The 21st century has granted humanity incredible access to medications and procedures that can extend life almost indefinitely. Ventilators can breathe for us, intravenous tubes and pumps can nourish us, and hemodialysis machines can filter waste and excess water from our blood, all but replacing healthy kidneys.

The fact that medicine can extend human lives almost indefinitely is considered by many to be a great scientific achievement. Still, many doctors feel beset by the gifts they’ve been given. In the ever-distressing, noise-polluted, sick-care environment of today’s hospital, it’s not clear whether patients nearing the end of their lives are being treated or tortured. So, how should our nation define “life?”

Welcome to season nine of Fixing Healthcare with cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Things are about to get emotional and philosophical. In this and future episodes, guests will tackle the difficult topic of death. Although it is a complex and uncomfortable subject, listeners will have the opportunity to learn from world experts regarding the ethical, legal and medical decisions that surround end-of-life care.

This season’s first guest is Dorothee Caminiti, the director of the bioethics program at the Makkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. She works at the intersection of digital ethics in healthcare and law, and focuses on the ethical problems associated with personalized medicine and the processing of health-related data. She received her master’s degree in bioethics from Harvard University.

In this episode, Caminiti discusses:

Tune in for the full interview and join the conversation on social media.

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Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #115: The bioethical dilemma of saving life ‘at any cost’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being. Today’s show leads with an up-close look at a subject near and dear to Dr. Fisher’s heart, literally.

“Empathy resides in the emotional heart, and it also has impacts on the physical heart and the physiologic heart, as well,” says Dr. Fisher adding that, “empathy helps steady the heart, lower heart rate, lower stress and, in the exam room, can even lower blood pressure.”

As part of the conversation, Fixing Healthcare cohost Dr. Robert Pearl introduced a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association over the summer that got many in medical profession talking. Here’s how Dr. Pearl described it in a recent Forbes article:

“Researchers compared doctor and AI responses to nearly 200 medical questions submitted by patients via social media. The answers were read by a team of healthcare professionals who didn’t know whether the author was a doctor or a bot. The team concluded that 80% of the AI-generated responses as more nuanced, accurate and detailed than those shared by physicians. But most surprising was ChatGPT’s bedside manner. While less than 5% of doctor responses were judged to be ‘empathetic’ or ‘very empathetic,’ that figure shot up to 45% for answers provided by AI.”

Today’s show explores the importance of empathy and how healthcare professionals—many of whom suffer an erosion of empathy due to high stress and burnout—can better express their emotions with others, including their colleagues and patients.

To discover more, press play and check out these helpful links:

Presale: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s new book)

Doctors Vs. ChatGPT: Which Is More Empathetic? (Forbes)

Do you have the emotional intelligence it takes to be a great hospital leader? (Becker’s Hospital Review)

How AI, Empathy, & Capitation Can Transform Healthcare (Speaking Of Podcast)

Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn)

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Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple Podcasts or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #114: An unfiltered look at empathy in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

Listeners of Fixing Healthcare keep writing in and reaching out with questions about two hot-button healthcare topics: the high price of healthcare and the impact generative AI (like ChatGPT) will have on the future of medicine.

This episode of Diving Deep begins with a look at “skimping,” which refers to the many ways in which healthcare prices are constrained, but at the expense of American patients. It’s equivalent to consumers purchasing a box of cereal at the regular price only to find 25% fewer flakes inside. Of course, the difference is that skimping on medical care as a means to flatten healthcare inflation proves destructive to our nation’s health.

Cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr then focus on the future of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing are poised to give people significantly more power and control—not just over their personal lives and professional tasks, but over their own medical health, as well. What will this mean for the doctor-patient relationship going forward?

Pearl explains that, if used correctly, GenAI “offers the opportunity to make the doctor-patient relationship more collaborative and create empowered patients who will improve their health.”

Learn more about these two topics in today’s episode of Fixing Healthcare. Click play to learn more or check out the various links below for additional information.

HELPFUL LINKS

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Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #113: Diving deep into Dr. ChatGPT and healthcare ‘skimping’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

Season eight of the Fixing Healthcare podcast continues its focus on the role of leadership in driving change. Our guest today is an expert in this area.

Jenny Chatman is Acting Dean at the Haas School of Business and the Paul Cortese Professor of Management at UC Berkeley. She’s a world-renowned researcher, teacher and consultant on leveraging organizational culture to boost team performance. Chatman is also editor-in-chief for the journal “Research in Organizational Behavior” (2019-2022) and co-director of the Berkeley Haas Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation.

In this interview, Chatman shares lessons in leadership and cultural change with Fixing Healthcare cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr.

Throughout today’s episode, she discusses:

Tune in for the full interview and join the conversation on social media.

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Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #112: How the culture of medicine can change appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

This year, the cost of health insurance for a working family of four exceeded $24,000 for the first time ever. That’s up 7% from last year (the largest rate increase since 2011). But increased spending has not equated to happier patients. New research has uncovered an “unprecedented decline” in patient satisfaction throughout United States.

In today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, podcast cohost Dr. Robert Pearl discusses the rise of medical costs alongside the rise in patient displeasure.

But the bad news doesn’t stop there. New data suggest that infant morality and maternal mortality are on the rise in America. At the same time, doctors, nurses and medical staff are exiting the profession by the hundreds of thousands.

However, listeners looking for good news will find some in today’s show, too.  Here’s a snapshot of the topics covered:

Click here for more info: https://www.fixinghealthcarepodcast.com/

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Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post MTT #78: How high will premiums rise? How low will patient satisfaction go? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being.

