The Data Patients Are Already Giving Us – Microsoft, Reddit, Apple and the Fourth Wave of Wearables
PULSEShow Notes
This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George explore five major developments shaping the future of healthcare.
Microsoft Opens the Lid on How the Public Uses AI for Health — A new Nature Health paper analysing over 617,000 de-identified Copilot health conversations shows nearly one in five are personal health queries, they spike at night when traditional care isn't available, and one in seven are asked on behalf of someone else. Reddit as a Pharmacovigilance Signal — University of Pennsylvania researchers mined 400,000+ Reddit posts from people taking GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy, surfacing side effects not well captured in trials or drug labelling and revealing a real-time, patient-generated pharmacovigilance system hiding in plain sight. Apple Walks Into the Radiology Reading Room — Apple's new Studio Display XDR has received FDA clearance for diagnostic radiology at roughly a third of the price of traditional diagnostic monitors, fundamentally changing the economics of building and scaling reading rooms. US Digital Health VC — AI Is Now the Operating Environment — Silicon Valley Bank and Rock Health data show AI captured nearly half of all healthcare investment in 2025, with Rock Health retiring its "AI deal" tracking category because AI is now table stakes. The Fourth Wave of Wearables — Bioforecasting — A small study in the European Heart Journal — Digital Health used smartwatch data to predict vasovagal syncope minutes before it happened, signalling a shift from wearables that measure the present to wearables that anticipate what's coming. Resources: Microsoft Copilot Health Queries Study, Nature Health Link Reddit GLP-1 Side Effects Study, Nature Health Link Apple Studio Display XDR Announcement Link Apple White Paper: Reimagining Medical Imaging Link SVB 2026 Healthcare Investments & Exits Report Link Rock Health Q1 2026 Funding Overview Link Prediction of Vasovagal Syncope using AI-enabled Smartwatch PPG, EHJ — Digital Health Link Digital Health Workforce Census (opens 1 May, ANZ) — Link
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