#86 🍩 ChatGPT for Health, AI is prescribing & the New Food Pyramid
Whats happening in health tech & innovation?
Welcome back, friends!
2026 is off, and we have lots to catch up on.
I don’t know about you, but I’m still awakening from my holiday coma, which feels like a blurry dream… nonetheless, now, I’m focused on the future 🔮
First…
Do you actually read this?
💌 If so - hit reply with a line (or 5) on your hottest predictions for health & life science innovation in 2026!
ICYMI at WTH, we closed out 2025 welcoming 55 new members from 6 countries to the What the Health Private Community! 🇦🇺🇳🇿🇺🇸🇸🇬🇪🇸🇸🇬 And, soft launched our Community Business Membership. Huge shoutout to our first official WTH Community Business Partners supporting and contributing to the community.
💜 Giant Leap, Genomical, and Diag-Nose.
PS - Want to get in on the fun, partner with Australia’s leading healthtech gossip collumn and get in front of ~10,000 health leaders & learners?
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Onto the oh so juicy news… 🍑
🍩 TODAY’S ISSUE
Noteworthy News
AI Updates
Sick Science
Startup Stuff
Events
Cool Content
🤖 AI Updates
🤖 OpenAI launched OpenAI for Healthcare, rolling out HIPAA-aligned AI products….
🩺 ChatGPT Health launched as a dedicated, privacy-protected experience that lets users securely connect medical records & wellness apps to better understand & manage their health
🧠 AND OpenAI acquired health data startup Torch, for a reported US$100M to strengthen ChatGPT Health by unifying patients’ fragmented medical records into a single, privacy-focused health context layer
🏥 Anthropic also launched Claude for Healthcare , positioning it as an enterprise-first alternative to ChatGPT Health, embedding AI directly into hospital, payer, & pharma workflow
🧫 Conceivable is using AI-assisted robots to automate IVF lab work, with its system already linked to 19 live births
💊 Utah trials a first-of-its-kind pilot allowing AI to autonomously renew prescriptions for chronic conditions, with no doctor involved
Noteworthy 🗞️
Funding
🧠 Omniscient Neurotechnology got $20m from the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation as part of a Series D to scale its FDA-approved AI brain-mapping platform (Quicktome®), which uses MRI and connectomics to personalise neurosurgical care globally
🏋️ Hapana, a fitness SaaS platform that manages memberships & bookings for gyms & studios to improve member retention & revenue, raised $7.25M to scale globally
💧 GenAqua secured $300k in pre-seed funding to commercialise its point-of-use water disinfection device for hospitals & care facilities
🔬 Evidentia Labs closed its first funding round to build a platform tackling science’s reproducibility crisis by unlocking unpublished & hard-to-access research data
Newsworthy
📞 1800MEDICARE now provides free, 24/7 access to registered nurses offering health advice anywhere in Aus
🩸Proteomics International developed a non-invasive blood test to diagnose endometriosis that identified 10 specific protein "fingerprints" in a new study
🏥 Calvary acquired Hobart Private Hospital & Holmesglen Private Hospital as receivers continue breaking up Healthscope’s private hospital network
🧬 Euc shelved its men’s longevity program Compound as the company refocuses on expanding Juniper’s women’s weight-loss offering in the UK
🧪 Aus medical researchers are shut out of innovation funding, with >90% of NHMRC ideas grant apps rejected despite a $5B of gov medical fund sitting largely unspent
The MRFF is disbursing ~$650M/ year instead of its planned $1B+, prompting calls to unlock more funding as grant success rates fall to just 8.1%.
💉 GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are dividing doctors as the Albanese gov weighs whether taxpayer subsidies would deliver equity or blow out the PBS budget
✈️ Aus founders are heading back to SF as the AI boom & US-centric capital pull startups away from the post-COVID “build from anywhere” model
🕷️ Researchers at UoQ launched a clinical trial for a potential heart attack and stroke treatment derived from the venom of the K'gari funnel-web spider
US & Beyond Borders
🦴 Stanford Medicine researchers have shown an anti-aging injection can regenerate knee cartilage & prevent arthritis in animals by blocking an age-related protein
🥩 RFK Jr.’s released new dietary guidelines and a new pyramid - whilst drawing a mix of praise & backlash
🧪 “Chinese peptides” are the latest Silicon Valley biohacking craze, with tech workers buying cheap, unregulated compounds directly from Chinese suppliers to boost weight loss, focus, recovery, & sleep
🍭 The WHO is calling for taxes on alcohol and sugar-sweetened products
🏋🏻♂️ EGYM is merging with Playlist, the parent company of Mindbody, ClassPass, and Booker, in a $7.5B deal
🧠 Prenuvo failed to limit damages in a malpractice case where a 37y/o paid $2,500 for a whole-body MRI, got told everything was “normal”, then had a stroke 8 months later
🍸 Alcohol is undergoing a cultural reset as participation in Dry Jan surges & moderation replaces all-or-nothing sobriety
US drinking is at a near-90-year low, with Gen Z leading the pullback
😩 American primary care doctors are among the world’s best paid, & the most burnt out, with 43% reporting exhaustion, the highest rate across comparable countries
💼 Matt Holt exited New Mountain Capital to pursue a $30B health-tech consolidation play that would combine 5 portfolio companies into a new AI-focused venture
🏋️ Fitness spending is being locked in as a non-negotiable, with Americans budgeting $60B for health & fitness in 2026
🚀 Neko Health, the preventative body scan born from Spotify’s founder, Daniel Ek, is set to launch in NYC in Spring
Sick Science
😴 Can 1 night of sleep predict your future health?
