Australia
• Hims & Hers agreed to acquire Australian digital‑health firm Eucalyptus in a deal valued at up to US$1.15 billion, including US$240 million cash at closing.
• Eucalyptus, which runs weight‑loss brands Juniper and Pilot and reports an annual revenue run‑rate above US$450 million, will help Hims & Hers expand globally.
• Tim Doyle, Eucalyptus CEO, will become SVP of International at Hims & Hers, overseeing its international business and leveraging his team’s market‑entry expertise.
• The acquisition aims to create a diversified platform offering everything from online pharmacy fulfillment to concierge‑style services, reinforcing Hims & Hers’ growth after recent regulatory scrutiny.
AI
• India launched two AI governance initiatives, SAHI (Secure AI for Health Initiative) and BODH (Benchmarking Open Data Platform for Health AI), announced by Union Health Minister JP Nadda at the AI Impact Summit 2026.
• BODH, developed by IIT Kanpur with the National Health Authority, will benchmark AI models on anonymised real‑world health data, assessing accuracy, bias, reliability and adaptability while preserving privacy.
• SAHI provides a national roadmap for validating and deploying AI tools across hospitals, public health systems, pharma research and digital health platforms, emphasizing patient safety and trust.
• The initiatives build on earlier programs such as Digital India (2015), the 2017 National Health Policy and the 2020 Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, aiming to accelerate responsible AI use in diagnostics, drug discovery and clinical trials.
• Oracle Health launched its Clinical Note AI voice‑driven documentation tool in the UK after an NHS pilot, making it available to all UK customers.
• Trusts including Barts Health NHS Trust, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Milton Keynes University Hospital are deploying the tool to produce faster, more accurate patient notes.
• Oracle Health, now used by over 300 organisations worldwide, is investing $5 bn (£3.7 bn) in UK cloud services and holds 25 % of the NHS acute‑trust EPR market as of March 2025.
• Executives say the AI aims to cut administrative burden, address clinician burnout and support the NHS amid workforce shortages, while rivals such as Epic are also adding AI to their EPRs.
• Fractal, a global AI provider, has launched Vaidya 2.0, an AI model that achieved a score of 50.1 on OpenAI’s HealthBench, outperforming GPT‑5 and Google’s Gemini Pro 3.
• Vaidya 2.0 is built to power healthcare workflows, delivering capabilities such as Emergency Assist, Symptom Checker, and Patient Journey Assist, and shows strong results on the MedExpert benchmark.
• The model supports India’s sovereign AI mission, targeting frugal, scalable solutions for the Global South and integrating with existing digital health infrastructure like ABHA IDs and Ayushman Bharat.
• Vaidya 2.0 was unveiled at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, where Fractal is showcasing its health‑operating‑system approach and related AI innovations.
Startups/ Innovation
• Kintsugi, a startup developing AI-driven mental health acoustics technology, is shutting down and open‑sourcing its voice biomarker models and scientific methodologies to empower behavioral health providers.
• The platform uses machine learning to detect depression and anxiety from the sound of patients’ voices, and in 2023 helped a major health payer identify moderate‑to‑high depression in 33% of screened members.
• Despite successful development and commercial partnerships, the high cost and lengthy timeline of FDA regulatory approval made the venture‑backed business model unsustainable.
• CEO Grace Chang plans to remove paywalls by releasing the technology publicly, enabling a global community to advance voice‑based mental health assessment.
• Annabelle Singer, an associate professor and biomedical engineer at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, is leading a novel approach to treating Alzheimer's disease using flickering lights and sound to stimulate brain activity and potentially slow cognitive decline.
• The treatment, being tested in a Phase 3 clinical trial with nearly 700 patients, uses wearable devices that deliver flickering lights at 40 Hz and a fast‑clicking, beeping sound for an hour a day, aiming to improve brain health and slow decline in Alzheimer's patients.
• Preliminary studies have shown promise, indicating that the non‑invasive sensory stimulation could slow cognitive decline and volume loss in memory‑critical brain regions, with minimal side effects such as headaches.
• The trial, led by med‑tech company Cognito Therapeutics, is expected to finish later this year and could offer a new, innovative option for the over 7 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, a number projected to nearly double by 2060.
Wearable devices/Apps
• Apple is developing smart glasses (codenamed N50) with dual cameras, premium acrylic build, and AI features, targeting a 2027 launch to compete with Meta‑Ray‑Ban glasses.
• The company is also creating an AI pendant the size of an AirTag that acts as the “eyes and ears” of the iPhone, featuring an always‑on camera, microphone, and dedicated chip but no screen.
• Camera‑equipped AirPods are in development, potentially releasing in 2024, adding low‑resolution cameras for Siri assistance and AI functions such as live translation.
• All three devices will rely on Siri‑based AI that uses visual context, and Apple is handling design in‑house without third‑party partners, signaling a broader push into wearable AI hardware.