Fixing Healthcare Podcast: Recent Episodes

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In this Diving Deep episode, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr examine two big questions facing American medicine: how generative AI can make healthcare more affordable and what the World Cup can teach doctors about strategy, teamwork and leadership.

The conversation begins with a counterintuitive point: In other industries, technology often lowers costs by allowing companies to produce the same output with fewer workers. But Dr. Pearl knows medicine is different. In healthcare, the biggest costs arise when preventable and controllable conditions turn into life-threatening complications. Therefore, he does not believe GenAI’s greatest financial value in healthcare will come from replacing doctors and nurses.

Pearl argues that the surest way to lower healthcare spending is by keeping people healthier. Poorly controlled hypertension, diabetes, heart failure and kidney disease drive many of the nation’s most expensive complications, including heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, hospitalizations and surgeries. GenAI can help prevent those outcomes, and the savings could far exceed anything gained by reducing clinician headcount.

From there, Pearl identifies three major opportunities for GenAI-driven improvements:

• Control chronic diseases by helping patients understand their conditions, track data from home devices and get medication adjustments sooner (rather than waiting months between office visits).
• Expand access to medical expertise after hours and on weekends.
• Improve care coordination and medication safety, especially for older adults with multiple chronic conditions.

But technology alone will not be enough. So, the second half of the episode turns to entrepreneurship and leadership. Pearl discusses new research comparing expensive physician-facing AI tools with general-purpose large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.

His takeaway for entrepreneurs is clear: the biggest opportunity may not be building costly tools for hospitals, but helping patients use the AI tools already available on their computers and smartphones to manage their health more effectively.

That point leads into a broader lesson from the recent World Cup. Pearl argues that American medicine, like many talented teams that failed to win soccer’s biggest prize, has extraordinary resources but lacks a shared strategy. The United States has exceptional doctors, world-class hospitals and more healthcare spending than any nation, yet outcomes remain inconsistent, access unreliable and costs unaffordable.

The episode closes with a warning and a challenge. American medicine already has the talent, technology and financial resources to succeed. What it lacks is a clear strategy, coordinated teamwork and effective clinician leadership. If doctors want to improve care for patients and preserve the profession’s values, Pearl argues, they will need to embrace new technology, work together differently and take responsibility for the system’s performance.

For more, tune into this month’s episode and check out the links below.

Helpful links:

• Entrepreneurs Beware: Inexpensive AI Is The Future Of Medicine (Forbes)
• GenAI Won’t Lower Medical Costs By Replacing Doctors And Nurses (Forbes)
• 47 World Cup Teams Fell Short. US Medicine Should Learn From Them (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.

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

The post FHC #223: How GenAI & World Cup strategy can help fix healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl dig for the facts beneath healthcare’s biggest headlines. Today’s show opens with the issue most likely to shape how Americans think about healthcare heading into the midterm elections: affordability.

Dr. Pearl explains that medical costs have now reached $5.7 trillion, rising more than 7% for the third consecutive year. Federal actuaries project that healthcare spending could approach $9 trillion by 2034, accounting for more than 20% of the U.S. GDP. For voters, employers, patients and families, those numbers aren’t just an endless string of zeroes. They’re impacting everyday life.

Premiums, deductibles, copays and prescription drug costs are forcing people with private insurance, Medicare and exchange coverage to delay care, take on debt or choose worse coverage. Two major drivers stand out: hospital spending and drug costs. Hospital care remains the largest share of national healthcare expenses, while drug spending is rising fastest, driven in part by the growing use of GLP-1 medications. Pearl sees enormous potential in these drugs to improve health and reduce complications over time, but only if prices fall low enough for the long-term savings to justify the near-term expense.

That tension becomes clearer in the discussion of Medicare’s new GLP-1 pilot program for weight loss. Under the “bridge program,” eligible Medicare enrollees will be able to obtain GLP-1 medications for $50 a month, far below current retail prices. Pearl calls the program an important experiment, but also notes its limitations: coverage is not automatic, eligibility is restricted, administrative hurdles remain and the pilot may end after 18 months. If patients lose access and regain weight, the program could fail despite the promise of the medication.

The episode then moves into several unusual and important stories, including new research into the origins of life, the medical risks of cannibalism, the promise and limitations of wearable health data, a large cyclosporiasis outbreak, rising e-bike injuries among children and adolescents, a new cholesterol-lowering pill, CDC leadership and measles.

Here are the major storylines from episode 109:

• Researchers studying the origin of life made progress by taking a counterintuitive approach: building a synthetic cell from simple inorganic materials rather than stripping existing life forms down to their minimum parts.
• “Spud cell” research could eventually help scientists understand which genes are essential and create engineered cells capable of producing new medical treatments.
• A new study suggests cannibalism may have disappeared in part because of medical consequences, including infections and prion diseases that harmed tribes practicing it.
• Wearable devices are generating valuable health data, but most doctors lack the time, reimbursement and regulatory pathways needed to integrate that information into clinical care.
• A large cyclosporiasis outbreak has raised concerns about foodborne illness surveillance, produce safety and the difficulty of identifying contamination sources when symptoms appear one to two weeks after exposure.
• E-bike injuries are rising, especially among children and adolescents, with head, face and neck injuries posing particular concern.
• The FDA has approved a new pill that can lower LDL cholesterol to very low levels, though Pearl emphasizes that most average-risk patients should still rely on low-cost generic statins.
• The nomination hearing for Dr. Erica Schwartz as CDC director highlighted the continuing tension between science and politics, especially around vaccines, RFK Jr. and public trust in federal health agencies.
• Measles cases continue to rise, with nearly all occurring among unvaccinated people and with serious risks for those whose immunity has waned.
• Generative AI may reduce costs and accelerate parts of drug development, but no AI-generated medication has yet obtained FDA approval.

The episode closes with a broader reflection on Season 11 of Fixing Healthcare. Pearl notes that the concerns raised by guests with large public followings are often different from the priorities emphasized by clinicians and national medical societies. Most Americans are not asking for unreasonable things. They want healthcare that is easier to access, affordable for their families and personalized to their circumstances. That gap, Pearl argues, may change how patients use technology. Large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are available 24/7, provide information at no additional cost and become more personalized as patients share more details. While many doctors worry that hospitals or insurers will replace them with AI, Pearl sees a different threat emerging: patients at home, frustrated by delays, high costs and feeling unheard, turning to generative AI because the healthcare system has not met their needs.

Tune in to hear the full discussion and subscribe to Medicine: The Truth for more fact-based analysis of the medical, scientific and policy stories shaping American healthcare.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine.

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

The post MTT #109: Healthcare affordability, GLP-1s and the patient revolt ahead appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, Drs. Robert Pearl and Jonathan Fisher explore what medicine can learn from positive psychology, elite sports teams and the daily pressures facing clinicians, leaders and patients.

The conversation begins with Fisher’s recent trip to Ireland, where he spoke at a conference on positive psychology, organizational well-being and leadership. Fisher explains that positive psychology is not simply about optimism or self-help. At its best, the field asks a more useful question: What can we learn from people, teams and organizations that are already flourishing?

That shift applies greatly in healthcare. Fisher argues that physician burnout cannot be solved by treating it only as an individual failure or by focusing only on what’s broken.

Pearl connects that idea to leadership. In business and medicine, he says, leaders often try to motivate people through fear, urgency and the “burning platform.” But both he and Fisher question whether threat-based leadership can produce the creativity, teamwork and judgment healthcare needs. Fisher points to research showing that when people feel threatened, their attention narrows. When they feel supported, curious and connected to a larger purpose, they can see more possibilities and make better decisions.

The conversation then turns to the World Cup. Pearl uses the tournament as a metaphor for medical practice, asking whether some doctors, like great athletes, are simply better performers than others. Fisher says yes, although the answer depends on what is being measured. Technical excellence matters, but so do teamwork, emotional regulation, communication and the experience of patients and colleagues.

That leads to one of the episode’s most important questions: What should healthcare do with brilliant clinicians who deliver exceptional technical results but damage the teams around them? Fisher argues that leaders must widen the definition of performance. Safety and volume matter, but so do turnover, culture, communication and the psychological impact one physician has on the rest of the team. A doctor can care deeply about patients and still harm the people required to care for them.

The final portion of the conversation returns to medical training. Fisher describes his work with new residents, where he teaches self-awareness, self-regulation, compassion and the ability to reset between difficult patient encounters. Pearl pushes the idea further, arguing that future physicians will also need strategic training: how to lead through others, apply technology, redesign care delivery and help medicine shift from disease reversal to health creation.

Cohost Jeremy Corr closes with a patient-centered question that extends the conversation beyond medicine: What should people do when work consumes their lives and leaves no space for health, relationships or meaning? Fisher cautions against simple hacks, arguing that people often need courage, help and boundaries to step off the hamster wheel. Pearl adds that for many Americans, the pace and expectations of modern life have become unsustainable. Strategy, he says, is not only about what people choose to do. It is also about what they are willing not to do.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 X and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #222: From burnout to leadership: how physicians can flourish appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Dr. Jerry Penso leads one of the most influential organizations in American healthcare. As president and CEO of AMGA, the American Medical Group Association, Penso represents 440 medical groups and health systems that care for nearly 100 million Americans.

That vantage point makes him an ideal guest for Season 11 of Fixing Healthcare with cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr.

This season’s guests are being asked what they are hearing from patients, clinicians and healthcare leaders right now. For Penso, three concerns rise above the rest:

1. A payment system that is fundamentally broken.
2. Worsening access to care.
3. A workforce under severe strain.

Penso begins with payment, especially Medicare and Medicaid. He explains that Medicare’s physician fee schedule has failed to keep up with inflation, leaving medical groups paid less in real terms while the cost of running a practice continues to rise. Medicaid cuts, he warns, will add further financial strain, especially for hospitals and medical groups that cannot choose which patients come through the emergency department or clinic doors.

The second major concern is access. Penso describes emergency rooms backed up across the country, patients waiting weeks to see specialists and primary care practices unable to accept new patients. He shares the story of his own mother, who spent five days in an emergency department before a hospital bed became available. For Penso, this is a symptom of a system in which demand is rising, the population is aging, chronic disease is growing and clinicians cannot simply “turn the hamster wheel” any faster.

That leads to the third issue: workforce. Physicians, nurses, advanced practice clinicians, pharmacists and staff are being asked to operate inside a system not designed for today’s volume, complexity or patient needs. Penso notes that most physicians are now employed by hospitals, health systems, insurers or private equity-backed organizations, a shift that has changed the psychology and day-to-day experience of medical practice. Loss of autonomy, bureaucracy and poor integration across systems all contribute to frustration and burnout.

There’s much more in this conversation, including the role of employer-sponsored health benefits, the limits of government reform, the promise and risk of generative AI, the future of physician autonomy and how AMGA is helping medical groups learn from one another.

Tune in to hear one of healthcare’s most experienced physician-executives explain what medical groups are seeing now, what must change next and why he remains optimistic that American healthcare can still move toward better payment, easier access and a more sustainable workforce.

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 X and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #221: What 440 medical groups are saying about healthcare today appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Diving Deep episode, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr explore what a breakthrough in mathematics can teach healthcare about generative AI, outdated assumptions and the future of medical practice.

The conversation begins with Paul Erdős, the brilliant Hungarian mathematician whose unit-distance problem stumped experts for 80 years. Generations of mathematicians tried to prove Erdős’ conjecture using the tools and assumptions of geometry. Then OpenAI announced that one of its models had found a different path, one that challenged the assumptions of humans.

For Pearl, the lesson for medicine is not about math. It is about the danger of staying trapped inside old models of thought. American healthcare faces persistent crises in quality, access and affordability, yet the proposed fixes focus on small adjustments to a system that has failed for decades. Pearl argues that generative AI will not reach its full potential if clinicians continue to use it merely for administrative tasks, documentation support or occasional diagnostic assistance.

Instead, he says, medicine must be willing to abandon three longstanding fallacies.

The second half of the episode shifts the discussion from assumptions to urgency. Pearl compares generative AI in medicine to the sudden invention of cars in a world where people could only travel by foot, bicycle or horseback. If faster transportation could save far more lives than it cost, society would not wait until cars were risk-free before building roads and teaching people to drive. He argues medicine should think similarly about GenAI: not as a finished product, but as a rapidly improving tool that could save lives if implemented wisely and quickly.

In the episode, Pearl highlights three areas where GenAI could have immediate impact. In each case, he returns to the same point: the greatest risk is not only that AI might make mistakes, but that medicine will ignore the harms already caused by today’s failures.

For more, tune into this month’s episode and check out the links below.

Helpful links:

• What GenAI’s Math Breakthrough Means For Medicine (Forbes)
• GenAI Is Ready To Change Medicine. America Isn’t Prepared (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.

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

The post FHC #220: How AI is challenging old assumptions in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl probe the facts beneath healthcare’s biggest headlines. Today’s show opens with a scientific breakthrough that could change the future of inherited disease: a new gene-editing technique that may allow researchers to correct DNA errors in human embryos with far greater precision than earlier CRISPR approaches.

Dr. Pearl explains that the advance, developed by researchers at Columbia University, uses a method called base editing. Unlike traditional CRISPR, which cuts out and replaces sections of DNA, base editing can alter individual nucleotides (the “letters” that make up genetic code). The difference, Pearl says, is comparable to moving from rewriting entire pages of text to correcting a single wrong letter inside a single word.

The promise is extraordinary. For families affected by one of the thousands of rare genetic diseases caused by single DNA errors, this technology could one day make it possible to prevent devastating inherited conditions before birth. Children who otherwise might face blindness, severe disability or premature death could instead be born free of the genetic defect.

But the ethical concerns are equally profound. The same technology that could prevent horrific disease could also be used to modify embryos for non-medical traits. Pearl warns that this possibility raises fears about “designer babies,” eugenics, private-sector incentives and the lack of federally funded oversight for embryo research in the United States.

Here are the other major storylines from episode 108:

• A large study of 9 million patients found that four risk factors (high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and smoking) are associated with nearly all heart attacks and strokes.
• The FDA approved a new sunscreen ingredient already used in Europe for decades, highlighting both the promise of better melanoma prevention and the slow pace of U.S. sunscreen regulation.
• Employers are preparing for further increases in healthcare premiums, deductibles and copayments, with many companies limiting or eliminating GLP-1 coverage for obesity.
• Preliminary data show U.S. infant mortality has reached an all-time low, but progress remains slow.
• Medicaid work requirements could cause millions of eligible people to lose coverage because of paperwork errors, shifting costs to emergency rooms, hospitals and state budgets.
• New rules under the No Surprises Act aim to speed dispute resolution between insurers and providers, but Pearl warns that payment disputes will continue as long as healthcare costs rise faster than people’s ability to pay.
• Pearl outlines three requirements for real healthcare transformation: keeping people healthy by controlling chronic disease, moving more care into the home with generative AI support and shifting payment from fee-for-service to capitation.
• The episode closes with two examples of AI already helping clinicians see what they might otherwise miss.

Tune in to hear the full discussion and subscribe to Medicine: The Truth for more fact-based analysis of the medical, scientific and policy stories shaping American healthcare.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine.

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

The post MTT #108: Designer babies, chronic disease & AI-powered care appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, Drs. Robert Pearl and Jonathan Fisher join cohost Jeremy Corr for a fascinating conversation about the physician’s mind, the promise and limits of generative AI, and what medicine risks losing when technology advances faster than humans can tolerate.

In this episode, Pearl turns to a realization he had during a recent hiking trip in Portugal: his brain felt different while walking through the woods than it does while solving analytical problems.

That observation leads to a deeper discussion of “left brain” and “right brain” thinking in medicine. Fisher explains that while the popular labels are oversimplified, the underlying challenge is real. Doctors must integrate structured reasoning with emotional awareness, diagnosis with relationship, and technical expertise with the human experience of illness.

The discussion then moves into one of the episode’s most provocative questions: Can generative AI be taught to express empathy and relational intelligence as well as humans? Pearl points to studies showing that AI-generated responses to patient questions can be rated as highly empathetic, comprehensive and accurate. Fisher pushes back, arguing that there is a difference between perceived empathy in written answers and the embodied presence of a physician sitting with a fearful patient and family in a vulnerable moment.

What follows is a thoughtful disagreement about the future of medicine. Pearl sees generative AI as a way to fill dangerous gaps in American healthcare, including lack of access after hours, rural shortages, diagnostic errors, preventable medical mistakes and poorly controlled chronic disease. Fisher worries that if AI begins taking over both analytical and relational parts of care, physicians may feel even more threatened in a profession already marked by burnout and uncertainty.

This leads to the debate’s central question: Will generative AI become the enslaver of clinicians or the liberator? Pearl argues that AI could help physicians escape the growing corporatization of medicine by taking on routine work, expanding access and enabling doctors to practice with more autonomy. Fisher agrees that this future is possible but cautions that in a fee-for-service system, efficiency gains may simply become an excuse to increase volume, billing and pressure on clinicians.

Finally, Jeremy brings the conversation back to everyday life by asking whether heavy reliance on technology and AI could weaken the mind the same way physical inactivity weakens the body. Fisher warns that when people offload too much thinking, emotion and relationship-building to devices, they risk losing cognitive sharpness and emotional attunement. Pearl agrees that every technology carries benefits and harms, arguing that the goal should be balance: using AI to learn, understand and solve problems without letting it flatten life’s richer, more meaningful experiences.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #219: Can AI help doctors think without losing medicine’s humanity? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Dr. Anthony “Mazz” Mazzarelli brings a rare combination of perspectives to American healthcare: physician, executive, lawyer, bioethicist, author and media voice.

As co-president and CEO of Cooper University Health Care and associate dean of clinical affairs at Cooper Medical School, Mazzarelli leads a major safety-net health system while continuing to see patients himself. He is also co-author of Compassionomics, a book that makes the evidence-based case that compassion in medicine improves outcomes, lowers costs and reduces clinician burnout.

