Mass General Brigham, Northwell and Mayo: Where hospitals are spending their innovation dollars

From virtual nurses to artificial intelligence-powered scheduling to pill-sized robots, hospitals and health systems have started 2023 with an eye on innovation.

Here are 23 innovation projects Becker's has reported on since Dec. 19:

1. Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health said in January it plans to roll out virtual nurses at its 88 hospitals in 26 states.

2. Investigators from the Mass General Cancer Center, part of Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham, helped develop an artificial intelligence-based lung cancer prediction tool that was unveiled Jan. 12.

3. The venture capital arm of Fountain Valley, Calif.-based MemorialCare led a $9 million financing round Jan. 11 for healthcare risk management company Censinet that saw additional participation from Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai, Johnson City, Tenn.-based Ballad Health and Raleigh, N.C.-based UNC Health Rex.

4. New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health on Jan. 11 debuted Northwell Health Pregnancy Chats, an AI-powered chatbot designed to provide medical advice to pregnant patients.

5. Nashville, Tenn.-based Ardent Health Services launched an innovation studio Jan. 11 with SwitchPoint Ventures focused on healthcare delivery and administration.

6. Minneapolis-based Allina Health collaborated Jan. 10 with software company Qventus to use its AI-based tool to automate operating-room scheduling.

7. Mayo Clinic Laboratories, a reference lab at the Rochester, Minn.-based health system, partnered Jan. 10 with genomics company Helix to assist the biopharma industry with drug discovery.

8. Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System invested an undisclosed amount Jan. 10 in Foodsmart and is joining the telenutrition company's Foodscript Network as a founding member.

9. Northwell Holdings, the venture capital arm of Northwell Health, was among the funders Jan. 9 pouring $45 million into data analytics company Holmusk.

10. Sacramento, Calif.-based UC Davis Health launched home healthcare company WellCent as the first startup from its new digital health incubator Jan. 9.

11. New York City-based NYU Langone Health spun off cancer drug company Aethon Therapeutics on Jan. 9 thanks to a $30 million investment in the startup.

12. The venture capital arm of Memorial Hermann participated in a $375 million funding round for Monogram Health, an in-home healthcare company that provides care and benefit management services to patients with polychronic conditions.

13. Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., got funding Jan. 9 to test AI-powered tech solutions for in-home care of diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia.

14. UC Davis Health said Jan. 8 it will document medical conversations via AI with virtual practice management platform LiveCare Corp. to cut down on "pajama time" for providers.

15. Ardent Health Services started rolling out remote patient monitoring across its 30 hospitals and 200 other care sites Jan. 6 with health tech company Cadence.

16. Mayo Clinic obtained a stake Jan. 4 in Endiatx, a startup making a pill-sized robot to diagnose digestive conditions.

17. Durham, N.C.-based Duke Health collaborated Jan. 4 with data analytics company Nference to advance the academic health system's research and medical discoveries.

18. Orangeburg, S.C.-based Regional Medical Center instituted a robot dietitian that roams the hospital to provide nutrition counseling to patients, The Times and Democrat reported Jan. 2.

19. Corewell Health, with dual headquarters in Grand Rapids and Southfield, Mich., started working Dec. 30 with Swedish medtech company Mentice AB to deploy virtual reality surgical training tools.

20. Mayo Clinic filed a building permit Dec. 29 for an estimated $1.86 million renovation that will house its new Unbound team focused on digital transformation.

21. Mayo Clinic's cell and gene therapy accelerator debuted its first startup, Primera Therapeutics, as part of a Dec. 29 collaboration with biotech firm Cellectis that could yield the company up to $750 million.

22. Loyola Medicine's MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Ill., deployed Moxi, a hospital robot developed to carry out tasks, Dec. 21.

23. Cleveland-based University Hospitals Ventures; Inception Health, an arm of Milwaukee-based Froedtert Health; and Ballad Ventures, a subsidiary of Ballad Health, invested Dec. 19 in TailorMed, a digital health startup that helps patients more easily find financial assistance.