In this episode of NEJM AI Grand Rounds, guests Drs. Alan Karthikesalingam and Anil Palepu of Google walk co-hosts Raj Manrai and Andy Beam through the making and evaluation of AMIE, an AI system designed to conduct clinical conversations with patients. Alan and Anil explain how AMIE was trained using synthetic doctor-patient interactions generated by LLMs playing multiple roles—doctor, patient, critic, and moderator. They reveal how synthetic dialogue, guided by structured feedback and grounded in search, proved more effective than noisy real-world transcripts in building a model that could reason, ask questions, and show empathy. The discussion also covers what the “long tail” of medicine demands for building robust AI systems and how AMIE might one day augment real clinical workflows. Finally, Alan reflects on how AI has changed—and how it hasn’t—in the two years since he was last on the podcast.

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Dr. Shiv Rao, cardiologist and CEO of Abridge, joins hosts Raj Manrai and Andy Beam on NEJM AI Grand Rounds for an inspiring conversation at the intersection of medicine, technology, and meaning. Shiv shares the origin story of Abridge, reflecting on how a deeply human encounter in clinic sparked the idea for a company now transforming clinical documentation across more than 100 health systems. From his early days programming electronic music to navigating LLM deployment at scale, Shiv offers a rare look into the soul of a founder building not just infrastructure — but a movement. He unpacks how generative AI can be used to restore presence in the clinic, what it takes to earn clinician trust, and why he believes taste, empathy, and curiosity are the real moats in health care AI.

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Dr. Faisal Mahmood, Associate Professor of Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, joins hosts Raj Manrai and Andy Beam on NEJM AI Grand Rounds to explore the frontier of computational pathology. From pioneering foundational models for whole slide imaging to commercializing a multimodal generative AI copilot for pathology, Faisal shares how his team is redefining what’s possible in digital diagnostics. He discusses the power of open-source culture in accelerating innovation, his lab’s FDA breakthrough designation, and how generative AI could trigger widespread digitization in pathology. Faisal also reflects on his creative approach to problem selection and offers a vision for a future shaped by patient-level foundation models and agent-led computational biology.

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Morgan Cheatham joins hosts Raj Manrai and Andy Beam on NEJM AI Grand Rounds to discuss the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence in health care, from its role in automating clinical documentation to its transformative potential in genomic medicine. A venture capitalist and future physician, Morgan shares how his background in computational decision sciences led him to medical school and investing, offering insights into how AI is reshaping everything from disease phenotyping and clinical decision-making to scaling precision medicine. He reflects on his work evaluating ChatGPT’s performance on the USMLE, the growing importance of genomic learning health systems, and why the biggest challenge isn’t technological innovation—but aligning payment models to support AI-driven advancements in medicine.

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Dr. Emily Alsentzer joins hosts Raj Manrai and Andy Beam on NEJM AI Grand Rounds to discuss the evolution of natural language processing (NLP) in medicine. A Stanford faculty member and expert in clinical AI, Emily shares her journey from pre-med to biomedical AI, the role of language models in medical decision-making, and the ethical considerations surrounding bias in AI. The conversation explores everything from the early days of rule-based NLP to the modern era of large language models, the challenges of evaluating AI in clinical settings, and what the future holds for open-source medical AI.

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In this return appearance on NEJM AI Grand Rounds, Dr. Zak Kohane joins hosts Raj Manrai and Andy Beam to discuss the evolving landscape of AI in medicine. As the first repeat guest on the show, Dr. Kohane shares insights on health care system challenges, the Human Values Project, and his perspectives on the most significant AI developments of 2024. The conversation explores everything from the practical applications of AI in health care to philosophical discussions about machine psychology and the future of doctor-patient relationships.

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In this episode of NEJM AI Grand Rounds, hosts Raj Manrai and Andy Beam interview Larry Summers about artificial intelligence’s transformative potential and its implications for society. The conversation explores Summers’ perspective on AI as potentially the most significant technology ever invented, his role on OpenAI’s board following the November 2023 leadership transition, and his thoughts on how AI will reshape economics and human society. The episode provides unique insights into AI’s development trajectory, the challenges of technological prediction, and the intersection of economics and artificial intelligence.

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In this episode of NEJM AI Grand Rounds, hosts Raj Manrai and Andy Beam interview Courtney Hofmann, a mother whose use of ChatGPT led to her son’s diagnosis of tethered cord syndrome after seeing 17 doctors over three years, and Dr. Holly Gilmer, the pediatric neurosurgeon who confirmed and treated the condition. The conversation explores how AI helped bridge diagnostic gaps, systemic health care challenges that led to missed diagnoses, and the evolving role of AI in patient advocacy and medical practice. The episode highlights the importance of combining AI insights with human medical expertise, while discussing both the potential and limitations of AI in health care.

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In this episode of NEJM AI Grand Rounds, hosts Raj Manrai and Andy Beam interview Dr. David Ouyang, a cardiologist and AI researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The conversation explores Ouyang’s journey from medical training to AI research and entrepreneurship, his groundbreaking work in applying AI to cardiology imaging, and the challenges of bringing AI innovations from academia to clinical practice. Ouyang discusses his experience conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for AI algorithms in echocardiography, the process of commercializing research through Y Combinator, and the hurdles in reimbursement for AI-based medical devices. The episode also delves into the future of AI in cardiology, the importance of clinician involvement in AI development, and the potential impact of large language models (LLMs) on medical practice. Ouyang shares insights on balancing clinical value with business considerations in health care AI and offers advice for researchers looking to conduct clinical trials for AI technologies.

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In this episode of NEJM AI Grand Rounds, hosts Raj Manrai and Andy Beam interview Dr. Noa Dagan and Dr. Ran Balicer from the Clalit Research Institute in Israel. The conversation explores Clalit’s groundbreaking work in implementing predictive models at the point of care, their contributions to COVID-19 research, and the potential of AI in revolutionizing public health. Dagan and Balicer discuss the unique data set spanning more than half of Israel’s population, their approach to integrating AI into clinical practice, and their vision for the future of data-driven health care.

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