That combination makes him an ideal guest for Fixing Healthcare with cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr.

This season’s guests are being asked what they are hearing from patients, clinicians and the public right now.

For Mazzarelli, three themes rise to the top:1. Growing concern over Medicaid cuts and rising uninsurance 2. Excitement about generative AI and other new technologies 3. Awe at the speed of change healthcare leaders will need to manage

Key episode highlights include: Medicaid cuts will hit safety-net patients hardest. At Cooper, roughly one-third of patients are covered by Medicaid or are self-pay. Mazzarelli explains that many of these patients live paycheck to paycheck or depend on coverage to manage chronic disease. When they lose access, prevention disappears and patients often delay care until they show up sicker in emergency departments and hospitals. * Generative AI is a promising tool for rethinking how care is delivered. Ambient listening and automated notes are helpful, he says, but the larger opportunity lies in decision support, preventive outreach, chronic disease management, medication adherence and giving clinicians more time to connect with patients. * Fraud prevention should not become a barrier to legitimate care. Mazzarelli supports catching fraud and abuse in Medicaid and Medicare, but argues that AI should be used to identify bad actors more precisely so the system can reduce unnecessary checkboxes. * Employer-based healthcare has hidden the true cost crisis. Employers and government programs have absorbed much of the rising cost of care, preventing individuals from feeling the full impact. That delay has reduced pressure for major reform, even as the system becomes increasingly unaffordable. * Payment reform remains the real lever for change. While Mazzarelli supports incremental improvements, he says the biggest changes will require addressing the way care is paid for, including the misaligned incentives that shape nearly every part of American healthcare. * AI can help clinicians reconnect with patients. Compassion is not a soft concept. Stronger patient connection has been linked to better outcomes, lower costs, fewer unnecessary tests and less burnout among clinicians. * Technology should redesign care, not automate bad workflows. Mazzarelli cautions that healthcare does not simply need better AI models. It needs leaders willing to redesign workflows in an “AI-native” way rather than layering technology on top of broken processes. * Convenience must be balanced with human connection. Jeremy raises concerns about the broader health consequences of modern convenience, including loneliness and isolation. Mazzarelli agrees, noting that loneliness is a major public health risk and that healthcare organizations have a responsibility to address it. * Burnout requires more than wellness programs.* Mazzarelli argues that yoga, walks and wellness initiatives are not enough if clinicians feel disconnected from the work itself. The real antidote, he says, is restoring meaning at the point of care by helping clinicians connect with patients and see the difference they make.

There’s much more in this conversation, including Cooper’s co-president model, the impact of private equity on physician practice, the future of 24/7 access and how policymakers should think about AI safety without slowing progress.

Tune in to hear what one of healthcare’s most thoughtful physician-executives believes patients, clinicians and leaders should expect from the next era of medicine.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on X and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #218: Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli on healthcare’s next burning platform appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Diving Deep episode, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr examine the rapid advance of generative AI, along with the growing conflict between medicine’s mission to heal and doctors’ need for financial security.

The conversation begins with a question now echoing across every profession: Will AI replace highly trained workers? In medicine, Dr. Pearl argues, the answer is less about replacement than redefinition. Drawing on recent changes in software development, he explains how “vibe coding” has allowed programmers to stop writing much of the code themselves and instead use generative AI to build, test and refine applications from plain-language instructions. Rather than feeling diminished, many coders report greater satisfaction because AI has taken over the repetitive, error-prone work and left them more time for problem-solving.

Pearl sees a similar possibility in healthcare. Like coding, medicine relies on years of training, structured reasoning and repeatable processes. Chronic disease management offers the clearest example. Hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol are leading causes of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure, yet proven treatments often fail because doctors lack the time to monitor patients continuously and adjust medications quickly. With home devices, physician-set targets and generative AI support, care could shift from occasional office visits to ongoing management, helping more patients achieve control while freeing physicians to focus on complex cases.

The second half of the episode turns from technology to mission. Using Tim Cook’s legacy at Apple as a case study, Pearl examines what happens when values and financial incentives collide. Cook’s tenure produced extraordinary business results, but critics have questioned whether some of his choices conflicted with his own values and Apple’s public statements around privacy, dignity and human-centered technology.

Pearl uses that as background for a similar question about medicine: What happens when doctors, who train to help and heal others above all else, feel increasingly forced to make career decisions shaped by money?

For generations, medicine was understood as a calling. Today, most physicians no longer own their practices. Many now work for hospitals, health systems, insurers or private equity-backed groups, while others have moved into concierge or direct primary care models. Pearl stresses that these choices are rational.

But the financial upside comes with psychological and moral consequences that are rarely discussed — and that may shape the future of physician fulfillment.

For more, tune into this month’s episode and check out the links below.

Helpful links

• The AI Revolution In Coding Offers A Preview Of Medicine’s Future (Forbes)
• What Tim Cook’s Legacy Teaches Doctors About Money And Mission (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on X and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #217: GenAI, physician fulfillment & the future of medical practice appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl probe the facts beneath healthcare’s biggest headlines. Today’s show examines the accelerating progress of generative AI, the political turmoil inside America’s leading health agencies and the infectious disease threats testing the nation’s public health readiness.

The conversation opens with a listener question about how close generative AI is to matching clinicians. Dr. Pearl explains that the technology is advancing faster than he predicted in ChatGPT, MD, with recent research showing an OpenAI model outperforming experienced physicians on emergency room triage and management in text-based clinical cases. He cautions that medicine is more complicated than written scenarios but argues that the trajectory is clear: before today’s incoming medical students finish training, generative AI tools are likely to be used in emergency rooms across the country

From there, the episode turns to the resignation of former FDA commissioner and Dr. Marty Makary, a two-time Fixing Healthcare guest. Pearl describes Makary as a respected clinician and patient-safety expert who found himself caught between scientific rigor, political pressure, industry opposition and public health critics. His departure, along with other leadership upheaval at FDA, CDC, NIH and HHS, raises a larger concern about whether America’s once-trusted scientific agencies can regain their independence and credibility.

Here are the other major storylines from episode 107:

• RFK Jr. removes preventive-care leaders. Pearl criticizes the firing of two respected co-chairs of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, warning that prevention policy may be pushed away from scientific evidence.
• The surgeon general nomination moving toward confirmation. Nicole Safier appears more confirmable than Dr. Casey Means because her vaccine views are closer to the scientific mainstream.
• A hantavirus outbreak raises public health concerns. A cruise ship outbreak involving the Andes virus appears to have spread person-to-person, causing at least 13 cases, several severe illnesses and three deaths.
• The U.S. remains vulnerable to fast-moving outbreaks. Pearl says the slow federal response to hantavirus shows how weakened public health capacity could become dangerous if a highly lethal virus were also easily transmissible.
• Tick bites are rising sharply. ER visits related to tick bites have climbed well above typical levels, driven in part by warmer temperatures and the spread of deer ticks into the Midwest and South.
• Ebola exposes the cost of global health cuts. A new Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo has no vaccine or effective treatment, and the outbreak was recognized only after spreading for weeks.
• USAID and WHO cuts increase risk to Americans. Pearl argues that reducing global public health support does not put “America first” because viruses ignore national borders.
• Patients should be more concerned when doctors avoid AI entirely. Pearl says he would worry more about clinicians who refuse to use reliable generative AI tools than those who consult them regularly.
• Opioid overdose deaths are falling but remain devastating. New CDC data show overdose deaths down for the third straight year, but annual fatalities still total roughly 70,000, with overdoses remaining the leading cause of death among adults ages 18 to 44.
• Vaccine safety data are being suppressed. Pearl closes by describing blocked FDA and CDC research showing COVID and shingles vaccines to be safe and effective, warning that political censorship undermines trust and harms patients.

Tune in for more fact-based analysis and practical perspective on the healthcare policies, technologies and trends shaping medicine today.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine.

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

The post MTT #107: How politics is weakening America’s public health defenses appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, Drs. Robert Pearl and Jonathan Fisher explore three questions that reach across medicine, leadership and life itself: What legacy do physicians leave behind? How does mindset shape health and longevity? And can doctors still find fulfillment as medical practice shifts from independence to employment?

The conversation begins with Tim Cook’s legacy at Apple, using his tenure as CEO to ask a larger question about values, mission and compromise. Pearl and Fisher examine whether legacy is something others assign after a career ends or something professionals create daily through their choices, actions and alignment with their deepest values. For physicians, the question becomes especially personal when financial, organizational or career decisions collide with the promise to put patients first.

Midway through, the discussion turns to longevity and the science of mindset. Drawing on research from Yale and Fisher’s work in Just One Heart, the two physicians explore how beliefs about aging can influence physical function, cognitive health, inflammation and long-term well-being. Fisher explains why optimism is not merely a pleasant attitude but a physiologic force that can shape stress hormones, inflammatory pathways and the daily behaviors that determine health.

Finally, Pearl and Fisher examine one of the biggest structural shifts in modern medicine: the movement from physician-owned practices to employment by hospitals, health systems and insurers. Fisher notes that independent doctors may report lower burnout, but autonomy is no longer guaranteed when administrative burdens, call schedules and financial pressures consume the practice of medicine. Employment offers support and stability, but often at the cost of control.

By the end, the episode connects all three themes: legacy, health and professional fulfillment are rooted in purpose. Whether through family, patient care, mission trips, mentoring or the daily work of medicine, Pearl and Fisher suggest that doctors may live longer, healthier and more meaningful lives when they preserve the mission that brought them to medicine in the first place.

For listeners who connected with Fisher’s reflections on burnout, autonomy and the search for renewed purpose in medicine, his upcoming ASPIRE physician retreat offers a deeper opportunity for reflection and recovery. Co-facilitated with Dr. Robyn Tiger, ASPIRE is a CME-accredited retreat designed exclusively for healthcare professionals, taking place June 12-14 at the Art of Living Retreat Center in Boone, North Carolina. Use code ASPIRE15 for 15% off registration.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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

The post FHC #216: An unfiltered look at what legacy means in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Fixing Healthcare hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl are revisiting a past episode of Diving Deep while Dr. Pearl travels and keynotes events around the world. And like last week’s replay, this conversation was selected for a reason.Originally recorded more than three years ago, this episode explores two issues that remain central to the future of American medicine: how healthcare leaders respond to technological change and whether the nation can finally move beyond fee-for-service reimbursement.

Looking back now, the discussion feels strikingly current. Many of the opportunities Dr. Pearl identified at the time still exist today. Generative AI has advanced dramatically. Remote monitoring tools are more powerful and accessible than ever. And healthcare leaders continue to acknowledge the need for better chronic disease management, prevention and lower-cost care delivery.

Yet despite these advances, many of the nation’s biggest healthcare problems remain unresolved. U.S. quality outcomes still lag peer nations. Life expectancy remains years shorter than in comparable countries. And healthcare costs continue rising at rates that far exceed inflation, wage growth and GDP.

Throughout the episode, Dr. Pearl argues that these failures are not primarily technological. The tools to improve care already existed — and continue to improve rapidly today. The greater challenge is leadership itself: helping clinicians embrace change, aligning incentives around patient outcomes and building the operational systems required to make better care possible at scale.

The conversation also revisits capitation and value-based care, themes that have resurfaced repeatedly in recent Fixing Healthcare episodes. Dr. Pearl explains why fee-for-service reimbursement continues to reward volume over outcomes and why meaningful progress in affordability will require shifting financial incentives toward prevention, chronic disease control and long-term patient health.

Revisiting this episode now offers a useful perspective on the past several years of healthcare transformation: technology has accelerated, but the deeper structural changes required to improve affordability and outcomes have moved far more slowly.

Helpful links

The Anatomy Of Healthcare Leadership: A Mind For Technology (Forbes)

Healthcare Leadership: Following The Money Can Lead To Positive Change (Forbes)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #215: Revisiting healthcare leadership, technology & capitation appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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For the next two weeks, Fixing Healthcare hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl will be replaying past episodes of Diving Deep while Dr. Pearl travels and keynotes events around the world. But these aren’t random reruns. They were selected for a reason: to highlight just how quickly technology is advancing and how slowly healthcare is adapting.

This week’s flashback revisits a July 2024 conversation recorded shortly after OpenAI released GPT-4o, a major leap forward in generative AI at the time. Less than two years later, the pace of change is striking. Capabilities that once felt groundbreaking now seem primitive compared to what today’s AI tools can accomplish for patients, physicians and healthcare organizations.

At the same time, the episode’s broader themes remain remarkably current. Dr. Pearl and Jeremy discuss the future role of generative AI in medicine, how these tools could improve diagnosis and patient monitoring and why healthcare institutions often struggle to embrace transformative technology quickly.

The episode also examines another issue that remains unresolved today: the high cost of GLP-1 medications like Wegovy and Ozempic. Dr. Pearl explains why these highly effective obesity treatments remain financially out of reach for many Americans despite growing demand and expanding clinical use.

Revisiting this conversation now offers a useful reminder: technology can advance extraordinarily fast, but healthcare systems, incentives and policies often lag far behind.

Helpful links:

• OpenAI’s Rule-Shattering GPT-4o Update Will Be Lifesaving, Too (Forbes)
• Wegovy And Ozempic Are Overpriced By 400-500% — Here’s A Quick Solution (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on X and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #214: Revisiting GLP-1 prices and ChatGPT’s early leap forward appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Diving Deep episode, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr dissect two issues that are often discussed separately but are deeply intertwined: how Americans can live longer, healthier lives and how the nation can make healthcare more affordable.

The conversation begins with longevity. As interest in lifespan and “healthspan” grows, Dr. Pearl challenges three widely held beliefs that, in his view, are holding Americans back. First, the idea that physical and cognitive decline is inevitable with age. New research suggests that nearly half of older adults improve over time, particularly when they maintain a positive outlook and stay physically and mentally active. Second, the belief that longevity can be “hacked” through supplements, peptides and other quick fixes. Despite a $50 billion market and widespread adoption, Pearl explains that most of these interventions lack strong clinical evidence in humans. And third, the assumption that prevention can wait until middle age. Updated cardiovascular guidelines show that earlier screening and intervention, particularly around LDL cholesterol, can dramatically reduce long-term risk.

From there, the discussion shifts to the financial side of healthcare. Pearl argues that improving population health is the most effective way to reduce costs, but that meaningful change will also require a fundamental redesign of how care is delivered. Drawing on behavioral research, he introduces a central concept: healthcare leaders tend to solve problems by adding more resources (staff, beds, technology) when better outcomes often require subtraction first.

The second half of the episode applies this “subtraction before addition” framework across the healthcare system. In outpatient care, Pearl describes how the traditional small physician office has become increasingly inefficient in an era dominated by chronic disease and administrative complexity. He proposes larger, integrated models that share staff, leverage generative AI and shift from calendar-based visits to continuous, need-based care. In emergency departments, he outlines how segmenting patients by clinical severity could reduce wait times, improve outcomes and lower costs by treating low-risk cases through primary care pathways. And in inpatient settings, he points to hospital-at-home programs as a way to safely care for a significant share of patients at lower cost and with better outcomes.

Taken together, this episode teaches that Americans can extend both lifespan and healthspan by rejecting outdated assumptions and focusing on proven behaviors. At the same time, healthcare affordability will not improve by continuing to add more of the same. It will require eliminating inefficiencies, redesigning care delivery and replacing outdated models with ones better suited to modern medicine.

For more, tune into this month’s episode and check out the links below.

Helpful links

• New Studies Show Americans Are Thinking About Longevity All Wrong (Forbes)
• The More We Add To U.S. Healthcare, The Worse It Gets (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on X and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #213: Longevity myths, healthcare costs & why medicine must subtract to improve appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl probe the facts beneath healthcare biggest headlines. Today’s show features an in-depth look at sweeping federal budget cuts, the expanding (and often misunderstood) impact of GLP-1 medications and what’s destabilizing health coverage.

The conversation opens with a stark warning. Dr. Pearl reviews the president’s proposed 2027 budget, which includes a $15.8 billion reduction in healthcare spending. He explains why cuts to Medicaid, NIH research and global health programs could have consequences that extend far beyond the next fiscal year, potentially slowing innovation, increasing patient risk and shifting costs to states and families.

From there, the episode turns to one of the most asked-about topics from listeners: GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. While these medications clearly produce meaningful weight loss and improve outcomes in conditions tied to obesity, Dr. Pearl cautions that many of the broader health claims attributed to them may simply reflect the benefits of weight loss itself, not unique properties of the drugs.

Throughout the episode, an underlying truth: scientific progress continues but policy decisions, pricing dynamics and system design may limit who benefits (and at what cost).

Here are the other major storylines from episode 106:

• Federal health cuts threaten long-term progress: The proposed budget reduces overall healthcare funding by 12.5%, cuts NIH support by $5 billion and consolidates public health agencies.
• Global health funding drops sharply: International health spending is being cut nearly in half, while continued withdrawal from the World Health Organization leaves the U.S. more vulnerable to future pandemics.
• CDC leadership signals a policy shift: The nomination of Dr. Erica Schwartz as permanent CDC director suggests a move back toward a more traditional, science-driven approach to vaccines.
• RFK Jr. softens vaccine stance amid political pressure: In congressional testimony, the HHS secretary publicly acknowledged the safety and effectiveness of the measles vaccine.
• GLP-1 drugs deliver clear weight loss and major benefits: Studies show 10-20% weight reduction, along with approximately 20% improvements in kidney and cardiovascular outcomes.
• Many GLP-1 “breakthroughs” may reflect weight loss alone: Evidence linking these drugs to reduced cancer risk, improved cognition or lower addiction rates remains fuzzy at best.
• Exercise rivals the impact of breakthrough drugs: A large study shows vigorous physical activity reduces risks of dementia, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and death at levels comparable to or greater than GLP-1 outcomes.
• Stress does not directly cause cancer: Pearl explains that while many Americans believe stress leads to cancer, the real risk comes from behavioral responses such as increased smoking and alcohol use.
• Concierge medicine expands access for some: Patients who can afford annual fees gain faster access and more time with physicians, but the model reduces availability for others.
• China rapidly closes the drug development gap: New data show China’s share of global pharmaceutical research rising to over 32%, nearly matching the United States.
• Exchange coverage declines and risk pools worsen: Millions may lose insurance due to subsidy changes, premium nonpayment and shifts to high-deductible plans.
• Drug prices continue to rise despite reform efforts: Under the TrumpRx program, lower prices on select drugs have been offset by increases elsewhere, with new medications averaging $353,000 annually.
• Robotics and AI may arrive faster than expected: A dramatic improvement in robot race performance leads Dr. Pearl to revise his estimate for clinical adoption of robotic procedures.

