Code & Cure

Could AI be making doctors worse at their jobs?

As artificial intelligence becomes a trusted tool in modern medicine, a surprising question emerges: could relying on these systems actually erode human expertise? We explore a compelling study from The Lancet that found a 6% drop in detection rates for endoscopists who initially used AI to identify precancerous polyps—then lost that edge once the AI was removed.

This episode unpacks how AI isn’t just a helpful assistant—it may be reshaping how physicians think, reason, and make decisions. Unlike a stethoscope or scalpel, which extends physical capabilities, AI intervenes in cognitive processes. What happens when that crutch is suddenly gone?

We delve into the subtle but important distinctions between tools that amplify skill and those that risk replacing it. From seasoned practitioners to medical trainees raised on AI support, we ask: what kind of clinician emerges when core diagnostic thinking is offloaded to machines?

Through the lens of interaction design, we explore different models for integrating AI—whether as a second reader, background assistant, or tightly scoped tool—and how each impacts long-term expertise. The right design, we argue, could support true human-AI partnerships without compromising clinical judgment.

Tune in for a provocative conversation that challenges simplistic narratives about technology in healthcare—and rethinks what it means to be an expert in the age of artificial intelligence.

References

Are A.I. Tools Making Doctors Worse at Their Jobs?
Teddy Rosenbluth
The New York Times, August 28, 2025

Endoscopist deskilling risk after exposure to artificial intelligence in colonoscopy: a multicentre, observational study
Krzysztof Budzyń et al.
The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 2025

Relying on AI in Colonoscopies May Erode Clinicians' Skills
Joedy McCreary
MedPage Today, August 12, 2025

Expert reaction to observational study looking at detection rate of precancerous growths in colonoscopies by health professionals who perform them before and after the routine introduction of AI
Science Media Centre, August 12, 2025

Upskilling or deskilling? Measurable role of
an AI-supported training for radiology
residents: a lesson from the pandemic
Mattia Savardi et al.
Insights into Imaging, European Society of Radiology, 2025

AI-induced Deskilling in Medicine: A Mixed-Method Review
and Research Agenda for Healthcare and Beyond
Chiara Natali et al.
Artificial Intelligence Review, 2025

Credits: 

Theme music: Nowhere Land, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

AI is writing medical notes, but can doctors trust what it creates?

Burnout is quietly eroding the medical workforce—and documentation overload is a major culprit. Physicians now spend nearly half their workday writing notes instead of treating patients, pushing many to the brink of exhaustion. Could artificial intelligence offer a lifeline?

In this episode, we explore ambient documentation technology (ADT)—AI tools that automatically generate clinical notes by listening to patient-doctor conversations. On paper, the promise is bold: let physicians focus on care, not charting. But reality is more complicated.

Laura shares her firsthand experience with late-night charting and the emotional toll of juggling empathy and efficiency. We unpack the deeper roots of burnout—beyond paperwork—including overwhelming patient loads, chronic understaffing, and a culture that often punishes vulnerability.

AI-generated notes surface an intriguing paradox: human communication is effortless for doctors, but incredibly complex for machines. What a physician instantly grasps from a patient’s gesture or tone can easily confuse an AI system. The result? Notes that sometimes omit critical context, add irrelevant details, or introduce factual errors.

Early research reveals mixed outcomes—some clinicians spend extra hours editing AI notes, defeating the intended time savings. Yet there’s potential. With advances in multimodal input and smarter evaluation tools, ADT could still become a powerful support tool—not to replace doctors, but to restore their time.

Tune in to discover why turning conversation into clinical documentation is one of AI’s most challenging—and potentially transformative—tasks in modern healthcare.