Today’s show leads with an in-depth look at bias. In particular, the kind of cognitive biases studied by Nobel Prize researchers Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, who identified the many reasons why the human brain makes illogical and irrational choices. The two then talk about how doctors view technologies like ChatGPT through the lens of their own preconceived notions about the world around them.

Later in the episode, Dr. Robert Pearl introduces some surprising data on physician burnout. In August, an independent research group, the Commonwealth Fund, published a global report on satisfaction among primary care physicians.

According to the data, a paltry 47% of America’s primary care doctors are satisfied with their medical practices overall. Most surprisingly, however, is that the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Canada all claim less-satisfied doctors, despite working in countries that consistently and considerably outperform the United States in clinical outcomes.

With all the talk around America’s dysfunctional healthcare system as the main driver of physician burnout, how is it that the U.S. sits squarely in the middle of 10 other developed countries in rankings of professional satisfaction (especially when doctors elsewhere work in government-funded healthcare systems and don’t have to deal with things like prior authorization and computer systems designed around fee-for-service payments)?

Today’s show provides some answers and offers new ways the burnout crisis can be remedied.

To discover more, press play and check out these helpful links:

Presale: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s ucpoming book)

Overworked and Undervalued: Unmasking Primary Care Physicians’ Dissatisfaction in 10 High-Income Countries (The Commonwealth Fund)

The Healthcare Burnout Symposium featuring Dr. Fisher (Event: November 2-3, 2023)

Who has the power to end clinician burnout? (RobertPearlMD.com)

Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn)

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Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple Podcasts or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #111: Among wealthy nations, U.S. docs rank average for burnout appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

Like magicians, the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry has used diversion to distract the public’s attention away from where the real action is really happening. This Fixing Healthcare episode of Diving Deep begins with a look at three illusions drug companies have crafted to maintain massive profitability and keep Americans from  seeing important truths about pharma pricing, innovation and regulation.

Cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr then focus on the future of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Despite 20-plus years of hype, AI’s impact on medical practice has been negligible thus far. But Pearl believes the next generation of AI is unlike any technology that has come before. The launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 marked the dawn of a new era in medicine. Pearl says that, in time, generative AI tools will “radically change healthcare, empower patients and redefine the doctor-patient relationship.”

Learn more about these two topics in today’s episode of Fixing Healthcare. Click play to learn more or check out the various links below for additional information.

HELPFUL LINKS

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Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #110: Diving deep into drug-pricing wizardry and deep learning (AI) appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

Dan Ariely is an expert in irrational behavior. He has extensively researched it, mulled it over and, more often than not, produced brilliant insights into what it means to be a human. His studies and observations have resulted in three New York Times bestsellers on human psychology.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, he was attacked for his efforts to save lives through vaccination and mandatory masking. His newest book, “Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things,” recalls his travails during Covid-19 era and the blowback he received as the “chief consciousness engineer” of the “covid-19 fraud” (in the words of his skeptics).

In this interview, Ariely discusses the highlights of his decades-long research into psychology and behavioral economics and their applications toward U.S. medicine with Fixing Healthcare cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr.

In this episode, Ariely discusses:

Ariely is an is a leading behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur and the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University.

Tune in for the full interview and join the conversation on social media.

* * *

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #109: Dan Ariely on irrationality and misbelief in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

Last year, around this time, the CDC alerted physicians about the triple threat of Covid-19, seasonal influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). The result was one of the worst flu seasons in more than a decade.

In today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, podcast cohost Dr. Robert Pearl discusses the return of the “triple-demic” this winter and what listeners should do about it.

According to forecasts, researchers expect a total of 1.15 million hospitalizations from these three viruses. How do those numbers stack up against last year? And will the newest vaccines prove more or less efficacious?

Also featured on today’s program:

Click here for more info: https://www.fixinghealthcarepodcast.com/

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Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post MTT #77: Is the ‘tripledemic’ returning? Will new vaccines help? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being.

On today’s show, Dr. Fisher serves up a question for Dr. Robert Pearl.

He recalls the classic Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, a medical school textbook that now comprises more than 3,000 pages of vital information. And yet, despite the book’s exhaustive and comprehensive nature, Dr. Fisher remembers one thing that was notably absent from its pages:

“Something was missing in that book that has come back to bite me on more than one occasion in my clinic, relating to patient care and also working with my colleagues. It has to do with the role of trust in healthcare.”

Fisher recalls, in his early years of practice, assuming that patients would come to his office, heed his medical wisdom, dutifully follow his recommendations and return later for a follow-up visit having benefited greatly. But he quickly learned that this paternalistic approach to medical treatment had fallen out of favor some time ago. Now that today’s patients aren’t so quick to defer to the physician’s expertise, what is the state of trust in healthcare and how can physicians earn more of it from increasingly skeptical patients?

Today’s show explores the role of trust and distrust in medicine. The doctors, alongside cohost Jeremy Corr, dive into the relationship between patients and doctors, physicians and their colleagues and clinicians and those in leadership roles.

To discover more, press play and check out these helpful links:

Presale: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s new book)

Healing Healthcare: Repairing The Last 5 Years Of Damage (LinkedIn)

To End Burnout, Doctors Must Change the Culture of Medicine (Medscape)

Transforming Leadership & Well-Being From The Heart (About My Brain)

Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn)

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Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple Podcasts or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #108: An unfiltered look at distrust between patients and doctors appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.