Tune in for more fact-based analysis and practical perspective on the healthcare policies, technologies and trends shaping medicine today.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine.

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

The post MTT #106: Trump’s 2027 budget & the other threats to U.S. healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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OpenAI didn’t need to convince patients to try generative AI.

According to Dr. Nate Gross, Health of Health at OpenAI, 230 million people already use ChatGPT each week to interpret lab results, prepare for visits, understand diagnoses or ask health-related questions they didn’t have time (or confidence) to raise in the exam room.

But what about clinicians?

On this episode of Fixing Healthcare, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr speak with Dr. Gross, who previously co-founded Doximity and Rock Health, about OpenAI’s latest step: the release of ChatGPT for Clinicians, a new offering that brings healthcare-specific AI tools directly to individual providers, without requiring access through a large health system contract.

In other words, the same capabilities previously limited to enterprise deployments are now being placed in the hands of front-line clinicians.

But as Dr. Gross makes clear in this timely interview, the story of AI in medicine is much bigger than a single product. It’s about how generative AI is beginning to reshape healthcare across three fronts at once: patients, clinicians and health systems.

Key highlights include:

• Patients are already using AI at massive scale. Gross notes that roughly 40 million people turn to ChatGPT for help outside the clinical setting each day, often at night or between visits. They’re using it to understand symptoms, interpret medical advice and navigate a fragmented healthcare system.
• Clinicians don’t want another AI tool. They want less friction. From documentation and inbox overload to prior authorizations and evidence review, physicians are looking for ways to reduce administrative burden and focus on patient care. Generative AI, when applied well, can help “sweep the floor” of repetitive work.
• ChatGPT for clinicians expands access beyond health systems. Previously, OpenAI’s healthcare tools were deployed through enterprise environments. This new release allows individual physicians, nurses and other providers to access clinical-grade AI tools directly, regardless of where they practice.
• Healthcare is shifting from “if” to “how” with AI. Health systems are no longer debating whether generative AI is real or ready. Instead, leaders are focused on how to deploy it safely, securely and in ways that improve care without introducing new risks.
• Fragmentation remains healthcare’s biggest challenge. Patients often act as the “integration layer” between specialists, systems and settings. Gross sees AI as a potential tool to help synthesize information, coordinate care and improve communication across the system.
• The future of care extends beyond the clinic. From chronic disease management to hospital-at-home models, AI tools could help patients better understand and follow care plans in their daily lives, improving outcomes between visits, not just during them.
• Medical education and research are also evolving. Gross highlights OpenAI’s work to personalize learning for clinicians and accelerate scientific discovery, including new AI models designed to support biology, genomics and drug development.
• Skepticism still matters. Despite the momentum, Gross emphasizes the importance of validation, clinician oversight and continuous feedback to ensure these tools are used responsibly and effectively.
• Dr. Pearl shares his thoughts. Pearl embraces Gross’s three-part framework of patients, clinicians and health systems, but believes the greatest opportunity lies in transforming how care is delivered. From chronic disease management to AI-powered care in the home, he emphasizes that the real impact will come not from administrative gains, but from improving outcomes at scale—provided healthcare moves fast enough to keep today’s challenges from becoming tomorrow’s crises.

There’s much more in this conversation, including how healthcare leaders should think about AI in long-term planning and a deeper dive into the biggest opportunities that lie ahead.

Tune in to hear what physicians, patients and health systems should expect from the next chapter of medicine.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the bestselling author of ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine. Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on X and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #212: OpenAI’s Nate Gross on ChatGPT’s next big move in healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, Drs. Robert Pearl and Jonathan Fisher join cohost Jeremy Corr to explore one of medicine’s least discussed forces: how professional culture gradually reshapes physician identity.

The conversation begins with relationships using an unlikely touchpoint: FX’s Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette. Using marriage, friendship, doctor-patient dynamics and colleague trust as a launching point, Pearl and Fisher examine how stress, burnout and emotional spillover affect the people clinicians care about both at home and at work. Fisher draws on his retreat work with healthcare professionals to explain why slowing down, reconnecting socially and stepping outside the clinical environment are often prerequisites for restoring empathy and perspective.

Midway through, the discussion deepens into the powerful theme introduced through the popular SHOWTIME show Billions: the way workplace environments subtly redefine who people become over time. In medicine, that process can begin as early as the first weeks of training. Small acts of conformity, repeated decisions at the edge of one’s values and cultural reinforcement gradually shift how physicians think, behave and ultimately define themselves.

The result is a larger question that runs through the entire episode: How do clinicians preserve their humanity, relationships and deepest values inside a system that often rewards speed, hierarchy and productivity over reflection and connection?

Finally, Jeremy’s closing question on behalf of patients helps to push both physicians to confront a national reality: when specialist access takes months, compassion must be communicated quickly and system design must improve the patient experience itself.

For listeners who connected with Jonathan’s discussion of physician recovery, reflection and emotional renewal, check out his upcoming ASPIRE physician retreat, a CME-accredited experience for healthcare professionals, taking place June 12-14 in Boone, North Carolina. Use code ASPIRE15 for 15% off registration.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #211: How medical culture slowly reshapes physician identity appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Diving Deep episode, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr connect two forces that are beginning to reshape the future of medicine: healthcare’s worsening economic inefficiency and the rise of physician-built generative AI tools.

The conversation opens with a provocative interpretation of the latest U.S. jobs reports. While healthcare has become the nation’s primary engine of employment growth, Dr. Pearl argues that this is not a sign of strength. It is evidence that medicine continues to meet rising demand by adding labor instead of improving productivity. In his view, that failure to modernize is driving higher costs for employers, families and government programs while setting the stage for inevitable disruption.

From there, the discussion shifts to what that disruption could look like. Pearl outlines how generative AI could improve chronic disease monitoring, reduce unnecessary hospital stays and detect inpatient decline earlier than current workflows allow. These advances, he argues, would lower costs not by rationing care but by improving outcomes.

The second half of the episode turns to one of the most practical and exciting developments in generative AI: vibe coding. Here, Pearl explains how physicians can now use plain-English prompts to create customized digital tools that reflect their own clinical judgment and practice preferences. Rather than relying on static handouts or generic patient portals, doctors could build affordable applications that monitor patients continuously between visits and intervene earlier when problems arise.

Taken together, the episode puts forth a clear thesis: healthcare’s worsening economics are not a sign of resilience. They are a sign that medicine has failed to modernize. What’s more: generative AI, especially through vibe coding, may be the most practical path to higher-quality, lower-cost care.

For more, tune into this month’s episode and check out the links below.

Helpful links

• US Jobs Report Spotlights Healthcare’s Inefficiency, Signals Disruption (Forbes)
• How Vibe Coding Will Reshape Medical Practice (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on X and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #210: Healthcare’s productivity crisis & how vibe coding could help appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl balance two sides of American healthcare: the encouraging scientific advances that could help people live longer and healthier lives, and the growing affordability and trust crises threatening patients across the country.

The conversation opens on an optimistic note. Dr. Pearl highlights new Yale research showing that aging is far less deterministic than many Americans assume. Rather than a steady and unavoidable decline, the study found that nearly half of adults over 65 improved physically, cognitively or both over a 12-year period.

He pairs that story with new cardiovascular guidance from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, which shifts prevention toward a much longer time horizon and argues that earlier LDL management could prevent a significant share of heart attacks and strokes later in life.

The episode then pivots to the mounting financial and institutional pressures facing patients, hospitals and public-health agencies. From rising medical debt and medication nonadherence to declining vaccine trust, hospital cost inflation and the political barriers keeping GLP-1 drugs unaffordable in the United States, the discussion captures both the promise and the fragility of healthcare in 2026.

Here are the other major storylines from episode 105:

• Supplements fail the evidence test: Pearl reviews clinical trial data showing that commonly used supplements such as fish oil, garlic, turmeric, cinnamon and red yeast rice performed no better than placebo in lowering LDL, reinforcing the continued value of lifestyle interventions and low-cost statins.
• Medical costs continue to destabilize families: New Gallup-linked research shows that 82 million Americans are already making sacrifices to pay medical bills, from skipping meals to delaying retirement.
• Drug unaffordability worsens medication adherence: A new KFF survey finds that nearly 60% of Americans worry about affording prescriptions, with 43% reporting they have not taken medications as prescribed because of cost.
• Generative AI adoption surges among physicians: According to a new AMA survey, 81% of doctors now use generative AI in clinical practice, most commonly for documentation, literature summaries and chart support.
• Hospitals face intensifying economic pressure: The American Hospital Association reports that care delivery costs rose 7.5% last year, driven by higher labor expenses, drug prices, supply inflation and sicker patients.
• Trust in vaccine authorities continues to erode: Following the legal challenge to RFK Jr.’s overhaul of the federal vaccine advisory committee, new polling shows trust in federal vaccine recommendations has fallen sharply.
• Newborn preventive care is now affected by distrust: Pearl warns that refusal of vitamin K shots, hepatitis B vaccination and antibiotic eye ointment at birth is rising, reversing decades of scientific progress and reintroducing preventable newborn risks.
• Alzheimer’s blood tests show progress, but not prediction: New FDA-cleared blood tests can help identify Alzheimer’s disease as the likely cause of current dementia, but Dr. Pearl explains why they remain far less useful for predicting disease years before symptoms begin.
• The fax machine may finally be dying: In one of the episode’s lighter moments, Dr. Pearl notes that CMS is moving to phase out fax-machine communication across HIPAA-covered entities, a long-overdue modernization step that could save taxpayers nearly $1 billion annually.
• Residency match reaches record size: The 2026 residency match was the largest in history, with more than 48,000 applicants competing for over 44,000 positions.
• Early heat waves carry serious health consequences: With unusual March heat across parts of the country, Dr. Pearl explains why early-season heat is especially dangerous, increasing risks of dehydration, kidney injury, cardiovascular strain and mental health emergencies.
• GLP-1 drugs go generic abroad while U.S. prices stay high: As Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster GLP-1 medications go generic in India and other global markets, Dr. Pearl contrasts international pricing with U.S. costs and argues that congressional inaction on drug pricing remains one of healthcare’s clearest failures.

Tune in for more fact-based analysis and practical perspective on the healthcare stories shaping medicine today.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine.

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

The post MTT #105: New science on aging, rising medical debt & healthcare’s fax problem appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Dr. John Whyte has spent his career at the intersection of medicine, media and public policy. Now, as CEO of the American Medical Association, he hears firsthand what physicians, patients and health leaders are most concerned about and what they expect from the future of healthcare.

That perspective makes him an ideal guest for Season 11 of Fixing Healthcare with cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr.

This season’s guests bring more than impressive résumés and large social-media followings. They bring insight into what people across the country are actually talking about: the fears they express, the questions they ask and the expectations they carry into exam rooms, boardrooms and online conversations.

Whyte has held leadership roles at the FDA and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He later became chief medical officer at WebMD and chief medical expert for Discovery Channel. In each position, he has focused on translating complex medical issues into clear, actionable information.

In this conversation, he shares what he is hearing now and why the answers will require both cultural and structural change.

Key highlights include: Three concerns dominate for physicians. Whyte opens by identifying what he hears most often across the country: frustration with prior authorization and payment incentives in Medicare and Medicaid, anxiety about scope-of-practice changes, and uncertainty about how physicians should lead (rather than react to) the rapid rise of digital health and generative AI. * Medicaid disruption and impact on children. Whyte explains that policy changes at both federal and state levels could leave vulnerable populations without coverage or access to care. He emphasizes that nearly half of U.S. children rely on Medicaid. * Payment models and physician autonomy. The discussion explores tensions between fee-for-service, Medicare Advantage and value-based approaches. Whyte argues that physicians must retain meaningful choice in how they practice and get paid, even as consolidation and employment models reduce autonomy. * Generative AI as “augmented intelligence.” Whyte notes that more than 80% of physicians now use AI tools professionally, largely for documentation and communication tasks. The real opportunity, he says, lies in improving diagnosis, personalization and continuous monitoring. * Home as the future site of care. From wearables to smart diagnostic devices, Whyte envisions a shift away from episodic office visits toward continuous monitoring and preventive care. * Outcome-based reimbursement. Pearl asks whether paying for outcomes could unlock broader adoption of AI-enabled tools. Whyte acknowledges the promise but highlights practical challenges, including patient complexity, burnout and the risk that efficiency gains could simply lead to higher patient volumes. * The evolving physician-patient relationship in the AI era.* With a growing share of patients using generative AI before appointments, Whyte encourages clinicians to view digitally informed patients as partners. Open dialogue, trusted sources and shared decision-making, he argues, will define effective care in the years ahead.

There’s so much more to this episode. Tune in to find out what physicians and patients should expect from the future of medicine.

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 #209: What the AMA’s new CEO is hearing from doctors & patients right now appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr sit down with cardiologist and mindfulness expert Dr. Jonathan Fisher for a wide-ranging conversation about leadership, strategy and the future of physician influence in American medicine.

The discussion begins with a challenge to a popular point of view: that empathy, transparency and trust make for an effective leader in medicine. While those qualities matter, Dr. Pearl argues that healthcare also requires strategic thinking, operational discipline and the ability to align people around a common direction. In medicine, says Dr. Fisher, many physicians are taught how to care for patients but not how to lead organizations.

From there, the conversation expands into the deeper reasons doctors so often remain subordinate to administrators, why burnout makes strategy harder to execute and why the economics of healthcare continue to reward treatment more than prevention.

Some of the key ideas discussed:

• Empathy is necessary, but not sufficient. Healthcare often treats empathy and trust as the highest forms of leadership. Pearl argues that great leaders also need strategic thinking, financial understanding and operational skill.
• Doctors are rarely trained to lead. Fisher and Pearl discuss how physicians are taught to avoid mistakes and follow established pathways, not necessarily to take strategic risks.
• Burnout undermines strategy. A burned-out workforce may struggle to understand, trust or implement leadership goals. Fisher notes that wellness programs can help individuals cope, but they cannot substitute for fixing the systemic forces driving exhaustion.
• Primary care remains undervalued. Pearl argues that fee-for-service medicine fails to reward prevention. Until payment models shift toward capitation and long-term disease control, primary care will continue to be under-supported despite its central importance.
• Strategy without implementation goes nowhere. The group explores the difference between setting a vision and making it real. Pearl argues that healthcare too often suffers from one or the other: plans with no execution or action without coherent strategy.
• Physicians need broader leadership development. To reclaim influence over the future of medicine, doctors will need more than clinical expertise. They will need training in finance, organizational behavior, incentives and the mechanics of large-scale change.
• The future of medicine will be collaborative. As generative AI takes on more algorithmic tasks, doctors who succeed will not be the ones who resist change but those who learn to combine clinical judgment, human connection and technological support.
• Pressure changes performance. Using examples from the Winter Olympics, Fisher explains how elite performers can “freeze” when stress overrides instinct. The same phenomenon can happen in medicine when clinicians are forced into high-stakes moments without the right preparation or support.
• Machines don’t freeze. That observation leads to one of the episode’s most provocative questions: if AI and robotics continue to improve, will certain technical tasks eventually be performed more reliably by machines than by humans under pressure?
• Competition should lead to unity, not division. In the closing segment, the discussion broadens from sports to society with a question from Jeremy Corr, offering the patient’s point of view. Pearl argues that high-level competition should ultimately strengthen collective purpose, whether in athletics, healthcare or public life.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #208: Why empathy alone won’t fix healthcare leadership appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Diving Deep episode, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Cor return to a question listeners have been asking for months: What role will generative AI realistically play in American healthcare?

Dr. Pearl opens the discussion around three urgent threats that, if ignored, may soon become too large and too expensive to solve:

1. The affordability cliff
2. The chronic disease crisis
3. The risk of training doctors for the wrong future

This examination offers a stark warning about healthcare’s lack of flexibility. Unlike most industries, medicine cannot quickly reconfigure its workforce, adopt new care models or cut costs without years of delay. That rigidity, Pearl argues, is what makes the current moment so dangerous. By the time healthcare leaders respond to major problems, those problems often have already deepened into crises.

The episode’s second half explores whether generative AI could help avert that future. Pearl argues that the technology is already capable of improving chronic disease management, reducing medical errors and extending care into patients’ homes. The larger barrier is no longer technical but cultural.

To illustrate that divide, Pearl uses HBO’s hit show The Pitt to examine how medicine still frames AI as either a helpful tool or an existential threat rather than what it could be: a valuable clinical partner. He credits the show for capturing physicians’ skepticism and enthusiasm but argues that it misses the more important question: not whether AI is perfect, but whether it performs better than clinicians working alone in a system already riddled with error.

Looking further ahead, Pearl argues that when it comes to GenAI taking on clinical tasks once exclusive to humans, the Rubicon has already been crossed. Major health systems are beginning to use generative AI for clinical intake and treatment planning. Large technology companies are building patient-facing health tools tied to personal medical data. And states such as Utah are already testing whether AI can safely handle parts of chronic disease care without direct physician oversight.