References:

Evaluation of an Ambient Artificial Intelligence Documentation Platform for Clinicians
Stults CD, McDonald KM, Niehaus KE, et al.
JAMA Network Open, 2025

Ambient Artificial Intelligence Scribes to Alleviate the Burden of Clinical Documentation
Tierney AA, Gayre G, Hoberman B, et al.
NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, 2024

Credits: 

Theme music: Nowhere Land, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

What if checking your blood pressure was as easy as glancing at your watch? High blood pressure quietly affects nearly half of all Americans—yet it's one of the most preventable causes of strokes, heart attacks, and other serious health problems. The catch? Traditional monitoring methods are clunky, inconvenient, and rarely used outside the clinic.

In this episode, we explore how next-gen technologies are transforming blood pressure tracking. From smartwatches and rings to toilet seats and even facial recognition, wearable devices are pushing the boundaries of what's possible—no cuffs required. You’ll learn how sensors using light (PPG), electrical signals, and video can estimate blood pressure in real time, offering the promise of continuous, hassle-free monitoring.

But as with any innovation, there are hurdles. We dive into critical challenges like calibration complexity, variable accuracy across users and activities, and whether these tools truly improve hypertension management or simply add more data noise. The role of artificial intelligence adds another layer—enhancing insights, but also raising new questions about equity, access, and interpretation.

Is convenience enough to spark a shift in how we manage cardiovascular health? Or do these tools need to prove more than novelty to become essential?

Tune in for a forward-looking conversation on the promise, the pitfalls, and the future of blood pressure technology—where innovation meets one of medicine’s most familiar numbers.

References: 

Emerging sensing and modeling technologies for wearable and cuffless blood pressure monitoring
Lei Zhao, Cunman Liang, Yan Huang, Guodong Zhou, Yiqun Xiao, Nan Ji, Yuan‑Ting Zhang, Ni Zhao et al.
Nature, Digital Medicine, May 2023

Cuffless Blood Pressure Measurement Devices – International Perspectives on Accuracy and Clinical Use: A Narrative Review
Eugene Yang, Aletta E. Schutte, George Stergiou, Fernando Stuardo Wyss, Yvonne Commodore‑Mensah, Augustine Odili, Ian Kronish, Hae‑Young Lee, Daichi Shimbo
JAMA Cardiology, June 2025

Credits: 

Theme music: Nowhere Land, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Why do so many doctor’s appointments end in empty waiting rooms? Nearly one in four scheduled visits turn into no-shows, disrupting care, wasting resources, and straining already overburdened systems. But a new study shows we might be able to see these gaps coming—and stop them.

By analyzing over a million healthcare visits, researchers used machine learning to uncover surprising predictors of missed appointments. The top signal? How far in advance the appointment was booked. Appointments scheduled more than 60 days out had the highest odds of being missed—more telling than age, income, or insurance status. Other key factors included continuity with the same provider, a patient’s past attendance, distance to the clinic, and even the weather.

This episode unpacks how models like random forests and gradient boosting sift through massive datasets to identify no-show risks—not just for populations, but for individual patients. These insights open the door to smarter, more personalized interventions: tighter scheduling windows, transportation support, or ensuring patients see familiar faces.

Tune in to explore how AI could help healthcare systems run smoother, deliver more timely care, and keep more patients from vanishing in the first place.

References:

Predicting Missed Appointments in Primary Care: A Personalized Machine Learning Approach
Wen-Jan Tuan, Yifang Yan, Bilal Abou Al Ardat, Todd Felix and Qiushi Chen
Annals of Family Medicine, July/August 2025 

Credits: 

Theme music: Nowhere Land, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

What if a chatbot designed to support recovery instead encouraged the very behaviors it was meant to prevent? In this episode, we unravel the cautionary saga of Tessa, a digital companion built by the National Eating Disorder Association to scale mental health support during the COVID-19 surge—only to take a troubling turn when powered by generative AI.

At first, Tessa was a straightforward rules-based helper, offering pre-vetted encouragement and resources. But after an AI upgrade, users began receiving rigid diet tips: restrict calories, aim for weekly weight loss goals, and obsessively track measurements—precisely the advice no one battling an eating disorder should hear. What should have been a lifeline revealed the danger of unguarded algorithmic “help.”

