HealthTech glossary

Key terms in HealthTech, AI in healthcare, and digital health transformation.

AI-CDS (AI Clinical Decision Support)

AI-powered tools that help physicians make clinical decisions by synthesizing medical literature, guidelines, and patient data in real time. Leading examples include OpenEvidence (which uses DeepConsult AI agents for evidence synthesis) and AMBOSS Lisa (which topped the NOHARM benchmark study). AI-CDS represents a shift from static reference databases like UpToDate to dynamic, patient-specific reasoning.

AI Scribe

An AI tool that listens to patient-clinician conversations and automatically generates structured clinical notes. AI scribes reduce physician documentation time by 40-60%. Key players include Abridge ($5B valuation), Nabla ($70M Series C), Tandem Health, and Microsoft DAX Copilot. The market is evolving from standalone documentation tools into broader clinical workflow platforms.

Agentic AI

AI systems that can autonomously execute multi-step tasks within clinical or administrative workflows, such as scheduling, prior authorization, patient follow-up, and care coordination. In healthcare, agentic AI is scaling fastest in outpatient settings where workflows are simpler. Companies like Hippocratic AI and Commure are leading. Fully autonomous clinical agents remain limited by reliability and liability concerns.

Digital Therapeutics (DTx)

Software-based interventions that deliver evidence-based therapeutic treatments to patients, often as FDA-cleared or CE-marked medical devices. Despite clinical validation, DTx has struggled commercially due to reimbursement challenges. Pear Therapeutics, the category pioneer, filed for bankruptcy in 2023. Remaining players are pivoting toward pharma partnerships rather than standalone commercial models.

EHR (Electronic Health Record)

A digital system for storing, managing, and sharing patient medical records across healthcare settings. Epic dominates the market with 305M+ patient records, followed by Oracle Cerner and MEDITECH. The EHR landscape is being reshaped by AI, with companies like OpenEvidence and Abridge building specialized tools that sit on top of or alongside traditional EHR systems.

EHDS (European Health Data Space)

A European Union regulation (expected fully operational by 2028) that mandates cross-border health data exchange using standardized formats. EHDS aims to unify fragmented health data across EU member states, enable secondary use of health data for research, and improve healthcare interoperability. It incorporates best practices from Finland's Kanta system.

EU AI Act

The European Union's comprehensive regulation for artificial intelligence, which classifies AI systems by risk level. Medical AI is categorized as high-risk, requiring transparency, clinical validation, human oversight, and conformity assessments. The Act affects AI-CDS tools, diagnostic algorithms, and AI scribes operating in European markets.

FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources)

A standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically, developed by HL7 International. FHIR uses modern web technologies (RESTful APIs, JSON) to enable interoperability between healthcare systems. It is the foundation for health data exchange in modern EHR integrations and is required by regulations including the US 21st Century Cures Act and the EHDS.

GLP-1 Receptor Agonists

A class of medications (including semaglutide/Ozempic/Wegovy and tirzepatide/Mounjaro/Zepbound) originally developed for type 2 diabetes that have become the fastest-growing drug class in history due to their effectiveness for weight management. GLP-1s are driving D2C pharma models (Lilly Direct, PfizerForAll) and a parallel ecosystem of digital health companions.

HealthTech Due Diligence

The systematic assessment of a digital health or health technology company's business model, technology stack, regulatory positioning, competitive landscape, clinical evidence, and operational capabilities. Typically conducted by investors (VC, PE, growth equity) evaluating potential investments, or by corporates assessing acquisition targets. Requires specialized domain expertise across clinical, regulatory, and commercial dimensions.

HealthTech Maturity Index

HGM Advisory's proprietary framework for mapping the maturity of 13 HealthTech categories, from nascent (pre-product-market-fit) to mature (established companies with predictable unit economics). The index is constructed from four inputs: companies at $50M+ ARR, regulatory clarity, health system adoption rates, and M&A activity. Patient solutions, CareOps, and medical diagnostics rank as the most mature categories.

KHZG (Krankenhauszukunftsgesetz)

Germany's Hospital Future Act, which allocated EUR 4.3 billion from 2021 to 2025 for hospital digitization. The program funded patient portals, digital medication management, and IT infrastructure upgrades across German hospitals. Results have been mixed: roughly 70% of funds were committed but only about 50% deployed by end of 2025, due to staffing constraints and slow procurement.

MDR (Medical Device Regulation)

The European Union's regulatory framework for medical devices (including software as a medical device), which replaced the earlier MDD in May 2021. MDR imposes stricter requirements for clinical evidence, post-market surveillance, and conformity assessment. AI-powered diagnostic tools and clinical decision support systems must comply with MDR to access the European market.

openEHR

An open standard for electronic health records that separates data from applications, enabling interoperability and data portability. Catalonia's healthcare system adopted openEHR to unify data across 70+ hospitals and 35+ different EMR systems. It is considered a key enabler for AI-ready hospital infrastructure because it makes clinical data accessible in a structured, vendor-neutral format.

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

An AI architecture that combines large language model reasoning with retrieval from curated knowledge sources. In healthcare, RAG-based systems (like AMBOSS Lisa) ground AI outputs in verified medical content rather than relying solely on the model's parametric knowledge, resulting in lower hallucination rates and higher clinical safety scores.

RCM (Revenue Cycle Management)

The financial process that healthcare organizations use to manage claims processing, billing, and revenue collection from patient encounters. AI is increasingly automating RCM through coding suggestions, denial prediction, and claims optimization. Companies like Akasa, Abridge, and Commure are expanding into AI-powered RCM.

Value-Based Care

A healthcare delivery model in which providers are reimbursed based on patient health outcomes rather than the volume of services delivered (fee-for-service). Value-based care contracts incentivize preventive care, care coordination, and efficient resource use. The shift to value-based models is accelerating adoption of digital health tools for population health management and remote patient monitoring.