Fresh data on hospital AI use & Califf dishes on tech

Mario Aguilar covers technology in health care, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, wearable devices, telehealth, and digital therapeutics. His stories explore how tech is changing the practice of health care and the business and policy challenges to realizing tech’s promise. He’s also the co-author of the free, twice weekly STAT Health Tech newsletter. You can reach Mario on Signal at mariojoze.13.

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Califf warns AI in health care ‘overhyped’

On a makeshift stage in a Midtown Manhattan office earlier this week,former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf struck a measured tone about the potential for artificial intelligence in health care. Asked whether the technology was overhyped he said it was. “I hear way too much about the money. I’m not hearing a lot of human values coming through discussions,” he said. Adding:

“Almost all of the technology is being applied to optimizing the financial status of healthcare delivery entities or companies that are making medical products and that’s not aligned with equitable, better patient outcomes. So until someone puts a soul back in the system, I think it’s going to get worse and worse.”