity health-related web browsing and ad exposures for 279 healthcare providers on digital channels and 204 on TV and connected TV. Pharma companies need to find where doctors are searching or reading about Rx drugs and how their interest in a drug’s information is changing, even before the sales numbers are in. Track Reddit forums and physician social media channels like Sermo and Doximity to gauge behaviors and attitudes and shift marketing plans to meet them. Use sales reps and peer-led webinars to capture early interest—and keep refreshing that marketing with updated data and patient results as competing entrants begin to pull attention away.

The news: A Microsoft AI pilot study showed a fourfold improvement in diagnostics compared with a panel of real doctors, but researchers acknowledged the continued need for human expertise. The takeaway: It’s evident AI is not a replacement for doctors, but it is a tool they should start adopting. There’s a window of opportunity for doctors and healthcare systems to grab a first-mover advantage by presenting AI as a co-pilot and a value-add that leads to more accurate diagnoses and more time spent with patients.

The news: Consumers who are more familiar with AI are also more likely to mistrust an AI-assisted diagnosis from their doctor, per a recently published Journal of Medical Internet Research survey. Our take: Physicians and healthcare marketers can’t assume people who are familiar with AI will be more comfortable with AI uses in healthcare. Marketers need to talk about AI as a tool with many positive effects like freeing doctors for longer personal interactions and resulting in fewer mistakes.

The news: Around 50 health plans— including large players UnitedHealthcare, CVS Health, Cigna, and Elevance Health—are pledging to simplify the prior authorization process. Our take: But their commitments don’t come with mandates or enforcement—meaning insurers can still get away with tactics that boost their profits over paying for expensive medical care.

The data: Physicians are more bullish on AI in healthcare than patients. Our take: Doctors are still figuring out AI themselves—but they can’t lose sight of how important it is to keep patients informed. They’ll need to get patient consent for use cases such as transcribing visits, and should opt out of using AI if their patients aren’t comfortable with it.

The news: Medical AI startup OpenEvidence inked a multi-year agreement with JAMA Network that gives the company access to full-text content from the American Medical Association’s 13 medical journals. Our take: OpenEvidence is competing with Wolters Kluwer’s UptoDate medical information tool, which is used by a few million clinicians worldwide and has recently integrated its own AI search capabilities. One big difference between the products is that OpenEvidence is free for doctors and generates revenue through advertising. Meanwhile, UptoDate does not provide advertising opportunities. We think that OpenEvidence’s internal AI prowess could give it the leg up as long as its in-platform advertising doesn’t turn off doctors too much.

Healthcare providers ages 50-70 are the most avid digital enthusiasts: HCPs are leaning into digital channels, but adoption varies among age cohorts. We dig into which digital channels they prefer, and implications for pharma companies looking to engage with HCPs.

Docs are using AI more, and are more excited about its potential: But physicians want more regulatory oversight before they completely trust the tech. Recent workforce cuts at the FDA could make this difficult to achieve.

Social health influencers can change physicians’ prescribing choices: But only if a campaign focuses on certain factors physicians value, like credibility.

Doctors are using genAI to respond to their patients’ MyChart messages: But patients aren’t always aware, which can erode the trust underpinning the patient-physician relationship.

Consumers are using the internet and social media to a great extent for healthcare purposes. Here’s what healthcare and pharma marketers need to know about how online-acquired information influences patient action.

On today's podcast episode (part 1), we discuss why consumers are using GenAI to look up health information, how physicians feel about it, and how this stacks up against other health-related internet searches. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Rajiv Leventhal.

Doctors may change their opinions of medications and treatments based on new information they access on social media. Here’s how pharmaceutical marketers can seize the opportunity.