The doctor says: “If you leave, my records will say AMA, you left ‘against medical advice.’ The patient responds: “And mine will say IDGARA, ‘I don’t give a rat’s ass.’” Apologies for beginning the blog post with a vulgarity, but I thought that was a pretty funny line from Patch Adams, a 1998 movie featuring Robin Williams as a medical student who tries to shake up the unshakable medical school training process. We have all had interactions with doctors that seem icy cold in the face of our suffering, and this movie is about how the culture of medical school can help encourage that demeanor in even the most well-intentioned students. In the One Thoughtful Paragraph, I discuss how—despite this too often inhumane system—we are bringing more machines into the practice of medicine.
Other news about bringing in machines to help people with medical care:
- Get a Second Opinion launched an AI-driven medication platform to help patients understand prescription medication treatment regimes, analyzing FDA data, clinical studies, and real-world outcomes.
- An estimated 30% of all medical appointments will be conducted through telehealth solutions by the end of 2026, according to a study analyzing the adoption of telehealth by health IT consulting company ScienceSoft.
- Medbridge expanded its AI-powered motion capture technology to allow patients to record their progress in MSK care through their phones and upload it to a dashboard for their providers to review.
“You treat the disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, you win no matter what the outcome.” This is the type of violin-laden dramatic lines you get in the movie Patch Adams. It is based on a true story about the soul-sucking nature of medical school. With a whole film focused on the need to make medicine more patient-centric, why are we so hell-bent on bringing computers into an already under-empathetic process? This week, the FDA hired Shantanu Nundy, a physician and former chief medical officer for Accolade Health, to lead the agency’s AI policy work. Turns out, Accolade is an excellent training ground to understand how tech solutions like AI can be super-helpful in the healthcare space. I remember when Tom Spann co-founded Accolade and the concept was hiring a whole bunch of nurses to help people navigate the complicated healthcare system. Then in 2015, the company announced they were bringing on a new CEO—a tech expert—to figure out how to automate everything because it wasn’t possible (financially) to scale using human labor. The move was, um, pretty successful (see here about it going public and its eventual purchase by Transcarent). I wish Dr. Nundy the best of luck with the big FDA AI role and gently suggest he take some lessons from Patch Adams. In the movie, our hero explains to a skeptical doctor: “Last night …I connected to another human being. I want more of that. I want to learn about people, help them with their troubles. Doctor: That’s what I do. Patch Adams: But you suck at it.”
