Digital Health & AI Trends (January 2026)
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Enterprise EHR Foundation
Specialty EMRs continue to thrive in many ambulatory segments with Modernizing Medicine rated number one in 11 specialties, more than twice the nearest competitor, Epic. Signify Research (UK) identifies five key trends for digital health in 2026: (1) ambient scribes expand functions, (2) behavioral and metadata more useful, (3) revenue integrity outperforms engagement, (4) even more EHR functional consolidation, (5) genAI brings attention to value-based care.
Healthcare Analytics and Intelligence
Bessemer finds that healthcare is getting its fair share of total AI investment, 22%, up nine points from a year ago, while getting 55% of all health tech investment. KLAS Research finds that AI is used to improve operational efficiency more than to reinvent care delivery. Payers and providers are deploying AI in areas where the benefits are immediate and the risks are low, pushing for efficiency gains to combat financial pressures. Few have expanded usage across departments or functions.
Consumer Health and Technology
OpenAI is up this month on the news that 40 million Americans use ChatGPT daily for healthcare questions. It also launched ChatGPT Health, a new service that allows users to connect their medical records and wellness apps for more personalized results. Rivals Anthropic and Amazon quickly followed suit. The virtual MSK care segment is up this month too, as Sword Health acquires Kaia Health for $285 million, allowing it to expand its US presence and enter the Germany market where 70 million patients receive Kaia’s services.
Stakeholders
Novo Nordisk is up as it landed FDA approval for its pill version of the weight loss injectable drug Wegovy, offering patients who fear needles a more palatable option. A slew of telehealth companies quickly swarmed to help make the pill available online. The state of Utah also made news this month, partnering with Doctronic to pilot a program for patients to renew prescriptions via an AI chatbot.