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Tuesday, 30 June 2026 |
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Caution crosses into confidence |
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| How people in health tech feel about AI in healthcare has changed drastically from just a year ago. |
| Each year, health tech venture firm Venrock partners Bob Kocher and Bryan Roberts survey more than 200 healthcare professionals. Endpoints News got an exclusive look at this year’s data. |
| Seventy-three percent of survey respondents said they would trust AI to play a big role in their medical care, whether with physician oversight or not. Once widespread concerns about hallucinations have largely disappeared, Kocher said. Kocher and Roberts are predicting that health searches on Google will go down next year for the first time ever as people turn to AI instead. |
| Adding easy-to-use AI features could serve as a lifeline for electronic health record companies that haven’t been able to grow by charging maintenance fees, Roberts said. On the other hand, there will be AI companies that lose out, despite being early adopters. For instance, nearly half of respondents think medical search startup OpenEvidence will be undercut by OpenAI or Anthropic giving similar quality responses. Another 21% think OpenEvidence will be acquired in the coming year. |
| Ironically, the rapid advancement of AI may also be what’s holding health tech companies back from going public. Only 3% think health tech companies will start going public again this year, a lot lower than what Kocher and Roberts expected. The uncertain market environment that plagued in 2025 has continued, they said. Investors would much
rather fund general AI companies that have seen explosive growth. |
| “In a world where Anthropic and OpenAI are growing at 50%, 100% and north of that a year at scale, a bunch of these healthcare businesses are growing 10% to 20% to 25%,” Kocher said. “The risk in healthcare for a bunch of these companies is that their growth rates are not compelling.” |
| As more patient-facing uses of AI roll out, Roberts is watching how hard state medical boards will push back, mirroring the way states first banned telehealth before later loosening up. |
| - Ngai |
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Peptide skeptics |
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Healthcare professionals aren't sold on the future of peptides — 44% think in a year's time it'll remain as a niche field, according to respondents in venture firm Venrock's annual Healthcare Prognosis survey. |
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Worldwide made. Thanks for reading.
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