PULSE

This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George race through a very AI-heavy fortnight — from antibiotics and the menstrual cycle to whether "medical AI" is even a category worth defending.

AI and Science. A Nature feature on AI accelerating antibiotic discovery (millions of molecules screened in silico, though only a tiny fraction can actually be synthesised), paired with a UK Biobank study mapping 198 proteins that fluctuate across the menstrual cycle — reframing it as a whole-body biological rhythm, not just a reproductive one.

Do We Even Need Medical AI? A NYU study finds frontier general models outperforming purpose-built clinical tools like OpenEvidence and UpToDate — with an important caveat that no patient outcomes were measured. Paired with Apollo, Harvard's foundation model trained on 25 billion clinical events to forecast individual patient trajectories.

What If AI Makes Healthcare More Expensive? David Brailer argues in Health Affairs that AI won't lower US health costs because it amplifies the incentives already baked into the payment system — accelerating both better care and billing extraction.

The AI Equity Divide. A WHO-led initiative (GI-AI4H) and its RISE framework tackle the risk that AI widens global health inequities when governance lags behind deployment.

Governing AI — Local and Professional. Victoria's Department of Health sets top-down standards for AI across public health services, while the American Medical Association champions "augmented intelligence" with clinicians at the centre — two very different models of governance.

Plus: the robots now account for 57% of internet traffic, and a shout-out to Daniel McCabe's impact on Australian digital health.

Resources:

AI is taking on antibiotic resistance Link

Plasma proteomic signature of the menstrual cycle Link

Generalist vs clinical LLMs (OpenEvidence, UpToDate) — NYU study (Vishwanath, Oermann et al.) Link

APOLLO healthcare foundation model Link

Why AI Will Accelerate Health Care Inflation — David Brailer, Health Affairs Link

Global Initiative on AI for Health (GI-AI4H) and the RISE framework — npj Health Systems Link

AI guidance for Victorian Public Health Services — Pulse+IT Link

Augmented Intelligence in Medicine — American Medical Association Link

Ida Tin — global challenge on continuous hormone monitoring Link

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What can the rest of the world learn from one of Europe's most impressive digital health ecosystems? This week on Pulse: Amplify, Louise and George sit down with Inma Rodríguez, Market Intelligence Manager at ACCIÓ (Catalonia Trade & Investment), who led the Digital Health in Catalonia Report 2026 — a rare regional analysis that benchmarks Catalonia against the US, Asia and the rest of Europe.

Inma unpacks where Europe really sits in the global market (and whether it's keeping pace or falling behind), why digital health growth is settling into a more mature ~5% a year, and whether Europe's focus on regulation, interoperability and data governance is a brake or a long-term advantage.

She explains how Catalonia became the 4th region in the world for foreign health-innovation investment, the role anchor investors like AstraZeneca play, and why 65% of the region's digital health companies are building with AI.

The conversation also turns to the honest gap revealed in Catalonia's hospital survey — strong ambition, moderate maturity — and the cultural, budget and patient-habit barriers slowing real-world implementation. Inma closes with the seven trends shaping 2026, why AI, personalised medicine and health data spaces top her list, and the 2030 headline she most wants to see.

A data-rich conversation for anyone who wants evidence, not hype, about where digital health is heading.

Stryker Vocera's Initial Delays Diagnosis Quiz Link

Check out the ACCIO Report here

Connect with Inma on LinkedIn

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In this Hot Topics episode, Louise joins from London after an unexpected encounter with the UK healthcare system, while George reports back from the Digital Health Festival.

The pair discuss New Zealand's $450 million digital health and cyber investment, a major new King's College London study showing one in seven people are already using AI instead of seeing a doctor, Demis Hassabis' bold prediction that we're entering the "foothills of the singularity", and two emerging AI approaches aimed at predicting serious disease before symptoms appear.

Plus, a shout-out to Australian health tech company ThinkMD.ai for winning international recognition at the World Health Assembly.

Topics covered:

• New Zealand's renewed investment in digital health and cyber security
• Why patients are increasingly turning to AI before healthcare professionals
• Public trust, regulation and the future of clinical AI
• Google's vision for AI-driven scientific discovery
• Predicting liver disease years earlier using historical pathology data
• Longevity science and AI-powered disease prediction
• What healthcare needs to do to keep pace with accelerating technological change

Resources:

Stryker Vocera's Initial Delays Diagnosis Quiz Link

Digital Health Workforce Census (opens 1 May, ANZ) Link

Hospital Sant Pau, Barcelona Link

The Use of AI in UK Healthcare Report, King’s College London Link

WHO endorses precision medicine resolution Link

Congrats to ThinkMD.ai and Dr Jackie Rabec – Pulse+IT Link

Visit Pulse+IT.news to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material. People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news.

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Production by Octopod Productions | Ivan Juric