We trace this journey from the earliest chatbots—think ELIZA’s therapeutic mimicry in the 1960s—to today’s sophisticated large language models. Along the way, we highlight why shifting from scripted responses to free-form generation opens doors for innovation in healthcare and, simultaneously, for unintended harm. Crafting effective guardrails isn’t just a technical challenge; it’s a moral imperative when lives hang in the balance.

As providers eye AI to extend care, Tessa’s story offers vital lessons on rigorous testing, transparency around updates, and the irreplaceable role of human oversight. Despite the pitfalls, we close on a hopeful note: with the right safeguards, AI can amplify human expertise—transforming support for vulnerable patients without losing the empathy and nuance only people can provide.

Reference:

National Eating Disorders Association phases out human helpline, pivots to chatbot
Kate Wells
NPR, May 2023

An eating disorders chatbot offered dieting advice, raising fears about AI in health
Kate Wells
NPR, June 2023

The Unexpected Harms of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
Kerstin Denecke Guillermo Lopez-Compos, Octavio Rivera-Romero, and Elia Gabarron
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, May 2025

Credits: 

Theme music: Nowhere Land, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

What if an AI could write your medical chart—and what happens when it gets it wrong? Doctors have long lamented the paperwork that comes with every patient encounter. “Charting was the bane of my existence,” admits Dr. Laura Hagopian, an emergency physician who’s spent countless hours piecing together fragmented notes and outdated records. Could artificial intelligence finally lift this administrative weight?

Recent advances in large language models promise to generate discharge summaries as accurately as seasoned clinicians, potentially returning precious time to the bedside. By training on thousands of patient encounters and lab reports, these systems can stitch together coherent narratives of care—micro-diagnoses, treatment plans, and follow-up recommendations—at a speed no human chart-writer can match.

Yet with speed comes risk. When an AI hallucination slips into a diagnosis and becomes enshrined in a patient’s record, who is accountable? Dr. Hagopian highlights the stark difference between human and machine error: “I feel very different about a human making a mistake compared to an AI making a mistake.” As trust in automated documentation grows, so too do questions about responsibility, oversight, and patient safety.

In this episode, AI researcher Vasanth Sarathy and Dr. Hagopian peel back the layers of these complex issues. They explore the nuts and bolts of AI summarization algorithms, discuss promising clinical trials, and weigh the ethical dilemmas of delegating clinical judgment to code. How do we ensure that efficiency doesn’t override accuracy when every data point can mean life or death?

Whether you’re a clinician craving relief from chart fatigue, an AI developer pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, or a patient curious about who’s really recording your health story, this conversation offers a vital look at the future of medical documentation. Join us as we navigate the promise—and the pitfalls—of letting machines tell our most critical health narratives.

References:

Physician- and Large Language Model–Generated Hospital Discharge Summaries
Christopher Y. K. Williams, et al. 
JAMA, Internal Medicine, 2025

Credits: 

Theme music: Nowhere Land, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

What if a 19th-century nurse laid the foundation for 21st-century disease surveillance?

Florence Nightingale, widely known for her compassion, was also a pioneering statistician who used data to reveal a hidden crisis: more soldiers in the Crimean War were dying from infections than from battle wounds. Her insights led to life-saving reforms—and sparked a revolution in how we understand public health.

Today, that same spirit of data-driven action lives on through artificial intelligence. In this episode, we explore how modern AI systems are transforming outbreak detection by scanning signals across the digital world—social media, search trends, news in multiple languages, even environmental data—to identify early signs of emerging health threats.

From tools like HealthMap to natural language processing engines that monitor disease mentions across continents, AI has already proven its value by detecting outbreaks like H1N1 and COVID-19 before official systems sounded the alarm. But history reminds us that data can be misleading: Google Flu Trends famously overestimated flu cases by mistaking media buzz for actual spread.