Taken together, these developments point toward a new future for medicine. Primary care physicians may spend less time on routine algorithmic tasks and more time on complex patients. Specialists may become more procedural as outpatient evaluation shifts. And health systems that want to benefit from these changes will need to move away from fee-for-service and toward value-based care.

For more on these developments, tune into this month’s episode and check out the links below.

Helpful links

• Three Healthcare Threats That Will Soon Become Too Big To Solve (Forbes)
• What The Pitt Gets Right And Wrong About Generative AI In Medicine (Forbes)
• GenAI Will Replace Much Of What Clinicians Do — It’s Already Happening (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #207: Three major healthcare threats GenAI can help solve appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl unpack a wide range of developments shaping healthcare in America today, including the TrumpRx drug discount program.

From new legislation affecting telehealth and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to the rapid spread of measles and growing public concern about vaccine policy, this month’s discussion highlights the policy decisions and scientific debates influencing medicine right now.

The episode opens with the latest federal legislation passed to avert a government shutdown. While healthcare was not the central focus of this particular political battle, the bill contains several provisions that affect medical practice. These include extensions for telehealth coverage and hospital-at-home programs, reforms targeting PBM transparency and new requirements designed to address “ghost networks” in Medicare Advantage provider directories.

Dr. Pearl explains that while these provisions represent incremental progress, they are unlikely to solve the larger problems driving healthcare costs and access challenges in the United States.

Here are the other major storylines from episode 104:

• Healthcare costs remain nation’s top concern: A new KFF poll finds that healthcare expenses rank above food, housing and utilities as the economic issue Americans worry about most.
• Prior authorization frustrations grow: Many patients report delays or denials of care due to insurance requirements, highlighting persistent tension between insurers, physicians and patients.
• Drug pricing debates continue: Pearl examines a new prescription drug website initiative and explains why it may have limited impact compared with broader policy proposals such as “most favored nation” pricing.
• Telehealth’s uncertain future: Although the latest legislation extends certain pandemic-era flexibilities, the lack of a permanent solution leaves virtual care programs in limbo.
• PBM reforms move forward slowly: New policies aim to increase transparency and reduce incentives tied to drug list prices, though Pearl notes that meaningful change will depend on future implementation.
• Site-neutral payment gains attention: A provision requiring unique identifiers for outpatient services could pave the way for policies that eliminate higher reimbursement for hospital-owned facilities providing identical care.
• Measles outbreaks surge: Nearly a thousand cases have already been reported in 2026, with the overwhelming majority occurring among unvaccinated children.
• Trust in the CDC declines: Polling shows confidence in the agency has dropped significantly following changes to vaccine recommendations.
• Independent vaccine review groups emerge: Medical organizations and states are forming new committees to evaluate vaccine evidence as federal guidance becomes more contested.
• Early colon cancer deaths rise: The death of actor James Van Der Beek at age 48 highlights the growing incidence of colorectal cancer among younger adults and the importance of earlier screening.
• FDA confusion over a new flu vaccine: The agency initially declined to review Moderna’s mRNA-based flu vaccine before reversing course and agreeing to evaluate it ahead of the next flu season.
• Younger Americans face worsening health trends: New claims data suggest chronic disease is appearing earlier among millennials and Gen Z, driven by lifestyle factors and reduced connection to primary care.
• Wearable data reveal health disparities: Apple Watch data show significant differences in resting heart rates across states, reflecting variations in lifestyle, access to care and public health conditions.

As the episode concludes, Dr. Pearl warns that growing political conflict around vaccines and biomedical research risks undermining public trust in science. The consequences, he argues, could shape American medicine for decades to come.

Tune in for more fact-based analysis and discussion of the biggest stories in healthcare.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine.

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

The post MTT #104: TrumpRx, rising measles cases & the politics of vaccine science appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Season 11 of Fixing Healthcare continues its shift away from the traditional top-down model of interviewing CEOs, policymakers and medical leaders to focus this week on something new, different and fascinating: listening to the generation that is inheriting this American healthcare system.

In this episode, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr speak with Grace Lynn Keller, VP at Executive Podcast Solutions, former Miss America contestant and the show’s first-ever Gen Z guest.

Grace brings a rare vantage point: Professionally, she is immersed in conversations with healthcare executives. Personally, she is part of the generation that consumes health information through social media, wearables and AI tools. For healthcare professionals, the conversation offers an important lens on how Gen Z gathers health information, how they decide when to seek care and what they expect from clinicians, insurers and government leaders.

One insight stood out immediately. When asked where she would turn first with a non-emergency symptom, Grace answered without hesitation: ChatGPT.

Her answer signals how much the healthcare landscape is changing. While Gen Z may turn to generative AI for initial medical advice, that is only one piece of a broader shift. In this conversation, Grace outlines how her generation is redefining health, prevention and trust. Key insights include:

• Verification Over Blind Trust. Gen Z does not simply accept what it reads online. Grace describes a culture of cross-referencing, double-checking and comparing sources across platforms before acting.
• Prevention As Identity. Her generation emphasizes whole foods, ingredient awareness and minimizing processed products. Health is considered a long-term lifestyle investment rather than reactive medical intervention.
• Wearables As Standard Equipment. Smart watches and rings are commonplace. Continuous data on sleep, movement, heart rate and hormonal cycles shape daily decisions and reinforce prevention.
• Convenience And Cost Sensitivity. Time away from work, co-pays and scheduling delays influence care decisions. If reliable AI-based treatment were available for routine conditions, many Gen Zers would use it immediately.
• Mental Health As Mainstream. Therapy is normalized. Work-life balance is considered protective, not indulgent. “Mental health days” may frustrate older generations but are viewed as necessary boundaries by younger workers.
• Skepticism Of Bureaucracy. Insurance complexity is a major frustration. Deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums and opaque pricing create confusion for first-time independent users.
• Demand For Transparency. Grace compares healthcare to e-commerce: if nearly every other industry offers clear pricing and frictionless purchasing, why not medicine?
• Alcohol And Cultural Moderation. Among her peers, alcohol consumption is more situational and less habitual. Health-conscious decision-making extends beyond diet and exercise.
• Education Gaps. Public school health education was limited largely to sex ed and anti-drug messaging. She sees schools as the only scalable venue to improve health literacy nationwide.

There’s so much more to this episode. Tune in to find out what the next generation of patients expects from doctors, nurses and healthcare leaders.

Helpful links

• “From TikTok to Telehealth: 3 Ways Medicine Must Evolve to Reach Gen Z” (Fulcrum)
• “Why younger patients turn away from doctors & toward GenAI” (Fixing Healthcare podcast)
• “Healthcare Regulators’ Outdated Thinking Will Cost American Lives” (Forbes)
• “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Doctors and Patients Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” (Pearl’s newest book)

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 #206: What Gen Z expects from healthcare & why it matters appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr sit down with cardiologist and mindfulness expert Dr. Jonathan Fisher for a wide-ranging conversation on leadership, culture and team performance, inspired by lessons from the movie F1.

What begins as a discussion about racing quickly becomes a deep exploration of how high-performing teams operate under pressure. In the movie (and in real Formula 1 racing), success depends not on a single star driver but on flawless coordination, communication and shared accountability. The same, the trio argues, is true in healthcare where patient outcomes increasingly depend on the strength of teams, not individual brilliance.

From there, Drs. Pearl and Fisher focus on how leaders are developed, how to handle disruptive personalities, how to align departments and how physicians can prepare for long-term career success in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape that includes the rise of generative AI.

Some of the key ideas discussed: Healthcare is a team sport. Like an F1 pit crew, modern medical teams operate in high-stakes, time-sensitive environments. Excellence requires clarity of roles, rehearsal, debriefing and mutual trust not just individual skill. * Leadership can be learned. Charisma helps, but effective leadership is less about personality and more about behavior. Empathy, emotional regulation and intentional communication are skills that can be developed with practice. * Delivery often matters more than content. Fisher emphasizes the gap between what leaders intend to communicate and what their teams hear. Non-verbal cues (posture, tone, eye contact and “prosody”) often determine whether a message lands. * Curiosity over judgment. When faced with disruptive or “toxic” behavior, leaders must stay regulated, address unacceptable actions clearly and then seek to understand the underlying drivers. * Culture flows from leadership. If an entire department resists change, the issue often centers on the department’s leader. Alignment requires clarity of values, expectations and consequences … and sometimes difficult conversations. * Excellence requires transparency. High-performing organizations define standards, measure outcomes and make performance visible. Coaching and incentives must align with expectations. * Physician leaders need training not just promotion. The group discusses how brilliant clinicians are often elevated into leadership roles without preparation, and why formal leadership development is essential for healthcare’s future. * Planning for succession matters. Pearl points out that great leaders build a “bench.” Teams should be structured to endure transitions, not collapse when one individual exits. * The future of medicine will reward human skills.* As generative AI takes on more algorithmic tasks, communication, empathy and leadership will become even more essential competencies for physicians.

Throughout the episode, Dr. Fisher reminds listeners that leadership is not about dominance or perfection. It is about presence, self-awareness and the willingness to understand how others think, feel and respond. For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #205: What ‘F1’ movie teaches us about leadership in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl examine a sweeping set of developments shaping American healthcare. From the first state-approved use of generative AI to prescribe medications without human oversight to rising healthcare costs, from worsening vaccine misinformation to the stubborn persistence of preventable disease, this show focuses on biggest stories in medicine today.

The episode opens with a groundbreaking and controversial pilot program in Utah that allows a generative AI system to renew prescriptions for chronic disease without physician involvement.

From there, the conversation turns to the relentless rise in healthcare spending. New federal data show Americans now spend more than $15,700 per person annually on medical care, with costs growing twice as fast as the economy.

While insurance coverage remains high for now, Pearl warns that expiring subsidies, Medicaid restrictions and rising premiums are already pushing millions out of coverage. For many families, healthcare affordability has become a top issue and, increasingly, a political fault line heading into the midterm election cycle.

Here are more major storylines from MTT episode 103:

• Exercise as medicine for depression: A large meta-analysis finds that regular exercise can be as effective as antidepressant medication for many patients.
• Trump’s healthcare plan fades quickly: Pearl explains why the president’s proposal disappeared from the headlines.
• Measles returns in force: Cases are nearing 1,000 and outbreaks concentrated in under-vaccinated communities.
• Vaccine battles intensify under RFK Jr.: New appointments to federal advisory committees raise alarm among scientists, as anti-vaccine voices gain influence.
• Chronic disease remains America’s top killer: Cardiovascular disease continues to claim nearly one million lives annually.
• Generative AI’s biggest promise: Pearl makes the case that AI-driven, at-home monitoring could finally transform chronic disease management.
• Cancer trends turn ominous: Colorectal cancer deaths among Americans under 50 are rising sharply, becoming the leading cancer killer in this age group.
• Genetics vs. lifestyle revisited: New research suggests genetics may account for half of lifespan variation but lifestyle still determines how many of those years are lived in good health.
• High-deductible health plans: New data show cancer patients with high-deductible insurance have significantly higher mortality.
• GLP-1 weight-loss pills arrive: The first oral GLP-1 drug launches to record demand.
• A devastating flu season for children: Despite the availability of safe vaccines, pediatric flu deaths reach alarming levels among unvaccinated kids.

As the episode closes, Dr. Pearl delivers a stark warning about the resurgence of pseudoscience in medicine. Tune in for more fact-based coverage and analysis of healthcare’s biggest stories.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine.

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 #103: Can generative AI safely prescribe medicine on its own? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This Diving Deep episode with Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr looks at U.S. healthcare across three time horizons: past, present and future.

The hosts use 2025 as a case study in disruption without reform, 2026 as a year of mounting pressure and near-term transition, and the coming decade as a period when generative AI will fundamentally reshape how medicine is practiced.

Looking back at 2025Dr. Pearl argues that despite political upheaval, executive orders, agency shakeups and constant headlines, American healthcare ended the year largely unchanged. Just more expensive and less trusted. He walks through five domains where chaos dominated but improvement failed to materialize. The throughline? Intense disruption produced little structural change in care delivery, affordability or outcomes.

Turning to 2026The conversation shifts from stagnation to pressure. Pearl identifies two forces that make inaction increasingly risky: the midterm elections and accelerating healthcare costs. He outlines how that pressure is likely to shape behavior across the system — not through sweeping reform, but through targeted, politically visible moves.

Looking further aheadPearl describes how generative AI could alter medicine at a profound level, especially through the convergence of AI and surgical robotics. He argues that autonomous surgery, once the realm of science fiction, is now technologically plausible and could upend long-standing hierarchies between cognitive and procedural specialties.

Helpful links

• Healthcare In 2025: A Year Of Chaos, Confusion — But Little Improvement (Forbes)
• Healthcare In 2026: How Much Change Should We Expect? (Forbes)
• Will Your Next Surgeon Be A Robot? (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #204: Why healthcare chaos didn’t lead to change & what comes next appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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As part of Season 11 of Fixing Healthcare, which spotlights influential voices with large followings and direct insight into how real people experience medicine, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome back medical historian Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris for her third appearance on the show, this time joined by her husband and creative partner, illustrator Adrian Teal.

Together, Lindsey and Adrian bring a rare combination of scholarly depth, storytelling and massive digital reach. Lindsey’s work on medical history has captivated millions across books, television and social platforms, while Adrian’s instantly recognizable art has built a massive following online. Their latest collaboration is the children’s book Dead Ends: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels, which sits at the center of this wide-ranging and unexpectedly personal conversation.

The episode begins with a deceptively simple premise: medicine advances not in straight lines but through failure. Lindsey explains her long-standing fascination with scientific dead ends and why medicine often hides them from public view. Dead Ends, she says, was written to show children (and adults) that changing guidance is not a sign of incompetence, but evidence of learning in real time.

Adrian adds that humor, exaggeration and even “gross-out” visuals aren’t just entertainment. They’re how curiosity is sparked and how complex medical ideas become memorable.

The discussion unfolds across centuries of medical missteps and breakthroughs.

Lindsey and Adrian share favorite stories from the book, including early experiments with galvanism, the guillotine’s unexpected medical legacy and how inventions routinely escape the intentions of their creators.

One standout example is Martin Couney, an outsider who used a Coney Island sideshow to fund incubator care for premature infants. His invention would go on to save thousands of lives even though the medical establishment initially dismissed the technology.

Shifting from history to the present, Lindsey and Adrian reflect on what past failures teach us about regulation, ethics and risk today. While modern safeguards exist for good reason (many historical experiments exploited vulnerable populations) the group wrestles with how to encourage responsible innovation without freezing progress. They also explore how public trust erodes when scientific uncertainty is poorly communicated, especially in a media environment where misinformation travels faster than nuance.

The most personal segment arrives when Lindsey discusses her own breast cancer diagnosis, alongside Adrian’s experience with prostate cancer. Their stories ground the episode firmly in Season 11’s focus on lived experience.

For listeners interested in how history, art and personal experience illuminate today’s healthcare debates, this episode offers a vivid reminder that progress is rarely tidy and never inevitable.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these helpful links.

Helpful links

• Children’s book: Dead Ends: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels
• Book: The Butchering Art
• Book: The Facemaker
• ChatGPT, MD (Pearl’s newest book)

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 #203: Dead ends, failures & the unlikely path to medical progress appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Dr. Robert Pearl’s latest opinion poll, part of his “Monthly Musings” newsletter, asked readers about their health goals and habits for 2026 (note: studies show most Americans have already quit their resolutions for the year). The result? People want to eat better, workout more and lose weight. And yet, the behaviors that lead to those outcomes are cited as the most difficult things to maintain: good sleep, time management, stress reduction.

In this episode, Pearls joins cohost Jeremy Corr and cardiologist and burnout expert Jonathan Fisher for an “Unfiltered” conversation about why so many resolutions, intentions and goals fail.

The conversation quickly evolves into an evidence-based exploration of human behavior, motivation and the modern forces working against sustained change.

Drawing on psychology, neuroscience and lived experience, the trio explores why knowledge alone rarely changes behavior, how digital environments hijack attention and emotion, and why willpower may be the most overrated concept in self-improvement.

Along the way, the conversation touches on doom scrolling, burnout, fear, parenting in a digital age and the quiet erosion of habits that support mental and physical health. The result is a candid and deeply human examination of why change is so hard … and what might actually help.

Some of the key ideas discussed:

• Resolutions don’t fail because people are ignorant or lack willpower. Most people already know what they “should” do to improve their health or happiness. The real challenge is not information, but the gap between intention and action.
• Willpower is a fragile strategy. The group challenges the idea that success depends on moral strength or discipline. Instead, they emphasize designing environments and systems that make healthy choices easier.
• Doom scrolling as emotional regulation. Dr. Fisher describes how endless scrolling often isn’t about boredom, but about managing discomfort, anxiety or feeling low.
• Identity shapes behavior more than goals. Habits are easier to sustain when they align with how people see themselves. Someone who identifies as “an athlete” behaves differently than someone who is merely trying to exercise more.
• Burnout is both systemic and personal. While organizational pressures matter, Jonathan argues that individual boundaries, values and behavior patterns also play a role in chronic exhaustion and disengagement.
• Fear is rising. Robbie reflects on the paradox of growing anxiety despite improvements in crime rates, employment and longevity — and points to social isolation as a key driver.
• Phones are changing how we relate to each other. Jeremy raises the now-familiar sight of groups sitting together while staring at screens. The three discuss what this means for connection, attention and the ability to tolerate boredom, especially for children watching adults model behavior.

In classic Unfiltered fashion, the episode resists easy answers. Instead, it invites listeners to rethink how change actually happens: not through sheer determination, but through awareness, structure and a more honest understanding of human nature.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #202: Willpower, doom scrolling & the illusion of control appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr look closely at the stories and controversies shaping U.S. healthcare at the start of 2026.

From a severe flu season and resurgent vaccine-preventable diseases to drug pricing, autism research and the growing role of AI in medicine, the episode offers a data-driven look at where American healthcare is headed.

