Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Saturday, October 3, 2026
Senate Unanimously Passes Bipartisan Health Care Cybersecurity Bill
The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously passed the Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2026, a bipartisan bill introduced by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner, John Cornyn and Maggie Hassan. The legislation calls for HHS to modernize the two-decade-old HIPAA Security Rule, including requiring multifactor authentication and penetration testing. It also calls for improved coordination between HHS and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, plus help for rural providers. The amended version still proposes grants but no longer expressly authorizes appropriations through FY2030. Warner urged the House to “act quickly.”
Sources: GovInfoSecurity
Physician Groups Rebuke RFK Jr.’s Claim That AI Is Better Informed Than Doctors
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday at the Make America Healthy Again Summit that artificial intelligence can give patients a second opinion “much better informed than any doctor in the country.” Six medical societies, including the American Medical Association, responded Wednesday with a joint statement warning that such claims “diminish physician expertise and risk undermining patients’ trust.” The groups said patient safety, physician expertise and the humanity of clinical practice must guide how AI tools are developed and used. A McKinsey report this week estimated 16% to 22% of U.S. outpatient claims involve services clinical AI could perform.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
Google Says Gemini 4 Argon Found Critical Flaw in Hospital Software
Google says its new frontier AI model, Gemini 4 Argon, uncovered a critical vulnerability in healthcare software used by hospitals worldwide that exposed sensitive personal information. Google-owned cybersecurity company Wiz found the flaw through its Scan for Good initiative. Google did not name the software or its vendor, say what data was exposed or say whether the vulnerability has been patched. Koray Kavukcuoglu, chief AI architect at Google, said earlier frontier models had missed the risk. Google is first giving Argon to trusted cyber defenders through its Fairwind Program. The company said Argon tied for first place, with a score of 68%, on the CWE-bench v1 benchmark.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Mayo Clinic Finds No Evidence of Unauthorized Access After AI Agent Report
Mayo Clinic said it has no evidence of unauthorized access to its systems or data after Asymmetric Security reported finding evidence that OpenAI agents had probed its website. In an Oct. 1 report, Asymmetric Security said it investigated agent activity between March and September and found agents probing websites belonging to Mayo Clinic, the CDC, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the International Energy Agency. The firm said the agents appeared to be researching public health and other data and used external services to bypass restrictions when they struggled. It said gaps in public records prevented it from determining whether sensitive data had been accessed. Mayo is continuing to review.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
AKASA Unveils Autonomous AI Platform for Inpatient Coding and Documentation
Health tech company AKASA is launching an autonomous AI platform for inpatient medical coding and clinical documentation integrity, expanding beyond its AI-powered prebill review. The company says its AI can complete coding in approximately 90 seconds after a patient is discharged, while a coder typically takes 30 to 60 minutes per inpatient encounter. AKASA said third-party, blinded evaluations showed its AI matched or exceeded human coders on key accuracy measures, including MS-DRG assignment and principal diagnosis. Cleveland Clinic plans to deploy the autonomous mid-cycle solutions. Following testing with a health system alpha partner, AKASA plans to make the inpatient coding platform available in the next several months.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
Studies Find AI Catches More Deterioration, but Shift Changes Delay Vital Signs
Two new studies examine how technology detects inpatient deterioration. Oregon Health & Science University researchers, analyzing 11.4 million measurements in npj Health Systems, found median delays of 12 to 25 minutes between recording vital signs and nurse validation, with a third of abnormal readings delayed by more than an hour. Lags spiked right before nursing shift changes. Separately, Duke-sprung startup Vega Health reported that across 118,063 patient encounters at five hospitals, the Duke Deterioration Index caught 55% more deterioration events than a widely used vendor model at the same alert rate. Pairing it with the NEWS 2 scoring tool captured more events than either model alone.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Optum, Owensboro Health Virtual Nursing Program Returns 1,700 Hours to Bedside
Kentucky-based Owensboro Health is working with Optum Insight on a virtual nursing program that pairs bedside nurses with virtual nurses who support admissions, discharges, medication reconciliation and care coordination. Since launching in 2024, the virtual nurses have logged more than 30,000 patient interactions, including support for 3,600 admissions, 2,000 discharges and about 5,800 medication verifications, Optum said. Those interactions have returned 1,700 hours to bedside nurses. Erin Satterwhite, CEO of Optum Insight Provider, said the organizations have collaborated for three years on IT and other services. “Virtual nursing is not about replacing nurses,” said Joni Sims, chief nursing officer at Owensboro Health.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
Health Systems Let IT C-Suite Roles Lapse as Technology Leaders Depart
Several health systems have let IT C-suite titles lapse in 2026, folding duties into broader jobs or leaving seats unfilled, Becker’s reports. Nallan Sriraman announced his departure Oct. 1 as chief technology officer of Mass General Brigham after nearly four years, with no successor announced. At Memorial Hermann Health System, Eric Smith retired Sept. 30 as chief digital officer, and CIO Desiree Gandrup-Dupre will now oversee both IT and digital. Temple University Health System is searching for an executive vice president and chief information and digital officer following its CIO’s retirement. Becker’s has also tracked a steady stream of newly created AI, data and digital roles.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Australia’s Health Department Awards Leidos A$91 Million Computing Contract
Australia’s Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has awarded Leidos Australia a three-year, A$91 million (about $63 million) contract to provide enterprise computing services supporting its applications and digital platforms. The contract covers compute, storage, data centre networking, cloud services, platform engineering, middleware, database management and data warehousing within the department’s multi-vendor ICT environment. Datacom currently supplies these services under a 12-year agreement due in mid-2027. The Leidos contract can be extended to a maximum of six years. In New Zealand, Timaru Hospital has deployed the ICNet digital surveillance platform to monitor winter illnesses, including influenza, RSV and COVID-19.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Grindr to Acquire HIV Telehealth Provider PurposeMed for $250 Million
Grindr has agreed to acquire PurposeMed, parent company of HIV-focused telehealth platform Freddie, for $250 million in cash and stock, plus up to $70 million more in cash if 2027 performance targets are met. Grindr will pay $190 million in cash and $60 million in Grindr stock. Freddie provides access to HIV prevention care, including PrEP medication, through telehealth services. Grindr says adding Freddie will let users learn about PrEP, obtain the medication through its app along with other prescriptions, and access testing. Freddie’s 2026 revenue is expected to exceed $80 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to closing conditions.
Sources: MobiHealthNews
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