According to Forbes, the 2026 30 Under 30 Healthcare list features entrepreneurs like Eunice Wu, 26, and Can Uncu, 25, whose startup Asepha uses AI to process handwritten prescriptions and has raised over $4 million. Jeffery Liu and Jon Wang, both 28, founded Assort Health, an AI scheduling company that’s raised more than $100 million from investors like Lightspeed. Other AI-focused founders include Jocelyn Kang and Caroline Zhang of Knowtex, James Hu and Jhoneldrick Millares of Illumant Surgical, and Will Yin and Rohit Rustagi of Mandolin. Non-AI breakthroughs include Jeremy Barenholz’s Nudge, which raised $100 million in July for a non-invasive brain ultrasound device, and Madeline Eiken and Charlie Childs’s Intero Biosystems, which grows miniature human intestines for drug testing. The list, which is 41% women and 46% people of color, also features researchers like U.S. Army physician Bradley Pierce, 29, and Harvard-MIT candidate Arya Rao, 24.
AI Versus The Paperwork Monster
Here’s the thing about healthcare innovation: sometimes the biggest impact isn’t a flashy new drug, but just making the damn system work. That’s the clear thread with so many of these honorees. They’re using AI as a scalpel to cut out administrative cancer. Think about it. A pharmacist spending 90% of her day on data entry? That’s a system failure. An AI that can read a doctor’s terrible handwriting and verify codes isn’t just convenient—it literally gives care time back to the professional. Same with Assort Health’s scheduling bot. How many hours have we all wasted on hold, just to book a simple appointment? Automating that is a no-brainer win for patient sanity and clinic efficiency. This is the practical, grind-it-out side of AI that actually improves daily life, not just the theoretical promise.
Beyond The Buzzword
But it’s not all chatbots and automation. The list shows a fascinating split. You have one camp hyper-focused on optimizing the current, broken system with AI. And then you have another going for true, deep-tech breakthroughs. A device that uses focused ultrasound to image the brain without cracking the skull? That’s wild. Growing miniature human intestines in a lab to test drugs? That could upend the entire preclinical research model if it scales. These are the kinds of long-shot, high-reward projects that venture capital *should* be funding. It’s a healthy reminder that while AI is the tool of the moment, the fundamental goal is still the same: better, smarter, less invasive ways to heal people.
The Real Impact On The Ground
So who actually benefits from all this? For frontline workers like pharmacists and clinic staff, it’s about reclaiming their profession from paperwork purgatory. That’s huge for burnout. For patients, it’s less time on hold, fewer scheduling errors, and hopefully, a clinician who can look you in the eye instead of a computer screen. For the market, it’s a massive signal. The sheer volume of funding here—from $4 million to over $100 million rounds—proves that investors see the administrative bloat in healthcare as a trillion-dollar problem ripe for tech disruption. They’re betting that the companies which make the system run smoothly will be just as valuable, if not more, than the ones creating new treatments. It’s a bet on infrastructure.
A Changing Face Of Innovation
Look, 30 Under 30 lists can sometimes feel like a repetitive parade of privilege. But the demographics here are worth noting. With 41% women and 46% people of color, this isn’t the stereotypical founder image. Many, like featured entrepreneur Eunice Wu, are building solutions directly from their own frustrating experiences inside the system. That lived expertise matters. It leads to products that solve actual pain points, not just theoretical ones. The question is whether this wave of diverse, pragmatic founders can actually scale their solutions within a famously slow-to-change, heavily regulated industry. The funding suggests there’s faith. Now we’ll see if the system is ready for the cure.