The show opens with warnings about infectious disease. A dangerous H3N2 flu strain is driving hospitalizations, particularly among children, while measles and whooping cough outbreaks continue to spread among unvaccinated populations.

To Dr. Pearl, these trends do not appear random. They reflect falling vaccination rates, weakened public-health messaging and growing political interference at federal agencies tasked with protecting the public.

From there, the conversation turns to vaccine policy itself. Recent changes at the CDC (including a sharply reduced childhood vaccine schedule and new recommendations against universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination) raise serious concerns. Pearl explains why comparisons to countries like Denmark (with its reduced vaccine schedule) are deeply misleading, and why abandoning universal vaccination in a fragmented U.S. healthcare system risks reversing decades of progress.

Here’s a look at other must-know stories from this episode of Medicine: The Truth:

• Positive vaccine evidence: New CDC data show significant reductions in emergency visits among children who received COVID vaccines, reinforcing their safety and effectiveness.
• Pandemic lessons for children: Pediatric obesity rose during COVID lockdowns, while mental health outcomes improved after schools reopened, underscoring the tradeoffs of prolonged closures.
• Drug pricing deals with manufacturers: The administration’s agreements with pharmaceutical companies apply narrowly to government purchases and exclude many high-cost drugs, limiting their overall impact.
• First oral GLP-1 approved: The FDA cleared the first pill version of a GLP-1 weight-loss drug, offering convenience but likely remaining unaffordable until prices fall closer to $200 per month.
• Autism research update: Rising autism prevalence is driven largely by broader diagnostic criteria and awareness. Large studies continue to show no link to vaccines or acetaminophen, while new research points to strong genetic factors and distinct autism subtypes.
• ACA exchange subsidy uncertainty: Congress has yet to prevent looming premium increases for millions of exchange enrollees. Pearl argues for avoiding coverage cliffs and capping household contributions as a share of income.
• Polypharmacy in seniors: One in eight Medicare Part D beneficiaries now takes eight or more medications, increasing the risk of side effects, falls and hospitalizations in a fragmented system.
• New dietary guidelines: Federal recommendations now emphasize animal protein alongside stronger warnings against sugar and ultra-processed foods, a shift that may conflict with earlier public-health messaging.
• AI’s expanding role in healthcare: OpenAI’s tools increasingly integrate health data from electronic records and consumer apps, signaling how quickly generative AI is becoming part of medical decision-making.
• Medicare and AI oversight: Traditional Medicare is moving toward AI-assisted prior authorization for certain procedures, a response to fraud and low-value care that Pearl says is inevitable as costs continue to rise.

Tune in to Medicine: The Truth for more fact-based coverage and analysis of healthcare’s biggest stories.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine.

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 #102: Vaccines under fire, rising disease & the cost of politics in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Mark Cuban approaches healthcare the same way he approaches every industry he enters: by assuming something essential is missing and then asking who benefits from keeping it that way. In American medicine, he believes that missing ingredient is transparency. Not better messaging, not smarter incentives, but simple visibility into how prices are set, who gets paid and who gets taken advantage of.

Cuban is a lifelong healthcare outsider. He is a billionaire entrepreneur, NBA championship team owner and longtime Shark Tank investor. That’s what makes him the perfect guest for Season 11 of Fixing Healthcare with cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr.

This season’s guests have massive online audiences, but their value isn’t just reach. It’s their ability to listen closely to what millions of patients are experiencing, then translate those insights back into the broader medical conversation. Few guests embody that better than Cuban.

He has quickly become one of the system’s most incisive critics by paying attention to what patients, employers and clinicians repeatedly say is broken. That mindset led to the creation of Cost Plus Drugs, a pharmacy built on an idea that sounds radical only because healthcare has drifted so far from it. Show patients the actual cost of a medication, add a flat 15% markup and eliminate the opaque middlemen who thrive in the dark.

In this conversation, Cuban explains how a cold email from a physician opened his eyes to how hidden pharmaceutical pricing had become and why opacity itself became the opportunity.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEW

• Why drug prices are detached from reality. Cuban breaks down how widely used medications, including GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per month despite far lower manufacturing costs. The driver, he argues, is not innovation or scarcity, but a system dominated by pharmacy benefit managers whose rebate structures reward insurers and intermediaries while excluding patients.
• How patients bear the greatest financial harm. With concrete examples, Cuban explains how people in deductible phases, especially those on ACA plans, often pay full retail prices while rebates flow elsewhere. Costs are spread across millions of plan holders, but the financial pain lands on the people who actually need care.
• Why healthcare’s complexity is intentional. From fax machines to prior authorization delays, Cuban argues that administrative friction is not accidental. It protects incumbents, drains clinician time and forces providers into the role of “subprime lenders,” all while patients struggle to navigate a system designed to obscure accountability.
• What he tells CEOs behind closed doors. Cuban outlines the first questions he asks corporate leaders about their pharmacy benefits, why most are not receiving the rebates they believe they are and how audits are often structured to reveal as little as possible. Transparency, he says, is the first step toward leverage.
• A blueprint beyond pharmaceuticals. The discussion extends into hospitals, insurance design and employer-based coverage, including Cuban’s work on cost-plus wellness contracts that publish negotiated rates so others can replicate them. His goal is not dominance. It is forcing the system to respond by making its incentives visible.

Throughout the episode, Cuban’s message is blunt and consistent. Healthcare does not need more jargon, better marketing or marginal tweaks. It needs sunlight. Once pricing, incentives and risk are exposed, many of the system’s most entrenched practices become much harder to justify.

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 #201: Mark Cuban’s blunt diagnosis of what’s broken in healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Diving Deep episode, the 200th of episode of Fixing Healthcare, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr explore three interconnected themes:

1. The biggest driver of America’s healthcare crisis.
2. The transformative (and still largely untapped) potential of generative AI.
3. The strategic leadership physicians must embrace if they hope to regain control of their profession and the care their patients receive.

The show opens with a metaphor Pearl has returned to repeatedly in his writing: healthcare’s “invisible gorilla.” Borrowed from classic research on inattentional blindness, the image captures how policymakers, employers and healthcare leaders fixate on insurance mechanics (premiums, subsidies, deductibles) while missing the far larger problem in plain sight: the soaring cost of delivering medical care itself.

From there, the conversation traces how this cost crisis ripples across society. Employers struggle to absorb rising premiums. Workers face higher out-of-pocket costs and job instability. Rural hospitals teeter on the edge of closure. And short-term fixes — from benefit design changes to temporary bailouts — fail to address the underlying mathematical problem.

The hosts then turn to generative AI, not as a billing or documentation solution, but as a clinical force that could reshape care delivery and tremendously lower costs. They examine how genAI could help clinicians manage exploding medical knowledge, prevent errors, personalize inpatient care and extend high-quality monitoring into patients’ homes, particularly for chronic disease.

Finally, the episode widens the lens to leadership and strategy. Drawing lessons from Nvidia and the technology sector, Pearl and Corr explore why medicine’s fragmented, short-term responses have cost physicians influence and what it would take to rebuild leverage through collaboration, accountability and value-based care.

Taken together, the episode sets out to answer a defining question: With pressure mounting across the healthcare system, will medicine act strategically or wait until the crisis leaves no other choice?

Helpful links

• What Nvidia Can Teach Doctors About Strategy, Survival (Forbes)
• 5 Ways GenAI Will Transform Medicine — If Clinicians Embrace It (Forbes)
• US Healthcare’s Biggest Problem: Overlooking The $5 Trillion Gorilla (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #200: Healthcare’s cost crisis, GenAI’s promise + medicine’s leadership gap appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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As 2025 comes to a close, we’re flashing back to one of the year’s most listened-to episodes of Fixing Healthcare. This week, a special reading from Dr. Robert Pearl’s bestselling book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.”

This encore episode includes audio from Chapter 11, titled “The Road to AI-Empowered Healthcare,” followed by Chapter 11.5, a bold and thought-provoking response written by ChatGPT itself. Together, these chapters offer a vision of the future that, as Jeremy Corr notes, is “analogous to looking at a baby and trying to describe the adult who will follow.”

Looking back, it’s striking how prescient both the human author and large language model turned out to be. Their commentary on the economic, political and cultural roadblocks to AI adoption feels more timely than ever, especially amid today’s headlines.

In Chapter 11, Pearl lays out the promise of Healthcare 4.0, a future in which generative AI empowers patients and doctors alike to reduce inefficiencies, improve care and reclaim the human side of medicine. Chapter 11.5, penned by ChatGPT, offers a clear-eyed critique, cautioning against overreliance on tech and warning that change requires more than just innovation. It demands leadership.

This flashback offers listeners a rare opportunity to hear a dialogue (human and machine) on what it will take to transform American medicine.

HELPFUL LINKS

• ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine (Amazon)
• A list of Malcolm Gladwell’s 25 book recommendations (link)
• Robert Pearl’s Monthly Musings on American Healthcare newsletter (link)

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 #199: Revisiting ‘The road to AI-empowered healthcare’ from ChatGPT, MD appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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After the Thanksgiving holiday, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr sit down for an “Unfiltered” discussion about gratitude with cardiologist and burnout expert Dr. Jonathan Fisher.

While the discussion begins with an exploration of the science and value of gratitude, the episode then expands into an analysis of cultural trends in medicine, mental health, and the tension between individual autonomy and collective belonging. With insights drawn from emotion research, Jonathan’s own experience, and even sci-fi television, this episode touches on everything from evolutionary psychology to electronic health records — and from Lord of the Rings to generative AI.

Some of the key ideas discussed:

• Gratitude is a mindset, a personality trait and, most importantly, a practice. Drawiong on research from Dr. Barbara Fredrickson and others to explain how gratitude triggers upward emotional spirals, helping people tap into optimism, empathy and self-trust.
• When life is falling apart, gratitude alone isn’t the answer. In moments of crisis, trying to force a feeling of gratitude can backfire. Instead, we should begin by choosing where to place our attention, cultivating stillness and gradually train our minds to experience positive emotions again.
• The real enemy of gratitude might be distraction. With much of our attention hijacked by devices, media and negativity bias, Americans today often lack the sustained focus required to feel or express authentic gratitude.
• There’s wisdom (and warning) in a ‘hive mind.’ The group discusses the Apple TV series Pluribus, in which a virus links humans into a hive mind of total empathy and consensus. While peaceful, the world loses all individuality, sparking a conversation about the tension between belonging and autonomy in medicine, society and self.
• A lesson from Samwise Gamgee: In a heartfelt final segment, Jeremy draws on Lord of the Rings to reflect on the importance of standing by loved ones in dark times. Jonathan responds with insight into isolation, empathy and the power of human connection — even when people seem lost.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #198: The surprising science of gratitude & the cost of conformity appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl examine a wide range of stories shaping American health. From new research on the lifesaving effects of health insurance to troubling vaccine policy changes in Washington, this episode offers an objective and insightful look at what’s working, what’s failing and what lies ahead.

The show opens with a study that functions as a natural experiment on health coverage. When the IRS sent letters warning uninsured Americans about Affordable Care Act penalties, researchers found a striking result: those who signed up for insurance had significantly lower mortality over the next two years. For Dr. Pearl, the takeaway is clear. As political battles over insurance subsidies begin, the stakes are measured in lives saved and lives lost.

From there, the hosts turn to the second round of Medicare drug price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act. Cuts as large as 85% will save billions of dollars, but Pearl warns that negotiating prices alone cannot fix America’s drug-pricing problem. The root issue, he notes, is the ability of manufacturers to extend monopolies for years through patent thickets, evergreening and litigation strategies that delay competition. Until those practices change, the United States will continue paying far more than any other nation.

Here are more pressing stories from this month’s episode of Medicine: The Truth:

• Expiring ACA subsidies: Enhanced marketplace subsidies for 24 million Americans are scheduled to sunset, threatening large premium hikes.
• Private insurance costs: Covering a family of four now averages $27,000 per year. Employers may shift even more of the burden onto employees.
• U.S. health spending vs peer nations: America spends nearly $14,000 per person on healthcare, far above any comparable nation, yet underinvests in preventing and managing chronic disease complications.
• Measles resurgence: Falling vaccination rates and permissive school exemptions have made measles endemic again, with outbreaks in multiple states.
• Biosimilars and insulin pricing: The FDA plans to streamline biosimilar approvals by focusing on molecular similarity rather than repeated clinical trials.
• COVID infections during pregnancy: A Massachusetts study of nearly 18,000 births found higher rates of neurodevelopmental diagnoses in children whose mothers had COVID while pregnant.
• Social media and mental health: In a small study, young adults who reduced daily social media use from two hours to 30 minutes saw sharp drops in anxiety and depression.
• Obesity trends and GLP-1s: New Gallup data show adult obesity declining slightly from 40% to 37% since 2022, with the largest gains among women ages 40 to 64 (a popular demographic for drugs like Ozempic).
• Estrogen therapy reconsidered: The FDA has removed its black box warning from estrogen-containing products after new evidence showed substantial cardiovascular, bone and cognitive benefits when started near menopause.

As the episode continues, Dr. Pearl highlights fascinating findings on peanut allergies and preterm birth disparities, looks at the likelihood of a severe flu season with the new H3N2 strain and a stern warning about the politicization of vaccine decisions.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #101: From measles outbreaks to GLP-1 hype, the data every patient should know appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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The Draper name is synonymous with Silicon Valley risk-taking. For decades, venture capitalist Tim Draper made bold bets on breakthrough technologies long before they went mainstream (see: Bitcoin). Today, two members of the next generation — siblings Jesse and Adam Draper — are directing that same appetite for innovation toward one of America’s most troubled industries: healthcare.

Jesse, founding partner at Halogen Ventures, focuses on the “future of family,” backing companies that support women, parents and caregivers (nurses, in particular). Adam, founder of Boost VC, invests in frontier breakthroughs and “sovereign health” technologies with outsized potential. Together, they spend their days reviewing hundreds of pitches from entrepreneurs trying to solve real-world problems. And in this episode, they share what they believe patients and consumers are seeking most.

This is Season 11 of Fixing Healthcare, which is dedicated to elevating voices with large public followings: people who, through their work, hear directly from communities, consumers and healthcare professionals. Neither Draper sibling is a healthcare insider. But both bring a candid, outside-in perspective shaped by global innovation, millennial tech culture and thousands of conversations with founders.

Across the interview, the siblings highlight what they believe entrepreneurs are betting on: globalized innovation, new regulatory models and technologies that bypass traditional bottlenecks. Adam points to places like Prospera, a special economic zone in Honduras where companies develop treatments they can’t test in the U.S., while Jesse cites early-stage breakthroughs like Kangaroo’s artificial womb and tools that help families piece together trustworthy scientific evidence. Both describe a rising pattern of medical tourism driven by patients who feel the U.S. system is too slow, too fragmented and too expensive.

Jesse also delivers the episode’s most memorable moment, describing ChatGPT as a “best friend” she consults for everything from parenting decisions to symptom interpretation. Her approach — asking AI to cite real studies and synthesize global data — reflects a generational shift in how people gather information long before seeing a doctor.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Robert Pearl praises their patient-centered instincts while adding the guardrails often missing from Silicon Valley conversations. Innovation can save lives, he notes, but only when safety and cost stay in balance. Excess regulation slows progress, yet unchecked enthusiasm fuels hype and high-priced products that add little value.

The central challenge, he argues, is building a healthcare system bold enough to welcome breakthrough ideas and disciplined enough to ensure they improve outcomes and lower costs, not just generate revenue.

Helpful links

• “Japan has created the first artificial womb” (Engineerine)
• Prospera, Roatán ZEDE (background and news)
• “Healthcare Regulators’ Outdated Thinking Will Cost American Lives” (Forbes)
• “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Doctors and Patients Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” (Pearl’s newest book)

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 #197: Artificial wombs & medical tourism – Draper siblings on healthcare’s next wave appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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For this Thanksgiving week, we’re revisiting an important and emotionally charged episode from the first season of “Medicine: The Truth.” = When this episode debuted in 2020, the podcast was called “Coronavirus: The Truth,” which began when readers of Dr. Robert Pearl’s newsletter, “Monthly Musings on American Healthcare,” started asking for much-needed facts and context surrounding the pandemic.

It was a moment hard to fathom now. Covid cases were climbing fast, the nation was exhausted and vaccines weren’t yet available. Fear and frustration were everywhere. Five years later, with vaccines protecting all but the most vulnerable, it’s worth remembering just how uncertain and divisive the world felt heading into those holidays.

A big question people wanted answered was whether they should change their Thanksgiving plans. Dr. Anthony Fauci had urged Americans to avoid big gatherings. The reaction was immediate and intense. Polls showed three in four people were less excited about the holidays than the year before. Families were fighting over safety. Many felt hopeless and isolated. Against that backdrop, listeners asked the question weighing on millions: Should we gather at all?

In this rerun, Dr. Robert Pearl revisits the facts that mattered most at the time: why drug makers were pausing some vaccine and treatment trials, what was happening on college campuses and why premature births had unexpectedly declined during lockdowns. He explains why he expected 500,000 Covid deaths, a number that shocked listeners in 2020 but ultimately proved accurate (by half).

The episode also dives into deeper issues that shaped the national mood. Most of all, it captures the anger and divisiveness that blanketed the country. A tension that continues today.

There is much our nation can learn today from the experiences of five years ago. This Thanksgiving rerun offers a powerful reminder of where we were and how far we’ve come.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #196: Revisiting Thanksgiving 2020 at Covid’s peak appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This special episode of Unfiltered departs from its usual cadence and lineup as cardiologist Jonathan Fisher is joined this week by his wife, oncologist Dr. Julie Fisher.

Together with hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl, the group embarks on a candid, unscripted conversation that begins with a literal and metaphorical climb. Julie and Jonathan recount their joint ascent of Mount Everest (Julie’s idea, not Jonathan’s) and then quickly moves into deeper terrain: the persistence of sexism in medicine.

