AI and Healthcare: Bob Wachter

About this episode

Today we interviewed Bob Wachter about his book, "A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future." You may recall we interviewed Bob in April 2024 about AI, and at that time he was on the fence about AI - more promise or more peril for healthcare? As his book's title suggests, he's come down firmly on the promise side of the equation. On our podcast we discuss:

• Why Bob wrote this book, at this time, and concerns about writing a static book about AI and Healthcare, a field that is dynamic and shifting rapidly. He's right though - we've not had a "ChatGPT"-launch type moment recently.

• Top 5 or so ways in which Bob uses AI for work, from clinical care to book writing

• Concerns about job losses in healthcare, and will we still need doctors?

• AI for diagnosis, and the recent NEJM Clinical Case in which recent GeriPal guest and superstar clinician-educator Gurpreet Dhaliwal beats an AI.

• UpToDate vs OpenEvidence

• Trust issues - should we trust AI after being let down before? Clinicians felt burned by their experience with the hype and promise of EHRs - but they've been much less a game changer and much more a soul sucking chore designed to maximize billing rather than improve patient care. Yet early returns on AI have largely been positive. Time saved from writing notes, prior authorizations, and summarizing charts…all to the good!

Sadly, we didn't have Bob on piano singing the song for this one. He was in the office, not home. So I made do with ChatGPT's choice, Handle With Care, which has some surprisingly pertinent lyrics about AI in healthcare, including:

"Been beat up and battered aroundBeen sent up, and I've been shot downYou're the best thing that I've ever foundHandle me with care"

Enjoy!

-Alex Smith