What you get every issue:
Three curated healthcare AI stories with my take. Companies doing the work. Skills and techniques worth knowing. And opportunities worth pursuing. No hype. Just signal.

Three things worth your time this week:

1. BUNKERHILL HITS CMS + FDA DUAL RAILS FOR CARDIAC AI
CMS created an OPPS billing pathway effective April 1; FDA cleared the contrast-enhanced coronary and aortic valve calcium algorithms the same month.
The headline: "First cardiac AI with reimbursement."
The reality: This is the first time we have a complete billable workflow — imaging already being acquired, AI layered on, CMS paying for the analysis.
My take: FDA clearance alone is no longer the moat. Reimbursement alignment is. Every cardiac AI builder should study this playbook step by step.
Read it: https://hlth.com/insights/news/bunkerhill-health-secures-cms-reimbursement-and-fda-clearance-for-ai-cardiovascular-ct-analysis

2. ABRIDGE LOCKS UP NEJM AND JAMA
Multiyear content deals will surface peer-reviewed evidence inside the ambient scribe during patient encounters.
Why it matters: Ambient scribing is becoming clinical decision support. Whoever owns the trusted evidence layer owns the next moat.
The pattern: Vertical AI winners don't stay in their original category. Scribing → coding → CDS → evidence-native platform. Same trajectory Epic ran, compressed into 24 months.
My take: OpenEvidence just raised $250M into the exact same category fight. This is going to be the ambient AI war of 2026.
Full story: https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/abridge-incorporates-more-clinical-evidence-its-decision-support-tools

3. DIGITAL HEALTH Q1 HIT $4B — AND 12 DEALS TOOK 59% OF IT
Rock Health quietly retired its "AI deal" category because AI is now table stakes.
But here's the nuance: Remove those 12 megadeals and you have 98 companies splitting $1.6B. The early-stage ecosystem is not hot; the winner circle is.
Why this matters for builders: If you're raising in 2026 and you don't have either a breakout metric or a megadeal-caliber story, you're in a quieter market than the headlines suggest. Plan accordingly.
Source: https://rockhealth.com/insights/q1-2026-funding-overview-capital-continues-concentrating-and-four-other-market-signals/

COMPANIES DOING THE WORK
Bunkerhill Health — Cardiac AI that's FDA + CMS aligned, shipping with McLaren in Michigan.
Yuzu Health — Modernizing TPA infrastructure; Anthropic's Anthology Fund just backed their Series A.
Kivo Health — Virtual lung rehab with Optum + Arcadia as distribution partners; the three-way partnership template.

AI TOOLS WORTH KNOWING
Abridge — Ambient scribing + NEJM/JAMA evidence retrieval — the clinical decision support fabric is forming here.
AWS Amazon Connect Health / HealthScribe — Ambient clinical capabilities now generally available; commoditizing what Ambience raised $243M to build.
Doctronic (Utah) — The first autonomously practicing AI in US healthcare; carries AI-specific medical malpractice insurance. The state-level regulatory story is what matters.

WORK & PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
VP Product, AI Platform — Ambience Healthcare — $243M Series C, scaling from documentation to 200+ specialty platform.
Head of Clinical Product / CMO-type — Abridge — Evidence-native CDS pivot needs clinical product leadership.
Director/VP Product, Home Health Tech — WellSky / HCHB / PointClickCare — CMS 2026 RTM/RPM expansion is driving scaling hires.

WHAT I'M WORKING ON:
Building Care Bridge's dashboard against the live Flask API this week, and watching the Bunkerhill reimbursement playbook closely. Developing opportunity brief's for advisory clients-it's a structured approach to problem solving.

— Victor

Reply to this email if you want to discuss any of these. I read every message.

Yuuki Edge • Healthcare AI Intelligence • yuukiedge.com