In this important conversation, Julie opens up about her experiences as a woman in a field where hierarchy and status remain firmly entrenched. She offers a nuanced yet unflinching account of the barriers she’s faced, from inappropriate comments and dismissiveness to more insidious forms of bias in academic and clinical settings. She describes the pressure to be more nurturing, friendly, likeable and even more accessible to patients than male colleagues. And yet, when it came time to seek a promotion, Julie was told these skills – which were both encouraged and expected – weren’t valued as much as significantly as other skills (namely, getting published in academic medical journals).

To this day, these unequal pressures undermine a woman’s ability to lead with authority, to express frustration or to achieve equal footing in the medical profession.

Though born from a partnership between husband and wife, this Unfiltered episode invites a broader reckoning in medicine. It is a chance to look closely and honestly at questions of power, perception and equality in American healthcare.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• Breast cancer diagnoses rising fastest among young women (Charlotte Talks interview with Julie Fisher)
• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #195: Dr. Julie Fisher on medicine, marriage & misogyny appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Before TikTok myth-busting and Instagram reels took over the health education space, Dr. Jen Gunter dominated Twitter (now “X”) as medicine’s fiercest advocate for women’s health.

Dr. Gunter built a massive following by calling out dangerous pseudoscience, exposing sexism in medicine and championing evidence‑based care. In this flashback episode of Fixing Healthcare, we revisit a standout conversation from Season 5 (air date: March 15, 2021). This one feels especially relevant during the show’s current Season 11, which highlights medical influencers who hear directly from millions of patients and can reflect those concerns and conversations back to us.

With more Americans relying on influencers for answers about their bodies, brains and overall health, this rerun brings back the voice of an original myth‑buster: a physician who helped build the very space that others now occupy.

Dr. Gunter, a board‑certified OB‑GYN and bestselling author of The Vagina Bible and The Menopause Manifesto, continues to use her platforms to challenge misleading products, expose medical gaslighting and normalize conversations surrounding women’s bodies. Her newest book, Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation, takes aim at decades of cultural myth and medical misinformation about periods with the aim of replacing shame with science.

In this episode, she speaks with Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr about:

• the harm caused by pseudoscience and wellness influencers.
• the ways sexism shapes the medical system and patient care.
• why clinicians must fight misinformation as fiercely as disease itself.

This timely flashback pairs perfectly with recent Season 11 conversations featuring Dr. Danielle Jones and Dr. Joel Bervell, two leaders in the next generation of medical myth‑busting. Listen to this episode and ask yourself: What has changed in the 4.5 years since Gunter’s original interview? What hasn’t?

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on X and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #194: A flashback to Dr. Jen Gunter’s fearless fight for truth in women’s health appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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When this podcast launched in March 2020 as Coronavirus: The Truth, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr set out to give listeners clear science and accurate analysis during a moment of chaos. Now, 100 episodes later, as Medicine: The Truth, the duo sit down and revisit the most important medical stories of the past five years, explaining what the nation learned, what it didn’t and what urgent questions remain.

The episode opens where the show began: the early days of COVID-19, when exponential spread of the virus threatened to overwhelm U.S. hospitals. Pearl walks through the original goals of public-health measures like masking and social distancing. He reflects on what the country got right, what it got wrong, and why communication failures around testing and vaccines deepened distrust that still affects medicine today.

But as the crisis evolved, so did the podcast. What began as a weekly pandemic explainer shifted into a broader analysis of why the United States spends more on healthcare than any other wealthy nation, yet it delivers worse outcomes.

In this episode, the conversation moves from reflections on the pandemic to a look at some of the show’s longest-running themes: clinician burnout, workforce shortages and a healthcare system struggling to meet rising demand.

Alongside the difficult news that lingers in American healthcare, episode 100 also highlights genuine progress: breakthroughs against Alzheimer’s and colon cancer, advances in prevention and diagnosis, and a growing role for generative AI.

Pearl explains how GenAI could save hundreds of thousands of lives, reduce medical errors, increase healthcare affordability and alleviate clinician burnout. But, none of this will happen unless the financial incentives shift away from fee-for-service and toward value.

Pearl closes with a simple message: crises will return, and science can save lives. However, success will require Americans to follow the research rather than be distracted by politics. To prepare for the next pandemic, he argues that the nation must better control chronic disease, rely on scientifically validated clinical evidence, and reward superior clinical outcomes, rather than simply the volume of care provided.

The first 100 episodes of what is now Medicine: The Truth serve as clear and powerful reminders of the dedication and courage of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. But they also warn of how easy it can be for the American healthcare system to lose its way.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #100: From COVID-19 to ChatGPT, a close look at the last 5 years appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Diving Deep episode of Fixing Healthcare, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr examine two pressing topics: the hidden causes of patient mistrust in doctors and the top reasons healthcare startups fall short.

The episode begins with a striking question: Why don’t Americans trust their doctors anymore?

For most of the past century, physicians were among the most trusted professionals in America. But recent Gallup data reveals that just 44% of Americans now rate their care as “good” or “excellent,” and trust in physicians’ honesty and ethics has fallen to its lowest level in over 20 years.

While COVID-19 and political division may seem like obvious culprits, Pearl traces the real cause to an inflection point back more than two decades ago. That’s when medicine’s greatest challenge shifted from treating short-term illnesses to managing chronic diseases, conditions that require time, coordination and repeated follow-up.

Instead of adapting, the system stagnated. Doctors remained siloed in fee-for-service models that reward volume over outcomes. Insurers rationed access. Appointments became harder to get. Visits were rushed. Misdiagnoses rose. And patients began to feel abandoned.

In the second half of the episode, the hosts turn to the topic of healthcare innovation and why so many startups fail to live up to their promise. Despite record funding, the graveyard of failed startups keeps growing.

Pearl outlines the five most common pitfalls but also offers hope. Startups that understand patient needs, partner with clinicians and understand the system’s reimbursement models can still succeed.

HELPFUL LINKS

• The Hidden Reason For Americans’ Declining Trust In Their Doctors (Forbes)
• How To Avoid 5 Common Mistakes Healthcare Startups Make (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #193: What’s fueling medical mistrust & why startups fail appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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With Dr. Jonathan Fisher’s upcoming Ending Clinician Burnout Global Summit (Nov. 6–7) just around the corner, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr revisit one of the trio’s most powerful Unfiltered conversations ever.

When this episode first aired a year ago, burnout among doctors was at crisis levels, fueled by long hours, bureaucratic burdens and a culture that rewarded perfectionism over self‑care.

Dr. Fisher, a cardiologist, mindfulness expert and organizational well‑being leader, brought both science and empathy to the discussion. The group explored how systemic challenges — such as burnout, the loss of physician autonomy and the growing influence of private equity — are reshaping the trajectory of medical careers.

Listeners concerned about clinician wellness will gain fresh perspective ahead of this year’s summit, where Dr. Pearl’s bestselling book ChatGPT, MD will be featured as a guide to how AI‑empowered physicians can reclaim time, reduce burnout and refocus their energy on what matters most: caring for patients.

Topics from this episode included:* The burnout epidemic. Dr. Fisher reflects on how increasing administrative burdens, declining autonomy and career dissatisfaction have led many physicians to leave the field or seek non-clinical roles. * Restoring meaning and fulfillment. Drs. Pearl and Fisher discuss the importance of restoring meaning to physicians’ work by offering leadership opportunities and emphasizing the creative, humanistic aspects of medicine. * The role of leadership in medicine. Drawing from his experience as CEO at Kaiser Permanente for 18 years, Dr. Pearl highlights how leadership training can empower doctors to take control of their practice. * Balancing career and personal life. Both Fisher and Pearl emphasize the difficulty of balancing the demands of a medical career with personal fulfillment.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #192: Flashback to ‘burnout and the physician career arc’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Season 11 of Fixing Healthcare continues its exploration of medicine’s rising influencers with a conversation that reveals how patients can advocate for themselves, how doctors can confront bias they don’t even realize they have, and how storytelling on TikTok is changing medical education.

Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome Joel Bervell, a Ghanaian-American physician, resident in training, Peabody award winner and social media star. Known to millions on TikTok and Instagram as the “Medical Mythbuster,” Bervell shares how he uses short-form video content to expose racial and cultural bias in medicine, challenge misinformation and make complex science more engaging for the next generation of healthcare professionals and patients alike.

Bervell kicks off the conversation by identifying three of the most common and compelling questions he hears from his followers:

1. What should I ask my doctor to make sure I feel heard?
   Bervell explains that many patients, especially those from marginalized communities, worry about being dismissed or misunderstood during doctor visits. What physicians may view as “basic” questions often reflect deeper fears about not being taken seriously. He reminds listeners that the “curse of knowledge” in medicine can cause clinicians to forget what it feels like to lack expertise and power in the exam room.
2. How can I best advocate for a loved one receiving care?
   From hospitalizations to end-of-life decisions, Bervell says he frequently receives messages from people unsure how to support a friend or family member facing a serious health challenge. These questions reveal the deep emotional labor patients and families take on, as well as the need for better health literacy tools and guidance from clinicians.
3. How do race and background affect the care I receive?
   Every day, Bervell is inundated with personal stories from people of color who feel ignored, disbelieved or mistreated in medical settings. His content sheds light on how bias, systemic inequality and flawed clinical guidelines contribute to these experiences. He also highlights the lack of formal education around these topics in many medical schools (a gap he’s working to fill with his mythbusting videos).

Throughout the episode, Bervell and the hosts explore the tension between clinical intent and patient perception, the power of storytelling in medical education, and the critical role of representation both in medical school and in the media.

Dr. Pearl closes the conversation by telling Bervell, “We’ve had clinical experts, leaders of national societies and presidential candidates on our Fixing Health Care podcast, and I can tell you I’ve learned more from you today than from any guest that I can think of in the past … I’m sure our listeners have enjoyed the show, and they too are much smarter when it comes to healthcare now than they were before you began.”

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 #191: Dr. Joel Bervell on medical bias & the power of storytelling appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This Halloween-themed episode of Medicine: The Truth finds hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr confronting the real horrors haunting American medicine today.

When Corr asks what scares him most, Dr. Pearl doesn’t hesitate: it’s the chaos, confusion and politicization that have replaced science and reason. From vaccine policy to drug and insurance pricing to Medicaid cuts, Pearl explains how bad decisions by government and industry leaders are endangering lives.

The conversation begins with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s newly appointed vaccine advisory committee, whose erratic decisions could jeopardize national immunization efforts and patient trust. It moves quickly to Donald Trump’s claim that Tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism. Pearl explains why the claim is biologically implausible, breaks down the real risks of acetaminophen overdose, and warns of the harm caused when political figures replace data with personal belief.

The hosts then turn to Mississippi’s infant mortality crisis, where a lack of OB-GYNs and the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid have pushed death rates to record highs. It’s a chilling illustration, Pearl says, of what happens when ideology trumps compassion.

From there, the episode moves through a series of pressing stories:

• Affordable Care Act turmoil: Subsidies that keep exchange plans affordable are set to expire, threatening coverage for millions and sending premiums soaring by up to 15%.
• Private equity in emergency rooms: A new study shows higher mortality rates in PE-owned hospitals, where cost-cutting has replaced patient safety.
• A new oral GLP-1 pill: Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug could improve convenience but only if pricing reflects fairness, not greed.
• Cardiovascular disease data: Despite progress, heart disease remains America’s top killer, with worsening risk factors across income groups.
• Generic approval for mifepristone: The FDA’s move to expand access to abortion medication marks a rare policy victory for evidence-based care.
• Music as medicine: Brazilian researchers find that music before heart imaging reduces anxiety and lowers blood pressure (an example of low-cost care with real impact).
• HPV-linked cancer breakthrough: New AI-driven blood tests may detect head and neck cancers years before symptoms arise.
• Obesity and cancer: Death rates tied to obesity have quadrupled in two decades, rising fastest among women and rural Americans.

As the episode continues, Dr. Pearl highlights grim data on America’s declining health outcomes compared to other wealthy nations, the spread of Chagas disease across U.S. states, and the crushing cost of employer-based insurance. Together, these stories reveal a nation spending more, living shorter and losing faith in its medical institutions. A scary story, indeed.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #99: The frightening state of U.S. medicine as politics replace science appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Season 11 of Fixing Healthcare continues its exploration of medicine’s new voices and rising influencers with an eye-opening conversation about sexuality, vaccinees and misinformation. Today’s guest, originally from rural Texas, joins the show from the other side of the world.

Cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome Dr. Danielle Jones, better known to millions as Mama Doctor Jones. An OB-GYN by training, Jones has built a worldwide following on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, and now brings her perspective from New Zealand, where she lives and practices today.

This season isn’t just about guests with massive online audiences. It’s about what happens when those influencers listen. By engaging directly with millions of patients, they hear first-hand what people are curious about, confused by or struggling with—and then translate those voices back into the larger medical conversation.

This season highlights guests with massive online audiences. But their value isn’t just in reach, it’s in their ability to listen closely to what millions of patients are saying, then translate those insights back into the wider medical conversation.

From the start, Jones makes clear why she’s become a trusted voice for so many.

Her mission isn’t just to provide facts, but to help people distinguish what is real from what is not, a skill that’s more urgent than ever in an era of viral misinformation. Drawing on her roots in rural Texas, Jones describes how she had to unlearn many of the taboos she grew up with before becoming comfortable talking openly about abortion, contraception and sexual health.

Key topics in this conversation:

• The power of online health education. Jones explains how she flips the tactics of disinformation campaigns to spread accurate medical knowledge, making it “work for the good guys.”
• Persistent myths about contraception. She addresses head-on the false claim that birth control causes infertility, emphasizing that age (not contraception) drives fertility challenges.
• HPV vaccines and cultural pushback. Dr. Jones discuss how misogyny and paternalism fuel opposition to one of the safest, most effective vaccines ever developed.
• Supporting teens navigating sexuality. Jones describes how she avoids judgmental “ready/not ready” labels, instead encouraging self-reflection, autonomy and safety.
• Menopause and hormones. She calls out predatory marketing and misinformation around hormone therapies, urging clearer communication about the real risks and benefits.
• A global lens. Living in New Zealand has given Jones new perspective on how cultural context shapes both medical care and public health trust.

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

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 #190: TikTok’s favorite OB-GYN reveals what millions of women really ask their doctors appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this revealing episode of Unfiltered, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr sit down with cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Fisher to explore a hidden source of suffering in modern medicine: imposter syndrome.

Together, Pearl and Fisher take a vulnerable and nuanced look at the internal doubts that haunt even the most accomplished clinicians. Drawing on Fisher’s research and personal experience, the pair examine how imposter syndrome takes root during medical training and grows amid hierarchical workplaces, unrealistic expectations and a culture of stoicism. Left unaddressed, it can lead to shame, fear and isolation —emotions that rarely surface in traditional conversations about burnout.

Throughout the episode, Fisher and Pearl describe the difference between healthy humility and harmful self-doubt. They consider how training environments, competitive mindsets and systemic pressures may perpetuate imposter feelings. They also reflect on how leaders and organizations can help create psychological safety by sharing personal struggles, reframing failure and building community.

More than a psychological phenomenon, imposter syndrome offers a lens through which to understand the broader crisis of physician wellbeing. As Dr. Fisher notes, combating it starts with telling the truth and making space for others to do the same.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #189: Diving deep into imposter syndrome in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Diving Deep episode of Fixing Healthcare, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr explore two urgent shifts reshaping the patient-doctor relationship in American medicine.

First, they tackle a generational divide that’s growing wider by the year. Gen Z and Millennial patients (now 40% of healthcare consumers), are increasingly turning away from traditional medical providers. Distrust in institutions, a preference for shared decision-making and frustration with outdated communication methods are driving these younger patients to seek answers elsewhere.

Pearl outlines what physicians must do to bridge the gap. Listen more, collaborate often and meet younger patients where they are: digitally, flexibly and with empathy. If doctors don’t evolve, patients will look elsewhere.

And increasingly, “elsewhere” means artificial intelligence. That leads to the second half of the episode, where Pearl maps out a new reality: for the first time in history, patients can climb the ladder of medical expertise with help from GenAI. Large language models like ChatGPT and Claude are enabling patients to move beyond awareness and application into true analysis, synthesis and even innovation.

Pearl explores what this means for clinical care. Will patients one day use GenAI to monitor chronic conditions like diabetes or asthma on their own? Could AI triage symptoms, suggest follow-ups or even nudge lifestyle changes more effectively than a rushed primary care visit?

These questions are no longer theoretical. As Pearl warns, clinicians must either guide the change or risk being sidelined by it.

HELPFUL LINKS

• 3 Ways Doctors Can Win Back Gen Z, Millennial Patients (Forbes)
• Will GPT-5, Claude, Gemini Break Doctors’ Monopoly On Medical Expertise? (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #188: Why younger patients turn away from doctors & toward GenAI appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Medicine: The Truth, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr dig into growing public distrust in the two government agencies charged with protecting Americans’ health: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Recent shakeups, including the resignation of top leaders and staff reductions, highlight just how politicized these organizations have become. Pearl doesn’t mince words. He calls the situation “chaotic and unscientific,” warning that the politicization of vaccine policy under the Kennedy administration could undermine decades of scientific progress and further erode public trust in medical guidance.

He walks listeners through what changed, why it matters and what might happen next—including how states and medical societies are beginning to defy federal policy by issuing their own vaccine recommendations.

