How AI Is Changing Healthtech Investing [Newsletter #86]

Hello, AI enthusiasts from around the world.

Welcome to this week’s newsletter for the AI and the Future of Work podcast.

Have you ever waited weeks for a medical exam or test result? The waiting alone adds stress. And for many people, delays keep getting longer.

The global population is aging. Healthcare systems in many countries struggle to keep up with demand. At the same time, the number of medical professionals continues to shrink, and burnout sits close to the surface.

Healthcare has reached an inflection point.

In this week's conversation, we explore why healthcare data, while essential, still lags behind real needs. We also look at how AI is no longer a distant promise, but a practical tool already reshaping entire systems.

Let’s dive into this week’s highlights! 🚀

🎙️ New podcast episode with Lynne Chou O’Keefe, founder and managing partner of Define Ventures

We’re getting older.

Societies around the world are aging. Birth rates continue to fall. A gap has been forming in plain sight for decades. Many chose not to see it. 

It took a global pandemic to make this impossible to ignore.

Healthcare technology has advanced significantly. Medical research has extended life expectancy and turned once incurable conditions into manageable ones. But the infrastructure that delivers care hasn't evolved at the same pace.

The challenge sits around the system itself. As the population ages, healthcare faces growing pressure from a shrinking workforce. As Lynne Chou O’Keefe explains, there are not enough doctors, and many of those still practicing carry the weight of prolonged burnout after the pandemic years.

The risk is clear. An aging population combined with staffing shortages places the system under strain few countries are prepared to handle. 

This is where AI enters the picture in Lynne's vision.

Lynne is the Founder and Managing Partner of Define Ventures, one of the largest early-stage health tech firms managing $800 million in assets. Her firm has driven $23 billion in exit value through investments in companies such as Hims & Hers, Livongo, and Evolent. Beyond venture capital, Lynne has shaped the industry from inside: operational roles at Abbott Vascular and Guidant gave her direct experience with the systems she now funds.

In this week's episode, Lynne sat down with PeopleReign CEO Dan Turchin to explore how AI becomes a core pillar for future healthcare.

After all, widespread digitization of medical records began only 15 to 20 years ago. We are still at the earliest stages of what technology and AI allow healthcare to become. In Lynne’s view, this shift is no longer optional.

This week’s conversation covers this and much more:

• Healthcare economics are shifting from volume-based to outcome-based models. AI is central to that shift.

• Patients now expect healthcare to work like transportation or food delivery: “meet me where I am”.

• AI adoption follows three stages: administrative efficiency, augmenting clinical workflows, then clinical decision-making.

• AI will not replace human doctors. Ethics and trust are mandatory for these systems to work.

• Access can matter more than perfection. During long wait times, AI assisted care can step in, as long as responsibility and oversight are in place.

🎧 This week's episode of AI and the Future of Work, featuring Lynne Chou O’Keefe, Founder and Managing Partner of Define Ventures.

Listen to the full episode to learn how Lynne sees AI redefining healthcare, not by replacing staff, but by reducing friction in their daily work.

📖 AI Fun Fact

The Vatican recently held a conference exploring the relationship between AI and medicine, as reported by Vatican News. The event focused on one central idea: “We must not fall into the temptation of humanizing technology, nor of mechanizing the human being.”

The conference, titled AI and Medicine: The Challenge of Human Dignity, highlighted the risks of turning health and illness into numbers and data. Patients are people shaped by emotions, fears, and feelings.

Medical criteria remain essential and irreplaceable, especially when personalizing treatment. The discussion also stressed the importance of avoiding simplistic labels for tools such as ChatGPT, whether good or bad.

Speakers emphasized the need to understand how these systems work and to evaluate whether they operate with transparency, fairness, and without bias.

Reports from regions such as India and Catalonia show these tools supporting healthcare delivery and offering renewed hope to those working in the field. Keeping this focus matters.

PeopleReign CEO Dan Turchin highlights how fascinating the intersection of AI, faith, and well being is. It is time to celebrate that this conversation is happening in the hallowed halls of power at the Vatican.

Dan hopes for more of this progressive dialogue in the months and years ahead, one that confronts the intersection of traditional doctrine and science.

Let’s not evaluate modern day life or technology based on naive or overly strict interpretations of millennia-old religious texts. Let’s instead use the elements of every faith that preaches compassion to help inform how we accelerate the introduction of AI into how we care for both those in need of treatment and everyone else.

Places that deliver care will be radically different in a decade, when AI truly democratizes access to healthcare.

📽️ Worth a Read

📣 Share your Thoughts and Leave a Review!

Until Next Time: Stay Curious 🤔

If You’re Using AI at Work, This Is for You

👋 That's a Wrap for This Week!

If you liked this newsletter, share it with your friends!
If this email was forwarded to you, subscribe to our Linkedin’s newsletter here to get the newsletter every week.