Andy Kessler's Inside View column on A13 today profiles Viz.ai — an AI-powered stroke-detection platform that reads CT scans faster than any radiologist and is already deployed in 1,700 U.S. hospitals. The piece is the cleanest public-facing explanation of where AI healthcare actually wins first, and it lines up with our new 10th theme proposal: Healthcare Innovation / Oncology.
Kessler's key points:
- Viz.ai reads stroke CT scans in under 6 minutes — hospital protocol calls for 25 minutes. Door-to-treatment time is the single biggest determinant of stroke outcome.
- Medicare reimbursement is locked in. CMS pays $1,040 per Viz-cleared scan via the NTAP pathway. That is a real revenue number, not a demo.
- The company expanded into pulmonary embolism, aneurysm, and heart-failure detection. Same CT-scan pipeline, different diseases. Revenue model compounds.
Three Public Ways To Own This Theme
Viz.ai itself is private. But the thesis has live public comps:
GEHC, PHG, ISRG, TMO
GE Healthcare is the largest installed CT base on earth — Viz.ai-style software becomes a margin lever over time.
RXRX, LLY, AMGN
RevMed-style KRAS programs + Recursion's phenomic database are the two public pure-plays. LLY is the compounder.
RMED, BMY, VRTX
Revolution Medicines (KRAS inhibitor) has an April-May readout. BMY and VRTX are the large-cap anchors.
Book Alignment — New Healthcare Theme
We are proposing a new 10th theme at 4%: Healthcare Innovation / Oncology (RMED, BMY, AMGN, LLY, RXRX). Kessler's piece is the trigger.