AI in healthcare, a podcast

How A.I. Is Humanizing Healthcare with Dr. Eric Topol


Can A.I. and machine learning make healthcare more humane, loving, and passionate?

Dr. Eric Topol thinks so.

Dr. Topol (Website | Twitter) is a geneticist, medical researcher, and author of Deep Medicine. He has written over 1100 peer-reviewed articles and is one of the top most-cited medical researchers in the world.

In this episode, Chad sits down with Dr. Topol to talk about how A.I. and machine learning are putting the patient experience back at the forefront of healthcare. Dr. Topol also explains why you don’t actually own your own medical data and what steps we need to take to get it back.

Medicine as a data science

THE PATIENT WILL SEE YOU NOW
The Future of Medicine Is in Your Hands

Maybe the title is the most confounding factor of the new great book written by Eric Topol.  Once you have finished reading it, you'll be convinced that he set the expectations to high, ordinary people should develop certain skills beyond their capabilities to apply such concept. I would say that a greater part of the medicine is in your hands, not medicine at all. The rationale behind the book is that medicine digitization allows patients to know more about their disease and how to "manage" it in certain cases. The most important thesis is that future medicine has to be considered a data science. And this is exactly the impact of the digitization of diagnostic and treatment: pervasive application of Bayes theorem in clinical practice, using big data and analytics.(Remember my archimedes posts, surprisingly Topol forgot it).
The book includes many topics that those that follow this blog it would sound familiar, i.e. ch. 4 about Angelina Jolie and BRCA genetic tests, a must read. And chapter 5 is a journey on the new omics of the medicine, a topic that I have also covered in the blog.
Nowadays, Eric Topol is the writer that is able to capture what's going on in medicine and its impact on society. That's why this book is a key reference of our time and I strongly recommend it.

PS. If you don't believe me, check Forbes, NYT, WP, WSJ.
PS. The book is also an invitation to change the current academic programmes for life sciences universities. Better now than later.

Wired Health

Eric Topol information into action, Wired Health conference


Eric Topol: Information into Action at Wired Health from WIRED on FORA.tv

The deep side of medicine and the gift of time

Deep Medicine

Nowadays the impact of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine is unknown. Every other day you may hear about robots and how they will replace humans. Nobody knows about it, distrust charlatans. The only thing that is real is what is already happening. Eric Topol has tried to do this in his new book Deep Medicine. But at the same time he considers that AI will let physicians humanise medicine, "the gift of time", and says:

"As machines get smarter, humans will need to evolve along a different path from machines and become more humane"

This may be Eric Topol's desire, nothing to add. My view is quite different. I'm not sure about the contribution of AI to a humanised medicine . This has to do with professionalism, not with AI. And the incentives for professionalism are plunging, while commercialism is on the rise. This is the key issue.
The remaining elements of the book are of interest to explain the current state of advances in apps and tools for clinical decision making. You'll find helpful information and a great summary of AI in medicine. However, my suggestion is that you can forget the subtitle of the book: "How artificial intelligence can make healthcare human again". It's naïve.

Making healthcare more human

Eric Topol on making healthcare more human 

A weekly conversation that looks at the way technology is changing our economies, societies and daily lives. Hosted by John Thornhill, innovation editor at the Financial Times.

Eric Topol conversation on Deep Medicine book 

Defining roles and skills for digital health

The Topol Review
Preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future.

The NHS asked Dr. Eric Topol about the new health workforce and how digital health will change the current landscape. A must read:

This is an exciting time for the NHS to benefit and apitalise on technological advances. However, we must learn from previous change projects. Successful mplementation will require investment in people as well s technology. To engage and support the healthcare workforce in a rapidly changing and highly technological orkplace, NHS organisations will need to develop a learning environment in which the workforce is given very encouragement to learn continuously. We must better understand the enablers of change and create culture of innovation, prioritising people, developing an agile and empowered workforce, as well as digitally capable leadership, and effective governance processes
to facilitate the introduction of the new technologies, supported by long-term investment.

The uselessness of current hospital rankings

Personalized Hospital Ratings — Transparency for the Internet Age

Eric Topol said in a tweet: It's high time to transcend hospital ratings and move to indvidualized ratings of hospitals. He refers to an NEJM article that supports personalized hospital ratings like the Rand ones.

As currently constructed, the weighting systems that underlie overall hospital performance ratings are expressions of the values, preferences, and tastes of their creators. Why not ask patients what’s important to them instead?

It makes sense.

PS. FT life of a song

Machine learning in Medicine

Machine Learning and Evidence-Based Medicine

While waiting for the new book by Eric Topol: Deep Medicine, let's have a look at this article, and at this summary table:

 Xavier Miserachs