First, go listen to the story. It is only 10 minutes and worth it.
Then
Here
Are
My
Observations.
There. Just wanted to give you some space to listen and then come back. Here’s my take. I did this originally on twitter, but it turns out, I need lessons on creating an easily connectable twitter thread (yikes, another thing to learn and master).
This Podcast is excellent.
@Doctor_V is spot on. Agree: industrialization of docs means there is no time for most docs to tinker with test tubes in the back office of their busy clinic. Even academic medical centers find the legendary ‘triple threat’ docs (clinician, teacher, researcher) increasingly rare. 1/
And then, information transparency means medical literature is widely and instantly disseminated: the myth of the all-knowing doc is eroding. Some patients with rarer diseases can study enough to be nearly as expert and up to date, albeit without the broad clinical experience of years of medical practice. 2/
Furthermore, the explosion of new information and knowledge is too fast for ANY human to keep up with. This is due in part to the technology acceleration, due to growth in globalization and ability to communicate and connect many minds with many ideas. Only purpose-built AI’s have a chance to digest such a deluge. 3/
The bad news: human minds will not keep up, from here on out. The good news: we can become centaurs: half human, half horse (or AI-assisted). Chess, for example, in unlimited tournaments, is most often won by human-computer hybrid teams. I think this is our foreseeable model in healthcare, and in a growing number of fields. 4/
And in the long run, perhaps we are all out of a job? I don’t agree with that either. TV did not knock out radio. Cable did not knock out broadcast TV. Internet did not knock out cable. The landscape just looks different. 5/
Finally, I agree with Dr. Vartebedian’s point: we need to look up more from our grindstones and see what is on the horizon. If the technology acceleration continues, it will come at us faster. And we need to prepare ourselves and educate our patients, our communities. Thanks for reminding us. Amazing things ahead. 6/end.
