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In the first episode of Fixing Healthcare’s 10th season, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr speak with Dr. Eric Topol, a healthcare visionary and global technology leader.
This season focuses on the future of technology in healthcare, a topic close to Dr. Pearl’s heart. His newest book, ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine, debuted as an Amazon top new release. All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.
Dr. Topol is a renowned cardiologist and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. He has been a pioneer in predicting how technology will shape the future of medicine. His bestselling book, Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again, explores the transformative power of AI in healthcare. During the interview, Dr. Topol highlights three ways technology will break the traditional rules of medicine:
- Precision Preventive Care: Dr. Topol emphasizes that AI will revolutionize preventive care by moving beyond the outdated practice of relying solely on age and sex to determine who needs screening. Instead, generative AI will analyze vast datasets, including polygenic risk scores, biomarkers and proteomic data, to identify individuals at the highest risk of developing life-threatening diseases like cancer or heart disease. This proactive approach will allow for targeted prevention, significantly improving outcomes.
- Reducing Misdiagnoses: The conversation turns to the persistent issue of diagnostic errors, a leading cause of preventable harm in healthcare. Dr. Topol discusses how AI can alleviate this problem by giving clinicians more time to think critically, providing deep analysis of patient data and interpreting medical images with unparalleled accuracy. This would dramatically reduce the current rate of misdiagnoses, which remains a significant life ending failure in healthcare.
- Transforming Clinical Documentation: Dr. Topol also explores how generative AI is already freeing from the burden of administrative tasks, particularly documentation. By automating the creation of high-quality electronic health records from conversations between doctors and patients, AI will allow clinicians to focus more on patient care, improving both efficiency and the patient experience.
Throughout the episode, Drs. Topol and Pearl discuss the broader implications of these technologies, including the potential to revolutionize medical research, the challenges of data security and the cultural shift required in healthcare to fully embrace these innovations.
Tune in for the full interview and join the conversation on social media.
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Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.