Nature Medicine published a paper on SleepFM, a “foundation model” from Stanford trained on ~585k hours of polysomnography (the full sleep-lab workup) from ~65k people to learn patterns across EEG, ECG, breathing & muscle signals.
From a single night of PSG, SleepFM predicted 130 conditions with strong discrimination, including all-cause mortality, dementia, myocardial infarction, heart failure, & stroke (0.78).
📱 Can a smartphone pick up autism-linked sensorimotor “signatures”?
A multicentre team tested whether an at-home smartphone platform (BlinkLab) could measure sensorimotor differences in autistic kids, beyond subjective observation.
Autistic kids showed altered startle & sensory gating profiles, incl. reduced prepulse inhibition, stronger long-term habituation, & more variable eyeblink responses to sound. The app also captured higher rates of behaviours like screen avoidance, head & postural movement, & non-syllabic vocalisations, with many effects largely independent of co-occurring conditions.
🐶 Can dogs lower teen anxiety via the gut?
A study explored why teens who grow up with dogs tend to have fewer social & anxiety-related problems. In a cohort of 343 adolescents, dog owners showed less aggression, delinquency & social withdrawal than non-owners, alongside distinct differences in their saliva microbiome. Specific bacteria, included/
Streptococcus variants & Prevotella 7, were more abundant in dog-owning teens & were linked to better social behaviour. When these microbes were transferred to mice, the animals became markedly more social & responsive, suggesting a gut–brain mechanism rather than simple companionship alone.
Startup Stuff 🚀
Interested in Angel Investing? Want to learn with the best?
The Airtree Explorer Program is a selective angel-investing program designed for senior ANZ tech operators who want to deepen their role as investors, mentors, and early backers. The program will curate a small, high-impact group to strengthen and diversify the angel ecosystem, offering world-class education in angel investing, access to ANZ’s leading angel network, a behind-the-scenes view of Airtree’s investment process, and a high-calibre peer group of operators shaping the future of the startup ecosystem - Apply here
Early Stage Starup looking for a leg up?
The MedTech Actuator Accelerator is taking applications for its program designed to fast-track early-stage healthcare startups in Australia and APAC through the complex process of commercialisation. Spanning several months, they provide BioTech, MedTech, and HealthTech founders with intensive mentorship, hands-on guidance from industry experts, and a structured pathway to secure seed to Series A investment - More here
Want to tackle medical waste with a real-world partner?
The Lifeblood Circularity Challenge by Australian Red Cross is calling on innovators, startups, & creative teams to develop practical, scalable solutions to reduce waste across the medical supply chain. With a focus on circularity, recycling pathways, & prototype testing, selected teams get access to datasets, pilot sites, & Lifeblood’s innovation ecosystem – More here
Want to up your grant game in WA?
MTPConnect’s new WAGES program is here to help WA researchers, clinicians, & startups sharpen their grant applications for national funding rounds like the MRFF. Backed by the WA Government, this 3-year pilot offers early-stage support, expert advice, & partnership-building to up your chances of success – More here
Working on a game-changing genomics or precision medicine solution?
The MRFF’s Genomics Health Futures Mission has a new grant round open to fund projects improving medication efficacy via pharmacogenomics & genomic solutions to tackle diseases prevalent among Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples - More here
Based in WA & need help getting to a big conference?
WA’s Health & Medical Life Sciences Market Access Grant scheme offers 80% of eligible travel costs (up to $5K) for WA healthtech SMEs to attend national or international industry events - More here
Got a big idea and looking for the right launchpad?
Antler is now taking applications for its global Residency Program, where exceptional founders come together to build &scale world-changing startups. It’s a full-time, in-person opportunity to find your co-founder, validate your idea, & tap into Antler’s global network of investors & mentors. - More here
Want to level up your health startup know-how?
The NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program is offering a free 3-day Business Fundamentals bootcamp for budding healthtech entrepreneurs. It covers how to form a company, navigate regulations, get funding-ready & build your team – all taught by industry experts in law, finance, & sales - More here
Events💥
22nd Jan: Cicada HealthTech Hub: Shifting Paradigms in Quantitative Systems Toxicology - Boosting Human Predictivity (Syd)
2nd Feb: NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program - Info Sessions (Online)
11th Feb: Breakthrough Victoria Fellowship Webinar (Online)
12th Feb: Jumar Masterclass - Considering an ASX Listing: What Biotech Founders Need to Know (Melb)
25th Feb: Growth Summit 2026 (Melb)
Cool Content 💎
🎙️Wired: The Science of Super Agers
What if getting older didn’t mean slowing down? The cardiologist, researcher, and bestselling author of Super Agers, Dr. Eric Topol, joins WIRED’s Sandra Upson to explore the cutting-edge science of longevity, brain health, human resilience – and how we might all live sharper, stronger, and longer lives.
📖 Stanford’s Human Centre for AI explains healthcare is still waiting for its “MedGPT moment” and why a new evaluation model for models is needed
🔮 Dr Vu Tran, co-founder of OneMRI shared his case for why the future of preventive healthcare won’t be led by institutions, but by empowered by patients, consumers and technology
📊 CB Insights dropped their “Tech Trends 2026 Report: 14 emerging trends to watch closely this year” ft. a few in healthcare, including
1️⃣ Healthcare puts voice AI to the test
2️⃣ Pharma’s path to self-driving labs
3️⃣ The unbundling of employer health plans
💬 Jim Breyer & Breyer Capital Kicked off the flood of 2026 healthcare predictions…
💡Made it this far?
💡Got some predictions for 2026 and beyond?
💡 Or, just want to say hey and fill me in on your holidays?
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👋 Emily,
Mariah, Victoria & Team WTH
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