Other key topics discussed:

• New vaccine restrictions under RFK Jr.: COVID vaccines now limited to high-risk individuals under 65, with added barriers for children under 18.
• Loss of expert oversight: RFK Jr. fired all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, replacing them with politically aligned individuals, some lacking immunization expertise.
• Fragmented guidance: For the first time in 30 years, national medical societies have issued their own vaccine guidelines that contradict CDC policy.
• mRNA research halted: A $500M grant program supporting mRNA vaccine innovation has been canceled, threatening progress in cancer, autoimmune disease and rare conditions.
• A clear explainer on mRNA tech: Pearl delivers a step-by-step explanation of how mRNA vaccines are developed and why they’re safer, faster and potentially life-saving in pandemics and cancer prevention.
• RFK Jr.’s false claims: Pearl debunks Kennedy’s assertion that mRNA vaccines are the “deadliest ever made,” calling it one of the most unscientific claims in recent memory.
• Draft autism report warning: Pearl criticizes an upcoming government report on autism that he expects will repackage discredited vaccine-autism links.
• Food industry appeasement: The “Make America Healthy Again” agenda is criticized for lacking concrete actions on nutrition policy, instead promising more studies of already well-documented problems.
• Medicare funding risks: If federal deficits continue, automatic cuts could slash Medicare by $500B between 2027–2034, which would further destabilize the system.
• Price transparency report: A new analysis from Trilliant Health reveals 9-to-1 variation in what insurers pay for the same surgery, even within the same state or hospital.
• Tech & dementia risk: A meta-analysis of 37 studies finds that older adults using smartphones, computers and the internet may have a reduced risk of cognitive decline, possibly due to reduced social isolation.
• Stalking & heart disease: Women who are stalked or file restraining orders have a significantly higher risk of heart attacks and strokes (up to 70% more) due to prolonged stress and fear.
• Flu shots & allergies: A listener asks about egg allergy risk. Pearl reassures listeners that even in patients with anaphylaxis history, flu vaccines are safe and strongly recommended.
• HPV awareness gap: More than one-third of U.S. adults haven’t heard of HPV, and over half don’t know it causes oral and cervical cancer—despite a highly effective vaccine.
• Child mortality shame:S. babies and children are nearly twice as likely to die before adulthood compared to peers in other wealthy nations.
• Screwworm fly case: A Maryland man becomes the first confirmed U.S. case this year after travel to El Salvador. Pearl explains the biology behind this gruesome but rare parasite.

Tune in to hear Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr cut through the noise with their signature mix of clarity, candor and evidence-based analysis. Once again, the duo exposes misinformation, challenges political spin and helps listeners make sense of what’s really going on.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #98: Can patients and doctors still trust the CDC, FDA? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this candid episode of Unfiltered, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr sit down with cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Fisher to examine why so many clinicians feel trapped between rising bureaucracy and shrinking autonomy.

Together, they detail what it will take to build a system that serves both patients and physicians. Drawing on Fisher’s experiences in small private practice and in a large health system, the trio explores RVUs and metric overload, private equity’s growing footprint and the treadmill effect driving burnout.

They then turn to solutions: team-based care, capitation/value-based models and new primary-care designs (from direct primary care to micro-IPAs). In the second half of the episode, the conversation widens from lifespan and health span to “joy span,” arguing for practical, low-cost ways to strengthen social connection, meaning and wellbeing without overburdening clinicians.

Later, a listener question prompts a timely discussion of Gen Z and younger millennials who avoid traditional primary care, and how medicine must adapt communication, access and expectations to meet people where they are.

For more unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #187: Autonomy, burnout & the future of medical care appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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FHC #186: From rare diseases to rural America, Optum’s CEO talks healthcare’s future

In this special return to Season 10, which focused on transformative technologies in medicine, Fixing Healthcare hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr interview Dr. Patrick Conway, CEO of Optum, a $250 billion division of UnitedHealth Group. A pediatrician and former CMS leader, Dr. Conway has spent his career driving innovation at the intersection of medicine, policy and business.

Conway argues that healthcare stands on the brink of a transformation driven by artificial intelligence, breakthrough therapies, prevention strategies and big data analytics. As CEO of Optum (one of the most influential players in U.S. medicine, employing over 310,000 people worldwide), Conway explains how his organization is using technology and integration to improve quality, lower costs and expand equity.

Here are five key insights from the episode:

1. AI will be like the internet: changing everything.Conway predicts generative AI will rapidly move beyond administrative tasks into clinical decision-making, diagnosis and personalized training for physicians. He shares a story of diagnosing a child’s rare disorder and imagines how AI could make such insights instantaneous for every doctor.
2. Prevention is the ultimate cost-saver.Chronic disease prevention, he says, is America’s greatest healthcare challenge. Apps, gamification and continuous monitoring could replace the outdated “come back in four months” model. Managing hypertension and diabetes in real time could radically lower costs and improve lives.
3. Big data enables personalized care at scale.Optum uses analytics to stratify patients (such as “dual eligibles” living with multiple chronic conditions) and deliver tailored interventions at home. Conway recounts how one 91-year-old patient, once hospitalized eight times a year, went to zero admissions after joining Optum at Home.
4. Value-based care must expand faster.Optum already assumes full financial risk for 5 million patients, but Conway argues the majority of Americans deserve this model. Capitation aligns incentives around outcomes, quality and cost, and generative AI could accelerate its adoption, even in rural communities.
5. Drug costs remain unsustainable.Here, Conway is blunt. U.S. drug prices are too high, with GLP-1 drugs costing eight to 10 times more than abroad. Optum has committed to 100% rebate pass-through. It has also eliminated many prior authorizations and shifted its entire pharmacy business to lower-cost generics and biosimilars.

After the interview, Dr. Pearl tells Corr that he was struck by the Optum CEO’s optimism about generative AI and its role in reshaping healthcare, noting that Conway sees beyond administrative savings to its potential for improving clinical outcomes and managing chronic disease. Pearl noted Conway’s clear commitment to capitation and value-based care; what Pearl called his “North Star.” Pearl concluded that Conway is a mission-driven leader, highly capable of pushing UnitedHealth Group to accelerate change, and urged him to move faster than feels comfortable in scaling prevention, AI and integrated care.

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 #186: Optum CEO on AI, big data & preventing disease appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Diving Deep episode of Fixing Healthcare, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle two timely topics shaping the future of American medicine.

First, the pair explore a growing concern among health policy experts and clinicians alike: Is the U.S. medical system headed for economic collapse? Dr. Pearl outlines three troubling trends in support of this concern. Ballooning healthcare costs, an unsustainable rise in medical employment (without associated gains in quality), and the accelerating burnout and exit of practicing physicians. Together, these forces threaten to push American healthcare off a cliff.

More alarming still, the traditional “exit ramps” that once helped the system avoid disaster — federal borrowing, employer cost-shifting and physician overwork — are rapidly disappearing. With options dwindling, Pearl and Corr consider what comes next: Will private equity lead a wave of cost-cutting? Will crisis force rationing? Or could new technology offer a better way forward?

That question sets the stage for part two of the episode: a deep dive into generative AI’s future in medicine. Pearl describes two emerging paths: one led by tech startups developing FDA-approved tools to manage disease, and another championed by physicians who teach patients how to use existing large language models for self-care and symptom triage. Both models aim to reduce costs and improve outcomes. But each comes with tradeoffs.

Throughout the episode, Pearl encourages clinicians to lead (not follow) the adoption of GenAI. Whether American healthcare descends into austerity or rises toward innovation, the decisions made now will shape the system’s trajectory for decades to come.

HELPFUL LINKS

• These 3 Medical Trends Predict A Massive Healthcare Crisis (Forbes)
• With OpenAI Set To Launch GPT-5, Here’s How To Monetize Healthcare GenAI (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #185: A System in crisis, a technology in waiting appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Medicine: The Truth, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr cover a whirlwind of headlines, from a White House push to tie U.S. drug prices to wealthy-nation benchmarks (with tariff threats) to a Big Tech pledge to make medical records truly interoperable. They also unpack what ACA exchange enrollees should expect in 2026 as cost-sharing subsidies teeter and insurers file double-digit premium hikes.

On care delivery, the hosts examine the direct primary care + HSA shift: what it could improve, and where it might widen disparities. They then turn to the FDA’s accelerated approvals, gene-therapy turmoil and why scientific independence matters.

Other key topics discussed:

• Kids’ health: Hand-foot-and-mouth disease basics (spread, home care, when to call) and a rare, deadly flu-related encephalopathy — another reason childhood flu vaccination matters.
• Cancer prevention: How hepatitis B/C control, metabolic health and alcohol use drive (and can prevent) liver cancer.
• Exercise clarity: Why 7,000 steps/day delivers nearly all the health gains long credited to 10,000.
• Lyme 101: Ticks, timelines, treatment (and why prompt checks for bites are protective).
• Pharma’s DTC pivot: Drugmakers selling directly via telemedicine, and what that means for GLP-1 access and brand bias.
• Rural stability: A new $50B Rural Health Fund aimed at offsetting Medicaid-related shortfalls for hospitals.
• Maternal health: 56% of new moms miss recommended postpartum visits, even as one-third of maternal deaths occur after discharge.
• CTE explainer: What we know (and don’t) about repetitive head trauma and long-term brain disease.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #97: Drug prices, Big Tech EHR promises & the 7,000-step surprise appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the first episode of Fixing Healthcare’s 11th season, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr speak with Dr. Uché Blackstock, an emergency physician, bestselling author and health equity expert.

This season turns the spotlight on voices from social media, offering insights into what patients actually want from the U.S. healthcare system. Dr. Blackstock (whose online following is both massive and deeply engaged) shares the concerns she hears most often: fears about rising insurance premiums, confusion around preventive screenings and frustration with a system that feels inaccessible, dismissive or even dangerous for many women and people of color.

Dr. Blackstock is the founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity and author of Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine, a memoir that blends personal history with data and policy analysis. In her conversation with Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr, she highlights several ways the U.S. healthcare system must change to better serve all patients:

Bridging The Access Gap
Dr. Blackstock discusses the urgent need to expand access to preventive care, particularly for groups at higher risk of being overlooked or underserved. She emphasizes the role of health literacy, equitable coverage, and primary care investment in closing these gaps, especially in communities where hospitals and clinics remain out of reach.

Rebuilding Trust
From maternal mortality to COVID response, Dr. Blackstock explains how structural racism, sexist bias and historical injustice continue to shape patient outcomes. She urges clinicians and institutions to take these realities seriously, listen more closely to patients’ concerns and build relationships rooted in dignity and respect.

Rethinking The System Itself
Rather than settle for incremental fixes, Dr. Blackstock calls for a complete overhaul of American medicine. She argues we must reduce administrative waste, center community-based care, and treat universal access to healthcare as a moral and civic imperative. She believes Gen Z, with its strong values, optimism and technological fluency, may be the generation to lead that change.

Throughout the episode, the conversation returns to a central question: What does it mean to be seen, heard and cared for in today’s healthcare system. And how can we ensure everyone receives that kind of care?

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

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 #184: Dr. Uché Blackstock on racism, sexism and fixing medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Diving Deep episode of Fixing Healthcare, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle two of the most pressing questions in healthcare today, each focused on the future of medical practice in the era of generative AI.

First, the hosts explore the controversial question: Will AI replace doctors? Dr. Pearl argues that, despite recent advances in AI that now outperform physicians in a growing number of diagnostic tasks, the answer is “no.” He explains why the healthcare system’s worsening physician shortage, its rising costs and patients’ enduring need for human connection all point to a future in which doctors remain essential.

However, he warns that clinicians won’t be immune to the pressures GenAI brings. If the technology is controlled by insurers or private equity firms, it will likely be used to speed up visits and reduce costs, not improve care. To avoid that outcome, Pearl urges physicians to lead AI’s integration into medicine, organizing into high-performing groups and shaping how the tools are used. Otherwise, he cautions, GenAI won’t replace doctors. But it will make their jobs miserable.

Later in the episode, the conversation turns to medical education. Pearl argues that U.S. medical schools are falling dangerously behind in preparing students for the AI revolution. While colleges and universities across the country are rapidly integrating generative AI into undergraduate curricula, most medical schools still rely on outdated teaching methods that emphasize memorization rather than application of information in clinical practice.

Pearl calls for an urgent overhaul of faculty training and curricular design, encouraging hands-on exercises where students use GenAI as a clinical partner. With this foundation, students can engage in diagnostic reasoning, design care plans, and collaborate with AI tools to improve patient outcomes. Without these changes, he warns, tomorrow’s physicians may be ill-equipped to lead in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape.

Together, these topics speak to some of the greatest fears – and greatest opportunities – in the medical profession today. Listen to the episode to hear the full conversation and decide for yourself.

HELPFUL LINKS

• GenAI Won’t Replace Doctors, But It Could Make Them Miserable (Forbes)
• In The AI Revolution, Medical Schools Are Falling Behind U.S. Colleges (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #183: Will GenAI replace docs? How should medical schools respond? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Medicine: The Truth, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr examine a wide range of healthcare headlines. From the Supreme Court’s ruling on preventive care to heat-related deaths, experimental diabetes treatments and the continued unaffordability of life-saving drugs, this episode focuses on biggest stories in medicine today.

It opens with a breakdown of the Supreme Court’s recent 6–3 decision on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV. While the ruling preserves access to services recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Pearl warns that it introduces new risks.

“When politics or finances enter the healthcare world, clinical outcomes suffer,” says Pearl. He draws parallels to the ousting of experts on the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and highlights the danger of eroding scientific independence.

Pearl then turns to a longstanding pain point in American healthcare: prior authorization.

While insurer companies claim this process guarantees safe, necessary care, studies show it often delays treatment or leads patients to abandon care altogether. Despite new promises from more than 50 insurers to streamline their processes by 2027, Pearl offers words of caution.

“Although this pledge sounds like a major commitment, clinicians remain doubtful Clinicians remain doubtful … And, of course, 2027 is two years away.”

Other key topics discussed in this episode include:

• Statin underuse: Research shows that prescribing statins to all eligible Americans could prevent 39,000 deaths and 165,000 major cardiac events annually, saving up to $25 billion a year.
• CT scan overuse: New data show that frequent surveillance scans for cancer recurrence do not improve survival and may lead to physical, psychological and financial harm.
• Cancer screening clarity: Only four cancers (breast, lung, cervical and colorectal) have strong evidence supporting screening. For the rest, benefits remain unproven or may be outweighed by risks.
• Colon cancer detection: FIT tests are as effective as colonoscopy in low-risk patients, especially those ages 40–49. Yet screening rates remain far too low.
• Heat-related health threats: Climate-driven “heat domes” pose rising risks to children, the elderly and patients with chronic disease.
• New HIV drug dilemma: The FDA approved an injectable PrEP option with a near-perfect success rate. However, at a staggering $28,000+ annual cost, it may remain out of reach for most.
• FDA under scrutiny: Accelerated approvals are allowing high-cost drugs to enter the market despite safety concerns. Pearl discusses the recent deaths of two children treated with a $3.2 million drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
• Experimental type 1 diabetes cure: A new stem cell therapy enabled 10 out of 12 patients to stop insulin injections. But lifelong immunosuppression and likely high costs may limit uptake.
• Autism breakthrough: New genetic analysis identifies four distinct ASD subtypes, helping pave the way for earlier diagnosis and personalized support strategies.
• Alarming pediatric trends: Childhood obesity and mental health issues have risen sharply in the last 17 years. Climate change is also driving a spike in tick-related illnesses in children.
• Obesity science simplified: A global study confirms it’s not lack of exercise driving obesity—it’s excess calories, particularly from ultra-processed, high-fat foods.

The episode closes with a hard truth: U.S. healthcare spending is expected to exceed 20% of GDP by 2033. “Despite spending more, we’re not seeing improvements in outcomes,” Pearl says. He promises to revisit this issue in a future episode of Diving Deep.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #96: Cancer confusion, obesity clarity & a $3M drug failure appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In a special episode of Fixing Healthcare, Jeremy Corr turns the mic once more to cohost Dr. Robert Pearl, inviting him to reflect on Season 10, marking the duo’s most ambitious deep-dive into the technologies transforming American medicine.

Over the past nine episodes, Corr and Pearl welcomed leading thinkers in health tech, including high-profile executives from Microsoft, Google, Oracle and Nvidia; the CEOs of Zocdoc and Hippocratic AI; pioneers of generative AI like investor Vinod Khosla; and renowned physician-leaders like Drs. Eric Topol and Maria Ansari.

This week, Corr and Pearl offer listeners a wide-angle view of what they learned … and what comes next.

Pearl begins by identifying four major “eras” of healthcare technology. The first was defined by anatomic understanding and miracle drugs. The second brought powerful machines like CT and MRI. The third saw the arrival of EHRs and the internet, technologies that failed to meet expectations. The fourth era, he says, began on “November 30th of 2022, with the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.”

Since then, Pearl notes, generative AI has at least doubled in power annually. “By the time the current cohort of medical students complete their training,” he says, “generative AI will be at least 30 times more powerful than today. That’s the equivalent of your car going as fast as an airplane.”

Corr asks Pearl to walk through what stood out most from the season’s interviews. Pearl highlights Dr. Topol’s focus on “precision preventive care,” David Feinberg’s vision of AI as a personal assistant, and Vinod Khosla’s belief that “AI won’t replace 80% of doctors, but it will replace 80% of what doctors do.” Others predicted tech-enabled call centers, hospital-at-home programs, and smarter EHRs that anticipate a clinician’s needs.

Before the episode ends, Corr asks Pearl to summarize his own top three technologies for the next five to 10 years. Pearl’s answer mirrors — but also expands upon — his earlier appearance in episode #170. Here are the three innovations he believes will have the greatest impact:

1. Large language models (LLMs): Pearl believes tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude will soon be able to monitor patients with chronic illnesses in real time, helping them identify when medication adjustments or clinical interventions are needed (without requiring an in-person visit).
2. AI-enabled telemedicine: When paired with generative AI, telemedicine will evolve from a one-to-one model to a one-to-many approach. Pearl envisions a future in which doctors can oversee and manage care for dozens — or even hundreds — of discharged patients simultaneously, responding quickly to those who need the most attention.
3. AI-powered assistants: Tools like DeepSeek will spark a new generation of digital healthcare agents trained on real clinician–patient interactions. These assistants will handle triage, chronic disease management and home monitoring, making expert-level care more accessible, scalable and affordable than ever before.

