On this week’s “Readout LOUD,” we’re live in San Francisco at STAT’s Breakthrough Summit West. AI is a big theme this year, everywhere, so on that note, we chat with our AI correspondent — and recent Pulitzer finalist — Casey Ross, who sat down on stage to discuss AI-centered drug discovery with both NVIDIA and Google-backed Isomorphic Labs. We also...

SAN FRANCISCO — Amid what feels like an ever-worsening drug crisis here, locals and politicians alike are fed up. Overdose death rates remain near all-time highs. The Tenderloin, a historic downtown neighborhood, remains rife with open-air substance use and drug dealing. Public health officials are increasingly at a loss. In recent years, much of the...

SAN FRANCISCO — In the world of drug discovery, AI progress is often measured by a single-mile marker: When will we get an AI-designed drug? The answer remains, ambiguously, “the future,” but at STAT’s Breakthrough Summit leaders from NVIDIA and Google insisted that the impact of AI is visible today. Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare for...

SAN FRANCISCO — Surging interest in generative AI among medical professionals since ChatGPT’s launch is perhaps a testament to its potential — but it could also lead clinicians, and patients to experiment with it before there is wider consensus on how to navigate its biases and other pitfalls, Microsoft’s head of research Peter Lee said Thursday at...

WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee on Thursday advanced legislation that would extend some pandemic-era telehealth policies in Medicare for two years, bringing the panel’s approach in line with another committee. During the pandemic, Congress extended flexibilities that changed what kinds of care Medicare beneficiaries could receive over telehealth...

Higher ranking military officers receive more resources and better care than low ranking military officers, according to an analysis of 1.5 million military ER visits published Thursday in the journal Science. The study also showed that white physicians expended less effort on Black patients, even when rank was taken into account: Higher ranking Black...