Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
TEFCA Hits 1 Billion Health Data Exchanges; ONC Awards $1.28M Oversight Contract
The federal interoperability network TEFCA reached 1 billion health data exchanges, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT announced June 29. Simultaneously, ONC awarded a $1.28 million oversight contract to The Sequoia Project, TEFCA’s Recognized Coordinating Entity, to support continued governance and network expansion. TEFCA creates a common framework for cross-network health data exchange, enabling healthcare organizations, payers, and public health agencies to share clinical records across previously siloed systems. The dual announcement — milestone plus oversight funding — signals the framework’s growing maturity and ONC’s commitment to its long-term stability.
Sources: Healthcare IT News Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Trase Lands $107M to Scale AI Agents for Healthcare and High-Stakes Industries
Trase, which builds AI agents for high-stakes environments, has raised $107 million in seed funding led by ARCH Venture Partners, with participation from Red Cell Partners. The Virginia-based company’s Trase Origin platform deploys purpose-built AI agents across patient access, care management, clinical research, and revenue cycle management workflows. A Duke Heart Center deployment demonstrates the approach: Trase agents now automate fax triage for more than 5,000 incoming faxes per month, previously hand-sorted by medical assistants or nurses. “The promise of AI in a clinical setting is real,” said Dr. Manesh Patel, chief of cardiology at Duke Health.
Sources: MobiHealthNews Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Aidoc Lands FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for AI That Drafts Radiology Reports
Aidoc received FDA Breakthrough Device designation for First Read, an investigational AI tool that analyzes chest X-rays and drafts preliminary radiology report text for radiologist review. The designation expedites FDA collaboration during development but does not constitute clearance or approval. The tool targets a growing imaging backlog: a Neiman Health Policy Institute study found outpatient imaging interpretation turnaround times more than doubled between 2014 and 2023. “Imaging underpins most diagnostic decisions. When interpretation backs up, it doesn’t stay a radiology problem,” said Aidoc CMO Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld. Aidoc’s platform is deployed at nearly 2,000 hospitals worldwide and has analyzed more than 120 million patient cases.
Sources: MobiHealthNews Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Virtual Care Use Climbs, but Many Health Systems Lose Money on Digital Services
Telehealth encounters rose 79% between January 2019 and January 2026, and remote patient monitoring increased nearly 4,000% in the same period — but health systems are still losing money on virtual care, according to a new Strata Decision Technology report. Average total cost margins for telehealth remained negative across all major payer categories in 2025, including commercial, Medicare, Medicaid, and self-pay. Health system operating margins slipped to 0.2% in April 2026, down from 0.4% in March. The data reveals a widening gap between surging virtual care adoption and the absence of financially sustainable reimbursement models at most health systems.
Sources: Healthcare IT News Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Doctronic, Simple HealthKit Partner to Expand AI-Powered At-Home Testing
AI primary care company Doctronic is partnering with Simple HealthKit to offer at-home diagnostic testing to its patients. Doctronic provides a free AI doctor platform available 24/7 — the AI asks clinical questions and connects patients with licensed physicians via video. Through the partnership, Simple HealthKit will ship at-home test kits to patients concerned about diabetes, kidney disease, sexually transmitted diseases, or other chronic conditions. Patients with positive results are referred back to Doctronic for follow-up care. “When a patient gets a result, they have immediate access to an AI health assistant for questions and a complete consultation with a real doctor,” said Simple HealthKit CEO Dr. Sheena Menezes.
Sources: MobiHealthNews Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
SandboxAQ to Bring Scientific AI Models to Google Cloud Marketplace
SandboxAQ will list its Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) on Google Cloud Marketplace, beginning with AQCat for materials and catalyst discovery, followed by AQPotency for computational drug discovery — both slated for the third quarter of 2026. Built using real-world lab data and scientific equations, the models allow R&D teams to screen drug candidates earlier in the discovery process without specialized code or infrastructure. “Pairing the reasoning of a frontier model such as Gemini with the quantitative precision of our LQMs is a powerful combination,” said SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary. The announcement follows SandboxAQ’s June 23 launch of AQState, a GPCR virtual screening solution built with NVIDIA’s BioNeMo Agent Toolkit.
Sources: MobiHealthNews Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Healthcare AI’s Next Big Leap: Removing Friction from Clinical Workflows
Dr. Alex Towbin, associate chief medical informatics officer at Cincinnati Children’s, argues the next frontier in healthcare AI is eliminating friction from clinical workflows rather than simply layering on new tools. Writing for Healthcare IT News, Towbin contends organizations should measure technology value in “clicks removed” — not uptime or adoption metrics. Cincinnati Children’s radiology department eliminated nearly one million manual interactions by combining workflow redesign, interoperability standards, DICOM structured reporting, and LEAN methods — not AI alone. Towbin warns that AI tools requiring separate launch or manual access will fail long-term: only algorithms embedded invisibly in everyday workflows will gain lasting clinician adoption.
Sources: Healthcare IT News Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
FDA Closes Warning Letter to Whoop for Blood Pressure Insights Feature
The FDA formally closed its July 2025 warning letter to Whoop on June 17, 2026, after the fitness wearable company modified its Blood Pressure Insights feature and updated labeling to align with the agency’s updated General Wellness guidance. The FDA had contended the blood pressure tracking feature was an unapproved medical device requiring premarket approval or 510(k) clearance. Whoop argued the feature qualified as a general wellness product under the 21st Century Cures Act. CEO Will Ahmed said the company “believed in the strength of science” and credited Whoop’s clinical and regulatory team for resolving the dispute with the FDA.
Sources: MobiHealthNews Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.