What if AI helped students learn, not just do (harvard.edu)

This is the beginning of the beginning. Teachers are starting to create generative AI that helps students learn, and NOT do the actual assignment. Imagine a chatbot where a student can ask questions outside of the classroom to understand concepts or ask it to critique initial writing. I like this very much. There is something here for medical residents and medical students, and indeed even practicing physicians. Tweaking the relationship between the AI assistant and the human is our hard work to come.

What if AI could help students learn, not just do assignments for them?

Holiday Songs Featuring Generative AI in Healthcare (didn’t see that coming did you?)

One of the great pleasures in life is to catch people in a moment of joyful surprise. My schtick is ukulele EHR parody songs when people don’t expect it. Here are two: ChatGPT, sung to Sweet Caroline, about AI draft replies to patients, chart summaries and ambient notes. Then, EHR Wonderland, about Abridge and ambient note experience. OK, strictly speaking, only one is a holiday song parody, but who’s counting. Happy holidays!

ChatGPT – to Sweet Caroline

 

EHR Wonderland – to Winter Wonderland

UCHealth Parkview reduces sepsis deaths (Beckers)

The story continues. Our EHR, partnered with Epic predictive AI model among other predictive tools have reduced sepsis mortality by 1000 fewer deaths per year compared to our baseline, as we find and treat sepsis earlier with reconfigured teamwork in addition to improved detection tools. Another tale of the Psycho-80: 80% of a project’s success is about the psycho-socio-political skills of the people and 20% of the success is due to technology. Grateful for smart colleagues and partners. (image, our fearless informatics leaders, analysts and trainers having a well-deserved meal after another EHR implementation day)

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/ehrs/how-uchealth-uses-its-ehr-to-reduce-sepsis-deaths/

Easter Island Moai: Walking as a mode of transport?! (Binghamton.edu)

Engineers have simulated an Easter Island Moai and demonstrated that the easiest way to transport a Moai, the many-ton stone statues, is by WALKING THEM.

https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/5830/easter-islands-statues-actually-walked-and-physics-backs-it-up

Using computer modeling and recognizing that the base of the Moai is “d-shaped” and that the statue tends to lean forward, they figure out that using ropes and multiple teams, they could ‘rock’ the statue and ‘walk’ it to its final location from the quarry. View the link and the video of the walking.

Another ancient puzzle solved.

Origami Bloom Patterns (NYtimes) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/science/origami-bloom-patterns.html

There is a new category of origami folding and researchers think it can revolutionize solar panels or other technology going to space by folding down flat in rockets. 

There is a new category of origami folding and researchers think it can revolutionize solar panels or other technology going to space by folding down flat in rockets.

Very cool.

Vibe Coding (Wired.com)

The term Vibe Coding, I take to mean, an AI does the actual coding that a human tells it to do. Here’s a WIRED reporter learning to do just that. Insightful read.

https://www.wired.com/story/why-did-a-10-billion-dollar-startup-let-me-vibe-code-for-them-and-why-did-i-love-it

 

Sharing Science Through Story: Fergus McAuliffe at TEDxDublin

How can dry science be communicated in a way that the public can understand? How can science recover the standing that it had years ago, when the Royal Society in London was THE place to be, to hear scientists talk about their latest work? In fact, Albemarle street had to made ONE WAY, the first one-way street, because of the popularity of these talks that the traffic was otherwise unmanageable? This is a compelling talk you have to hear.

Fergus McAuliffe, scientist, tells of the key elements of science: precise language, objective findings, volumes of data.

He points out that these are also the barriers that keep science communication from being effective with public audiences: too dry, too much, not engaging.

The solution: STORY.

CMIO’s take? This is 13 minutes of your life that will serve you well. Communicate science through story.

 

A High Schooler: AI is demolishing my education (Atlantic), and my reaction about AI in healthcare

High schooler examples of how AI is ruining education in the classroom: what can healthcare AI learn from these examples? How do we pivot from no-win to win-win? Here’s my take.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/09/high-school-student-ai-education/684088/?gift=PBeYFZIia8gyZzvvApdrZHEndyptCKBp5r-R8daZseM&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Read the Atlantic article with my gift link above ^^

Generative AI in the classroom:

  • Cheating on take-home exams (chatbot will answer any exam question)
  • Cheating on in-class discussion (chatbot in real-time presents excellent discussion points on any topic)
  • Cheating in debate competition (chatbot helps teams prepare a rebuttal between tournament rounds)
  • The risk: that class on European History is actually a class on “How to copy and paste answers from AI” and no learning is achieved.

The rare positive story from the education field shows us a glimmer of hope. A professor assigns a homework task that explicitly asks for the student to use generative AI to create a first draft, and then to use the draft to write a critique of the AI-written document, demonstrating command of the material and ability to critique others’ work.

Generative AI (I’ll abbreviate Gen-AI) in healthcare:

  • Gen-AI composes an excellent progress note summarizing a physician and patient conversation, within seconds of the end of the visit, reducing physician cognitive and time burden
  • Gen-AI helps document more diagnoses and perhaps more accurately because it is captured and generated within seconds of a visit and not hours or weeks later when physician memory fades
  • Gen-AI replies to patient online questions by drafting a reasonable reply based on prior EHR (electronic health record) data, to reduce nurse and physician typing burden
  • Gen-AI helps summarize hundreds of pages of medical records to speed up nurse and physician work as they meet new patients with years of data

So far so good. These are all win-win scenarios: doctors and nurses work more quickly and easily, patients get better care.

It gets touchy:

  • Gen-AI helps doctors prepare “prior authorization” documents to advocate for patients getting insurers to pay for treatments. This is directly opposed by Gen-AI helping insurers deny these requests. This is a no-win situation.
  • Gen-AI helps doctors generate higher quality, more complete notes that show that complex care was provided to the patient, possibly improving reimbursement. This is directly opposed by Gen-AI helping insurers spot such changes. Another no-win situation.

None of the healthcare examples elicit from me any sense of “cheating” as for high school or college students. But it is clear that this new “Gen-AI” entity is changing the conversation.

Depending on the context, Gen-AI is a powerful ally to improve healthcare. At other times, Gen-AI is a no-win arms race that sucks up expensive electrical power on both sides and the battle lines don’t move.

CMIO’s take?

Where can we turn the generative AI conversation from backward-thinking no-win situations to lateral-thinking win-win conversations? The first category is pure waste. The second is much harder and much more important. This is the struggle CMIO’s and our analogues in other fields must take on.

Surprising way to boost your attention span (NYTimes)

More research on how “nature therapy” adds up to improved attention span and working memory and restoration for our depleted brains from work and school. Walking 2.8 miles in an arboretum vs walking in a city. I wonder if this restoration applies to cycling in wooded paths. Asking for a friend.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/well/mind/nature-brain-attention.html

 

Passwords are so last year. Passkeys! (Wired.com)

I have joined the passkey (quiet) revolution. Far superior even to long passwords, and better and faster than 2 factor and multifactor authentication. I’m all for faster and easier security for my accounts.

https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-a-passkey-and-how-to-use-them/