Health IT, EHR systems, telehealth, and clinical technology
Proposed rule converts addressable specs to mandatory controls. Healthcare IT buyers face budget shifts for testing, MFA, and encryption before six-month grace period ends.
Major telehealth vendors added AI features in February but disclosed no pricing, adoption data, or cost benchmarks. Remote patient monitoring platforms capture $3B in 2026 revenue.
Federal directory debuts this month with no disclosed licensing terms or adoption metrics. Enterprise buyers face a data gap on implementation costs and interoperability compatibility.
RadNet's DeepHealth acquired Gleamer and launched AI Studio Suite integrating algorithms from 75+ vendors with unified governance. The move targets health systems stuck between AI pilots and production deployment.
New regulatory proposals and vendor releases signal the end of monolithic EHR add-ons, pushing hospitals toward modular, AI-ready systems built on standardized APIs.
ViVE 2026 drew 7,000+ attendees to Nashville with a clear consensus: healthcare AI has exited the pilot phase. The FDA has now cleared over 1,000 AI/ML-enabled medical devices. The healthcare AI market is projected at $45.2 billion. Ambient AI documentation tools show 25-41% clinician time savings. But the conference's most urgent theme was shadow AI — clinicians using consumer AI tools for clinical decisions without institutional oversight.
CMS launched the Widespread Intelligent Solution for Electronic Review (WISeR) program on January 1, 2026 across 6 initial states. The program allows Medicare Advantage plans to use AI for prior authorization decisions on select procedures. Combined with the CMS-0057-F interoperability rule mandating FHIR APIs by January 2027 and H.R. 6361 requiring 7-day prior auth decisions, this is the largest government-sanctioned deployment of AI in healthcare payment processing.
AI-enabled companies captured 54% of all digital health investment in 2025, up from 37% in 2024, according to Rock Health. Capital is concentrating in five categories with clear ROI: ambient documentation, revenue cycle automation, prior authorization, operational predictions, and clinical imaging AI. The EHR is becoming the AI delivery mechanism.
The DEA and HHS issued a fourth temporary extension of COVID-era telemedicine flexibilities through December 31, 2026, allowing practitioners to prescribe Schedule II-V controlled substances via telemedicine without a prior in-person evaluation. But the permanent rules introduce new registration tiers, platform requirements, and documentation standards that will reshape telehealth operations.
OCR proposed the first significant update to the HIPAA Security Rule since 2013, with finalization scheduled for May 2026. The changes eliminate the addressable vs. required distinction for security safeguards, making every measure mandatory, and introduce annual compliance audits, mandatory encryption, mandatory MFA, 72-hour disaster recovery, and AI tool inventories.
A ransomware attack hit the University of Mississippi Medical Center on February 19, 2026, taking down its Epic EHR system, forcing the closure of all 36 clinics statewide, canceling elective surgeries, and pushing providers back to pen-and-paper documentation. The FBI is actively involved, and the attackers have communicated demands.
Epic Systems released its built-in AI Charting tool in February 2026, a native ambient scribe that goes beyond transcription to generate structured notes, prepare orders, and suggest diagnoses. With Epic controlling 42% of the acute-care EHR market and 55% of hospital beds, every ambient scribe startup just got an existential competitor that requires no separate login, contract, or integration.