Dr. Dereck Paul, MD, is the co-founder and CEO of Glass Health, an AI platform helping clinicians with clinical decision-making, documentation, and workflow optimization. Dr. Paul’s path into healthcare innovation began long before residency — from studying music composition to applying to Y Combinator before even starting medical school.

In this episode, Dr. Paul reflects on the pivotal decisions that shaped his career, including balancing startup ambitions with clinical training and ultimately taking leave from residency to scale Glass Health. He shares how his frustrations with outdated healthcare software inspired him to build tools designed specifically around the realities of clinical practice and explains how modern AI systems can function as real-time collaborators for physicians.

We also explore the rapidly evolving intersection of AI and medicine, including how clinicians and students can prepare for a future increasingly shaped by large language models and automation. Dr. Paul discusses why resisting AI is the wrong approach, how physicians can stay on the technological frontier, and why empathy and firsthand clinical experience remain critical when building healthcare technology.

The conversation closes with advice for students and trainees considering entrepreneurship: embrace uncertainty, recognize rare technological inflection points when they arise, and pursue the work that would leave you with the fewest regrets.