S1E76 - Dr. Robert Pearl - Science and Medicine - AI, the Last Possible Hope for American Medicine
Former Kaiser Permanente CEO and one of modern healthcare's most influential physician leaders, Dr. Robert Pearl joined us for a deep discussion focusing on his recent book "ChatGPT, MD" and the exponential changes generative AI can bring to American medicine and healthcare. We initially heard a poignant personal story from Dr. Pearl about how he went from studying cardiac surgery to becoming a plastic surgeon as a result of watching surgical repairs of cleft palates in Mexico. From there he went on to his bullish views on the future role of his book's co-author, Chat GPT, though all depends, he made clear, on clinicians taking the lead and the next generation of them being committed to change. Still, he made clear that the present antiquated system can be changed by technology and transformation can and will occur. He addressed concerns such as security, privacy, data breaches and bias, but spoke overall with abundant optimism, despite touching as well on the unsustainability of medical costs. He spoke, also, of achievements of the Kaiser Permanente model and the necessity for humanity to keep pace with technology. An enlightening, inspiring call to action hour.
Biography
Dr. Robert Pearl serves as a clinical professor of plastic surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and is on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches courses on strategy and leadership, and lectures on information technology and health care policy.
He was the CEO of The Permanente Medical Group (Kaiser Permanente), the nation’s largest medical group for 18 years. In this role he led 12,000 physicians, 43,000 staff and was responsible for the nationally recognized medical care of over 5 million Kaiser Permanente members on the west and east coasts.
Dr. Pearl’s new book, ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine will be published April 9, 2024.
He currently hosts the popular podcast Fixing Healthcare and Medicine: The Truth and publishes a newsletter with over 50,000 subscribers called Monthly Musings on American Healthcare.
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Conversation recorded on March 22, 2024.