That’s why the most powerful systems today pair AI with human epidemiologists, combining rapid pattern recognition with expert judgment. It’s a modern-day continuation of Nightingale’s legacy—a partnership where algorithms spot weak signals, and people decide how to act.

This episode uncovers how statistical thinking has evolved into intelligent surveillance, offering public health leaders a critical advantage: time. Time to act, time to intervene, and time to prevent the next outbreak before it becomes a crisis.

References: 

Artificial intelligence in public health: the potential of epidemic early warning systems
Chandini Raina MacIntyre, Xin Chen, Mohana Kunasekaran, Ashley Quigley, Samsung Lim, Haley Stone, Hye-young Paik, Lina Yao, David Heslop, Wenzhao Wei, Ines Sarmiento, Deepti Gurdasani
Journal of International Medical Research, March 2023

Digital Disease Detection — Harnessing the Web for Public Health Surveillance
John S. Brownstein, Clark C. Freifeld, Lawrence C. Madoff
The New England Journal of Medicine, May 2009

HealthMap: Global Infectious Disease Monitoring through Automated Classification and Visualization of Internet Media Reports
Clark C. Freifeld, Kenneth D. Mandl, Ben Y. Reis, John S. Brownstein
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA), 2008

Surveillance Sans Frontières: Internet-Based Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence and the HealthMap Project
John S. Brownstein, Clark C. Freifeld, Ben Y. Reis, Kenneth D. Mandl
PLoS Medicine, July 2008

AI systems aim to sniff out coronavirus outbreaks
Adrian Cho
Science, May 2020

Real-time alerting system for COVID-19 and other stress events using wearable data
Arash Alavi, Gireesh K. Bogu, Meng Wang, Ekanath S. Rangan, Andrew W. Brooks, Qiwen Wang, Emily Higgs, Alessandra Celli, Tejaswini Mishra, Ahmed A. Metwally, and many others
Nature Medicine, January 2022

Real-Time Digital Surveillance of Vaping-Induced Pulmonary Disease
Yulin Hswen, John S. Brownstein
The New England Journal of Medicine, October 2019

Advances in Artificial Intelligence for Infectious-Disease Surveillance
John S. Brownstein, B

What if the next breakthrough treatment for a rare disease was already sitting on the pharmacy shelf?

Drug repurposing, the science of finding new uses for existing medications, is transforming how we discover treatments, blending serendipity with strategy. It began with surprises like Viagra, a heart drug turned blockbuster, but today it's driven by advanced data tools that accelerate discovery and reduce risk.

We explore how knowledge graphs (vast maps of biomedical relationships between drugs, genes, and diseases) are now at the core of this revolution. When paired with artificial intelligence, these networks can surface overlooked connections buried in decades of medical literature. Unlike opaque algorithms, these AI systems can explain why a drug might work for a new condition, providing testable hypotheses and building trust with clinicians.

This approach doesn’t just save time—it can save lives. Traditional drug development takes over a decade and billions of dollars. Repurposed drugs, having already passed safety checks, can reach patients faster and cheaper. That’s a game-changer for rare and neglected diseases where time and resources are limited.

This episode is a journey through beautiful mistakes and brilliant methods, showing how multidisciplinary teams, from data scientists to clinicians, are reshaping the future of medicine. Join us to learn how technology is turning chance into choice, and uncovering new hope in old drugs.

References

Drug repurposing: approaches, methods and considerations | Elsevier
Elsevier Industry Overview
(No individual author listed)

Trends and Applications in Computationally Driven Drug Repurposing
Luca Pinzi & Giulio Rastelli
International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2023

Biomedical Knowledge Graph Refinement with Embedding and Logic Rules
Sendong Zhao, Bing Qin, Ting Liu, Fei Wang
arXiv preprint, 2020

COVID-19 Literature Knowledge Graph Construction and Drug Repurposing Report Generation
Qingyun Wang et al.
NAACL Demonstrations, 2021

Explainable Drug Repurposing via Path Based Knowledge Graph Completion
Ana Jiménez, María José Merino, Juan Parras, Santiago Zazo
Scientific Reports, 2024

Knowledge Graphs for Drug Repurposing: A Review of Databases and Methods
Pablo Perdomo-Quinteiro & Alberto Belmonte-Hernández
Briefings in Bioinformatics, 2024

Credits: 

Theme music: Nowhere Land, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

What if a convincing medical article you read online—citing peer-reviewed journals and quoting real-sounding experts—was entirely fabricated by AI?

