Big Tech is no longer experimenting with healthcare—it’s competing to own the patient’s first interaction. Amazon, OpenAI, and Perplexity are rapidly launching AI-driven health platforms that sit before the clinic—handling symptoms, interpreting labs, guiding decisions, and even routing care. This isn’t one product category—it’s a stack war: And the behavior shift is already here: 👉 3 in 5 adults are using AI for health 👉 Most interactions happen outside clinic hours 👉 AI is becoming the default first touchpoint—not the doctor
Author: Abhay Panchal
Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the United States, and projections suggest approximately 108,860 new cases of colon cancer and 49,990 new cases of rectal cancer will be diagnosed in 2026.1,2 The quality of bowel preparation is crucial for high performance during colonoscopy. Inadequate preparation can affect the adenoma detection rate and result in repeat colonoscopic evaluations, unnecessary costs, and suboptimal patient experiences, which can lead to future noncompliance with colon cancer screening.
Sedation in gastroenterology is undergoing a subtle but significant shift—from routine moderate sedation to increasing reliance on monitored anesthesia care (MAC). What appears on the surface as a convenience-driven trend—patient comfort and faster throughput—is actually rooted in changing patient physiology and behavior. Today’s GI patients are different: The result?👉 A growing subset of patients who are less responsive to traditional sedation protocols This has pushed GI to become the largest consumer of outpatient anesthesia services in the U.S., placing additional strain on an already constrained anesthesia workforce.
A new NYU Stern report adds weight to a growing concern: private equity’s role in healthcare is no longer just controversial—it’s becoming a regulatory flashpoint. After more than $1 trillion in PE-driven healthcare deals over the past decade, the findings point to systemic risks: The core issue isn’t just ownership—it’s misalignment. 👉 A financial model built on leverage, returns, and exit timelines is increasingly clashing with a sector defined by continuity, access, and patient outcomes High-profile bankruptcies (e.g., Steward, Prospect) highlight the downstream impact—especially in rural and underserved communities, where closures hit hardest. But the report stops short of calling…
Doctronic’s $40M raise signals a shift from AI as support software to AI as the first point of care. Unlike traditional digital health tools, Doctronic positions itself as an autonomous, always-on clinical interface—capable of asking questions, generating medical guidance, and even (in limited settings) prescribing routine medications. But the real strategic move isn’t the technology—it’s positioning. Doctronic is framing itself as: That combination turns AI from a feature into infrastructure across the care continuum.
Physicians exiting private practice today aren’t just choosing a buyer—they’re choosing a model for how their practice will evolve after they leave. With consolidation accelerating, three primary paths have emerged: private equity, hospital systems, or internal partnerships. Each comes with fundamentally different trade-offs—across control, financial upside, operational autonomy, and long-term stability. The key shift is this:👉 Practice sales have moved from reactive decisions to high-stakes strategic planning exercises Private equity may offer higher upfront value and growth acceleration—but often with performance expectations. Hospitals bring integration and stability—but less autonomy. Partner buyouts preserve culture—but may limit scale and capital. At the…
A new liquid biopsy method has demonstrated the ability to detect more than 95% of stage I and II cancers in a blinded validation cohort, according to proof-of-concept data released by Volition, a multinational epigenetics company. The technology, called Capture-Seq, works by enriching and purifying plasma samples to produce virtually pure circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) for sequencing analysis — addressing one of the core challenges in liquid biopsy, where the vast majority of circulating DNA in blood plasma originates from healthy cells rather than tumor cells.
ABBOTT PARK, Ill., March 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced it has completed the acquisition of Exact Sciences, establishing Abbott as a leader in fast-growing cancer screening and diagnostics segments and enabling the company to serve millions of additional people. “Abbott’s global scale, track record of operational and commercial excellence and work with healthcare systems around the world will expand access to important tools for early cancer detection and personalized treatments,” said Robert B. Ford, chairman and chief executive officer, Abbott. “With the legacy and deep expertise of the Exact Sciences team, we’re ready to transform cancer…
The partnership between Jona and Everlywell signals a major shift: advanced gut microbiome testing is moving from specialized settings into scalable, consumer-facing platforms. By combining deep shotgun metagenomic sequencing with AI-driven analysis, the offering goes beyond basic gut tests—aiming to deliver strain-level insights and personalized intervention pathways. But the real inflection point is distribution. Through Everlywell’s reach, microbiome testing is no longer confined to early adopters or research settings—it’s being embedded into the mainstream at-home diagnostics ecosystem, accessible to millions.
Gastroenterology’s dealmaking landscape is shifting. Five recent transactions reveal an industry moving past aggressive consolidation toward a phase defined by operational efficiency, care quality and strategic alignment. Here’s what each deal signals about where GI is headed: NextServices Partners with One GI, 100ms In January, NextServices announced a three-way collaboration with GI platform One GI and AI company 100ms to build an AI-driven operating model across One GI’s network. The partnership targets patient access workflows first, specifically colonoscopy recalls and referrals, areas where delays have long created care gaps.AI agents operate in real time, managing outreach, patient interactions and follow-on…