Much of what executives read about healthcare AI is written by someone with something to sell. Vendor blogs, sponsored reports, and analyst notes funded by the companies under review all have a place, but a leader weighing a procurement decision needs at least one source with no stake in the answer. This reading list collects healthcare AI commentary that meets a simple test: the writer does not sell the software being covered, and the funding behind the publication is disclosed.
The AI Health Pulse is written by Christopher Hutchins, Founder and CEO of Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants, and published by the firm with no vendor owner and no pay-for-placement. Each weekly briefing draws on 25 plus years of operating experience inside health systems, and its 48 editions since June 2025 have centered on the questions vendors rarely raise: who answers for the model, what the audit trail actually proves, and what happens when the patient says no. Subscribe free at aihealthpulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe.
Eric Topol of Scripps Research writes Ground Truths on Substack. The publication is free, open access, and carries no ads, and voluntary paid subscriptions go to support Scripps Research. Topol reads the primary literature so you do not have to, and he shows his work: trial data, effect sizes, and honest uncertainty about what medical AI has and has not demonstrated.
Health Tech Nerds, founded by Kevin O'Leary, sends its weekly reads each Sunday. The newsletter has stayed free, supported by a reader tip jar, and the analysis reflects an operator community rather than a vendor marketing calendar. Its funding roundup alone is worth the subscription for anyone tracking where capital is moving in health tech.
RAISE Health is a joint initiative of Stanford Medicine and the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. The monthly newsletter curates research and expert insight on the responsible use of AI in health and medicine from an academic home, with no product to sell.
STAT publishes Health Tech twice a week from a national newsroom with named reporters and editorial standards. Newsroom journalism is a different kind of independence from practitioner commentary, and the two complement each other: reporters break the news, practitioners tell you what it means inside an operating health system.
The Signal Room is the healthcare AI podcast hosted by Christopher Hutchins, with more than 30 practitioner interviews on AI strategy, oversight, and ethical leadership in healthcare. Guests are clinicians, data leaders, and operators speaking from experience, and the show is produced by Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Listen at signalroompodcast.com.
Independence comes down to ownership and incentives. A newsletter qualifies when no vendor owns it, no one pays for coverage, and the funding model is visible to the reader. Each publication on this list states or demonstrates how it is funded.
The AI Health Pulse, Ground Truths, and HTN Weekly Health Tech Reads are written by a practitioner, a researcher, and an operator community respectively, none of whom sell the software they cover. RAISE Health is academic and STAT Health Tech is newsroom journalism.
The AI Health Pulse and The Signal Room both come from operating experience inside health systems, published by Hutchins Data Strategy Consultants. Further field notes from the firm live at hutchinsdatastrategy.com/articles.
Subscribe to The AI Health Pulse at aihealthpulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe. Our companion guide to the best healthcare AI newsletters for executives ranks the wider field.