In this episode, we dive into the unsettling world of AI-generated health disinformation. Researchers recently built custom GPT-based chatbots trained to spread myths. The result? Persuasive narratives full of fabricated studies, misleading statistics, and plausible-sounding jargon—powerful enough to sway even savvy readers.

We break down how these AI systems were created, why today’s safeguards failed to stop them, and what this means for public health. With disinformation spreading faster than truth on social media, even a single viral post can lead to real-world consequences: lower vaccination rates, delayed treatments, or widespread mistrust in medical authorities.

But there’s hope. Using a four-pronged approach—fact-checking, digital literacy, communication design, and policy—we explore how society can fight back. This episode is a call to action: to become vigilant readers, ethical technologists, and thoughtful citizens in a world where even falsehoods can be generated on demand.

References:

How to Combat Health Misinformation: A Psychological Approach
Jon Roozenbeek & Sander van der Linden
American Journal of Health Promotion, 2022

Health Disinformation Use Case Highlighting the Urgent Need for Artificial Intelligence Vigilance: Weapons of Mass Disinformation
Bradley D. Menz, Natansh D. Modi, Michael J. Sorich, Ashley M. Hopkins
JAMA Internal Medicine, 2024

Current Safeguards, Risk Mitigation, and Transparency Measures of Large Language Models Against the Generation of Health Disinformation
Bradley D. Menz et al.
BMJ, 2024

Urgent Need for Standards and Safeguards for Health-Related Generative Artificial Intelligence
Reed V. Tuckson & Brinleigh Murphy-Reuter
Annals of Internal Medicine, 2025 

Assessing the System-Instruction Vulnerabilities of Large Language Models to Malicious Conversion Into Health Disinformation Chatbots
Natansh D. Modi, Bradley D. Menz, and colleagues
Annals of Internal Medicine, 2025

Credits: 

Theme music: Nowhere Land, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

What if a simple photograph of your eye could prevent blindness? Diabetic retinopathy silently steals vision from millions worldwide, yet it's treatable when caught early. The challenge? Too few specialists, limited access to care, and not enough awareness about this serious complication of diabetes.

We dive deep into how artificial intelligence is transforming this landscape by analyzing retinal photos with remarkable accuracy. Through neural networks trained on thousands of eye images, these systems can detect subtle signs of disease—microaneurysms, hemorrhages, and abnormal blood vessels—that signal potential vision loss. With accuracy rates exceeding 98% for severe cases, AI technology serves not as a replacement for ophthalmologists but as a powerful triage tool that extends their reach.

The implications are profound, especially for underserved areas where specialists are scarce. By implementing AI screening at primary care visits, more people with diabetes can receive timely evaluation without the barriers of specialist referrals, travel costs, or time off work. The technology represents a perfect example of human-AI collaboration: machines handle initial screening at scale, while medical professionals focus their expertise on treatment and complex cases. This partnership model could revolutionize preventive care for one of the leading causes of preventable blindness worldwide.

References mentioned:

• Performance of a Deep Learning Diabetic Retinopathy Algorithm in India - PubMed
• Diabetic Retinopathy Is Massively Underscreened-An AI System Could Help - PubMed
• A deep learning based model for diabetic retinopathy grading | Scientific Reports
• A Survey on Deep-Learning-Based Diabetic Retinopathy Classification - PMC

Credits: 

Theme music: Nowhere Land, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/