Pearl ends with a bold forecast: “I’m convinced that over the next five to 10 years, the combination of dedicated clinicians and empowered patients and generative AI technology will achieve clinical outcomes that are exponentially better than what any of the three could achieve alone.”

Click play to hear this wide-ranging wrap-up to Season 10, including predictions for medicine’s future and a call to action for patients, clinicians and tech innovators alike.

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 #182: How GenAI, telemedicine and AI assistants will reshape medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this introspective episode of Unfiltered, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr sit down once again with cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Fisher to explore the emotional and psychological dimensions of medical treatment — this time from the perspective of a physician as a patient.

Prompted by Dr. Fisher’s own recent orthopedic surgery, the discussion examines the complexities and uncertainties patients face when deciding on medical interventions. Fisher candidly shares his reflections on the importance of setting clear expectations, the role of empathy in patient care, and the profound isolation and vulnerability experienced during his own recovery.

The episode expands into a broader dialogue about hope, optimism and honesty in medical care, particularly in oncology. Pearl and Fisher debate the balance between providing realistic expectations and maintaining patient optimism, highlighting how the right mindset can significantly influence healing and recovery.

Finally, in response to a listener’s thoughtful question, the hosts explore how medical specialties metaphorically influence a physician’s worldview and approach to patient care, underscoring the profound interplay between personal experience and professional practice.

For more candid, unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)

‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #181: When the doctor becomes the patient appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Fixing Healthcare’s “Diving Deep,” co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr examine two pressing healthcare issues through thoughtful Q&A: the impact of Trump’s healthcare promises on policy and the hidden psychological bias that impedes everything from tariff decisions to chronic disease management.

First, the hosts discuss President Donald Trump’s bold healthcare promises, including significantly lowering prescription drug prices, reversing chronic diseases and leveraging generative AI to transform American medicine. With midterm elections looming, Pearl emphasizes the urgency for real policy action rather than rhetoric. On drug pricing, he notes the significant legislative and regulatory hurdles facing Trump’s proposed solutions, such as Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) pricing. Regarding food quality and obesity, Pearl addresses RFK Jr.’s criticism of ultra-processed foods and urges the administration to move beyond symbolic reports to concrete policies, including front-of-package labeling, taxation of unhealthy foods, and stricter food additive regulations. Additionally, Pearl highlights the administration’s enthusiasm for generative AI, advocating for real-world applications to manage chronic conditions and enhance diagnostic accuracy, while cautioning against potential disconnects caused by outdated FDA processes and insufficient investment in innovation.

Later in the episode, the hosts delve into the hidden psychological traps impacting chronic disease management, particularly the Dunning-Kruger effect, a cognitive bias causing individuals to overestimate their competence. Pearl explains how this bias affects healthcare providers, resulting in clinical inertia, where doctors overestimate their control over patients’ chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. This often leads to inadequate disease management and avoidable complications like heart attacks and strokes. Pearl suggests several strategies for overcoming this bias, including objective self-assessment against national benchmarks, proactive investigation of treatment gaps, and the use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT to enhance patient engagement and clinical responsiveness.

This episode of “Diving Deep” underscores the importance of transitioning from political and professional promises to tangible healthcare improvements, highlighting both the potential and pitfalls in current healthcare strategies.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Talk Is Cheap: Now Trump Must Deliver On His Healthcare Promises (Forbes)
• The Hidden Link Between Tariffs, Vaccines, Chronic Disease (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #180: Diving Deep into healthcare politics & the biases blocking chronic disease care appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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With Dr. Robert Pearl traveling abroad this week to keynote a major conference on patient data transparency, the Fixing Healthcare team is revisiting one of its most popular episodes: an Unfiltered conversation with Dr. Zubin Damania (aka ZDoggMD), originally recorded three years ago in the lead-up to Independence Day.

At the time of the recording, America was grappling with the aftermath of a deadly mass shooting at the Highland Park parade in Illinois. Cohost Jeremy Corr, near the end of the episode, asks Drs. Pearl and Damania how America — despite its ideals of freedom and democracy — continues to struggle with societal divides, mental illness and isolation. Corr drew on a quote from founding father Thomas Jefferson to set the stage: “Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction.”

In his response, and throughout the episode, Dr. Damania emphasizes that the key to overcoming these challenges lies in embracing authenticity, promoting community connection, and helping people discover and realize their purpose.

“We have a crisis of meaning. And the question we ought to be really trying to process is how do we bring back a sense of meaning?”

Damania argues passionately for authenticity in medicine, believing that openness, transparency, and emotional honesty are vital for both patient care and physician satisfaction.

As the Fourth of July approaches once again, this replay encourages listeners to reflect on how authentic relationships and a commitment to community can enhance not only medical care but societal cohesion overall. Tune in for a thought-provoking reminder of how fostering authenticity and empathy can strengthen medicine and our broader society.

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 #179: An unfiltered look back at independence, authenticity in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Medicine: The Truth, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr explore significant updates and controversies in healthcare, from battles over vaccine recommendations to skyrocketing healthcare costs and promising cancer research.

The CDC recently clashed with Robert Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, over Covid-19 vaccine recommendations. Kennedy declared no additional Covid booster shots necessary for healthy children and pregnant women, sparking immediate backlash. Pearl clarifies the complexity here, explaining Kennedy’s claims are politically charged rather than scientifically supported.

In economic news, healthcare costs for a family of four reached an alarming average of $35,000 per year, nearly triple the amount 20 years ago. With healthcare expenses rising 6% annually — far outpacing wages and inflation — Pearl highlights the growing financial strain on American families.

On a brighter note, groundbreaking research has demonstrated the powerful impact of exercise on cancer survival. A robust international study revealed structured exercise programs significantly reduced the risk of cancer recurrence and death, underscoring lifestyle medicine’s vital role in patient outcomes.

Other key topics discussed in this episode:

• Measles epidemic slowing as vaccinations increase
• New RSV vaccine dramatically reduces infant hospitalizations
• Soaring economic cost of opioid addiction and the financial benefits of treatment
• Promising results from at-home cervical cancer screening
• Implications of NIH budget cuts, including termination of crucial HIV/AIDS vaccine research
• Concerns around hospital profits amid rising healthcare expenses
• The growing threat of a “brain drain” in medical science as U.S. scientists increasingly seek positions abroad
• Final annual data confirming soaring new drug costs
• Billy Joel’s diagnosis with normal pressure hydrocephalus and what it means
• Elon Musk and controversies surrounding ketamine use

Tune in as Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr bring clarity and in-depth analysis to the headlines, scientific breakthroughs and policy decisions shaping American healthcare.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #95: Politics vs. science—Who really controls America’s vaccines? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this thought-provoking episode of Unfiltered, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr sit down with cardiologist and physician well-being advocate Dr. Jonathan Fisher to explore the intersection of stress, gender and modern medicine—beginning with the surprising physiology of a literal broken heart.

Timed with Father’s Day, the conversation opens with reflections on masculinity and caregiving before pivoting into a deep dive on stress-induced cardiomyopathy (aka: “broken heart” syndrome). Dr. Fisher explains why this life-threatening condition disproportionately affects women, and why men, when they do suffer it, are twice as likely to die.

From there, the trio tackles mounting clinician stress, rising misinformation in the exam room and the role of AI in spreading fabricated claims. Throughout the episode, they examine the emotional toll carried by women in medicine, the persistence of diagnostic gender bias and the erosion of trust in clinical expertise.

As always, the episode ends with a thoughtful patient-centered question from Jeremy, this time about how clinicians and caregivers cope with emotional trauma and whether it’s healthier to compartmentalize or seek support from loved ones.

For more candid, unfiltered conversation, listen to the full episode and explore these related resources:

‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)

‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #178: Dying of a broken heart, literally appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this special episode of Fixing Healthcare, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome Dr. Maria Ansari, CEO of The Permanente Medical Group, Northwest Permanente and Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group.

In this interview, Dr. Ansari offers a forward-looking perspective shaped by deep experience in value-based care and technological innovation. The conversation is part of Season 10’s focus on how technology—particularly generative AI—can reshape American medicine.

When asked about the three most transformative technologies of the next decade, Dr. Ansari reframes the question around three existential challenges in American healthcare: a shrinking clinical workforce, a rapidly aging population and the growing unaffordability of care. She then connects each challenge to a corresponding technological solution.

1. Easing workforce strain with ambient and generative AI.
   With an expected shortfall of 120,000 physicians by decade’s end, Dr. Ansari emphasizes the urgent need to “get doctors back to doctoring.” Kaiser Permanente has deployed ambient AI tools to more than 22,000 physicians, helping automate documentation and reduce inbox burden. Generative AI now drafts personalized responses to patient messages, allowing doctors to serve as editors rather than authors. And in oncology, AI tools already help match complex cancer cases with the most effective treatment options, accelerating the delivery of cutting-edge care.
2. Supporting aging populations with predictive analytics and remote care.
   As patients grow older and sicker, AI-driven tools like digital care navigators and remote monitoring systems are helping close the gap between provider capacity and patient needs. One standout example: Kaiser’s “Care Plus” program uses AI to predict emergency department visits and triage patients to home-based or ambulatory care, reducing avoidable hospitalizations. Dr. Ansari also highlights emerging tools like wearables and digital “twins” to support self-management of chronic conditions like heart failure and prediabetes.
3. Making care more affordable through prevention and personalization.
   Dr. Ansari argues that real cost savings in medicine come from avoiding diseases in the first place. With AI-powered early detection tools (such as those that analyze subtle breast imaging markers), The Permanente Medical Group identifies cancer risks invisible to the human eye. These technologies, paired with systems like advanced alert monitoring in hospitals, are saving thousands of lives annually by preventing complications before they arise.

Throughout the interview, Dr. Ansari is careful to position AI as “augmented intelligence,” a tool to enhance, not replace, human judgment. Whether improving medical education, empowering patients or reshaping the future of chronic disease, she calls for bold leadership and rapid adoption.

“If you want to have happy patients, you also have to have happy doctors,” she says, making a strong case for technology that supports both.

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 #177: Inside TPMG’s bold AI strategy with CEO Maria Ansari appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this month’s Diving Deep episode of the Fixing Healthcare podcast, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle two major questions:

• How have the first 100 days of Presidents Obama and Trump shaped American healthcare—and where is Trump’s second term headed?
• What happens to medicine when artificial general intelligence (AGI) arrives, making generative AI as capable as human doctors?

The conversation begins with a comparison of the first 100 days of each president’s time in office. Dr. Pearl contrasts Obama’s focus on expanding access through the ACA with Trump’s emphasis on cutting costs by reducing federal spending. With Trump is back in the White House, what can Americans expect going forward? Pearl offers a clear-eyed assessment, drawing on past behavior, current executive orders, outside-the-box health agency appointments and campaign promises to project where healthcare may be headed next.

In the second half of the show, the cohosts shift to what may seem like a more futuristic question: what will it mean when machines match or exceed doctors in clinical reasoning, diagnosis and decision-making? But as Pearl explains, the arrival of AGI isn’t decades away. It’s coming soon and will be understood as a milestone rather than a tool, one that fits into the exponential evolution of GenAI. Here, Pearl examines what systems and cultures need to change to prepare for this fast-approaching change in medicine.

Together, these stories raise urgent questions about what’s driving American healthcare: Is it politics or technological progress? Listen to the full episode to hear both conversations and decide for yourself.

HELPFUL LINKS

• What Happens To Medicine When Machines Are As Good As Doctors? (Forbes)
• Obama And Trump’s First 100 Days Of Healthcare Policy: A Comparison (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #176: What AGI means for medicine & what Trump means for healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Medicine: The Truth, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr unpack a troubling set of healthcare developments—from surging vaccine-preventable illnesses to steep hikes in drug costs and the looming threat of Medicaid cuts.

Measles cases have now topped 1,000, with Texas experiencing the worst outbreak since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. Meanwhile, other infectious diseases like pertussis and influenza are resurging. Dr. Pearl explains how falling vaccination rates could soon lead to tens of thousands of preventable deaths.

The episode also addresses the latest federal budget proposal, which calls for massive cuts to government health programs, even as the U.S. faces new public health crises. Drug prices, already soaring, are now subject to additional stress from rising tariffs, putting more lifesaving medications out of reach.

It’s not all bad news. A major new study suggests that shingles vaccination may reduce dementia risk by 20%, offering a powerful argument for broader preventive care. And despite rising costs, opioid-related deaths are dropping—thanks in part to expanded access to naloxone and other life-saving treatments.

Other key topics covered in this episode include:

• Measles outbreak in Texas becomes the largest in 25 years
• Pertussis (whooping cough) cases double, marking a return to 1950s-era prevalence
• S. drug prices up 11.4% in the past year, with 25% of prescriptions going unfilled
• The Trump administration’s proposed $18 billion cut to the NIH and 3.6% CDC funding drop
• New at-home tests approved for HPV and common STDs
• Universal shingles vaccination may reduce dementia risk by 20%
• GLP-1 weight-loss pills are on the horizon
• New data reveal CT scans may be responsible for 100,000 cancer deaths
• Pig-to-human kidney transplants hit new survival milestones
• Smoking still contributes to 20% of all cancer cases
• Universal vaccine effort raises scientific and political concerns
• Autism’s true origins: What research does—and doesn’t—say
• Marijuana during pregnancy linked to preterm birth, low weight, mortality
• Five risk factors (including obesity and smoking) cut life expectancy by over a decade

Tune in as Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr bring clarity to the headlines and offer sharp insight into the policies, science and statistics shaping American healthcare.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #94: Measles, meds & misinformation: Can we still trust American science? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Unfiltered, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr are joined once again by cardiologist and physician wellness advocate Dr. Jonathan Fisher. The trio take an unfiltered look at physician burnout, asking whether the profession itself is pushing doctors to emotionally “split in two.”

The discussion covers a wide range of pressing issues, from declining reimbursements and ineffective wellness programs to the cultural expectation that doctors must suppress grief, frustration and empathy to survive the workday.

Dr. Fisher warns that this emotional compartmentalization resembles the plot of the dystopian show Severance, and he draws on both psychological research and personal experience to explain how it can corrode doctors’ professional fulfillment and personal lives.

Dr. Pearl counters with skepticism that systemic change will happen unless clinicians lead the charge, proposing a bold, clinician-run experiment in preventive care that could reshape incentives and eliminate bureaucratic friction.

For more, listen to the full episode and check out these helpful links:

‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)

‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #175: Burnout, Broken Systems & The Severed Self appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the latest episode of Fixing Healthcare, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome Oliver Kharraz, founder and CEO of Zocdoc, for a conversation about the power of technology to eliminate one of medicine’s biggest pain points: access.

This interview, part of Season 10’s focus on transformative technology, spotlights Zocdoc’s role as a digital marketplace where patients can search for providers by specialty, insurance, availability and location. As Kharraz explains, Zocdoc aims to be the “connective tissue” of healthcare, streamlining care navigation while empowering both patients and providers.

Here are four key insights from the episode:

1. Regulatory red tape still strangles innovation: Kharraz recalls how outdated laws nearly shut down Zocdoc in its early days. Because federal regulations didn’t clearly address whether providers could be charged per appointment booked, Zocdoc was forced into a flat-fee model that stifled its growth. “It took us years to secure permission,” he says, but it proved that reform is possible when innovators persist.
2. AI will revolutionize patient access, starting with the phone. Zocdoc is rolling out Zo, an AI-powered phone assistant that autonomously handles 70% of inbound scheduling calls. Kharraz calls the phone “bad for business” because it wastes staff time, frustrates patients and leaves money on the table. Zo offers real-time, friendly and flexible support without hold times, dramatically improving the patient experience and ROI.
3. Healthcare needs a ‘Shopify,’ not a walled garden. According to Kharraz, most healthcare platforms create friction by forcing patients to juggle multiple logins and portals. Zocdoc’s model is open, decentralized and designed to integrate with EHRs, insurance systems and external platforms. It prioritizes ease and choice. “We’re not trying to be the only platform,” he says, “we’re trying to manage the complexity.”
4. The future is patient-centered, not provider-centric. Kharraz envisions a healthcare experience where patients receive proactive support — from appointment reminders to prescription refills — through augmentative AI that acts like a superhuman assistant. He’s optimistic that a more personalized, consumer-driven model is emerging. “This doesn’t come at the provider’s expense,” he says. “Both sides benefit when the right match is made.”

Kharraz has long championed patient-first thinking. This conversation not only explains how Zocdoc is improving access today, but where digital health innovation is headed next. Don’t miss it.

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 #174: Zocdoc CEO says AI will cure healthcare’s scheduling chaos appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s Fixing Healthcare podcast, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr flash back to a pivotal interview recorded in December 2021 with famed venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.

Season 10 of the show is dedicated to exploring how technology can reshape American medicine. What better way to reflect on the promises and pitfalls of healthcare innovation than by revisiting Khosla’s bold predictions—made a full year before the release of ChatGPT.

As an early investor in OpenAI and a tech visionary, Khosla discussed the transformative potential of AI, telemedicine and digital health platforms long before the current explosion of interest.

“The most expensive part of the system is expertise,” Khosla told listeners. “And expertise can relatively be tamed with technology and AI.”

In this flashback episode (#40 if you’re looking for the original airing), Khosla outlines how technology could bolster specialist access for rural communities, slash the cost of chronic disease care and eventually disrupt traditional hospital-centered healthcare systems.

Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr encourage listeners to pair this 2021 conversation with Khosla’s more recent appearance on the show (episode #153), offering an opportunity to compare past predictions with today’s emerging realities.

Helpful links:

• Vinod Khosla: How venture-backed tech is transforming U.S. healthcare (FHC #153)
• ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine (Pearl’s newest book)
• Khosla Ventures (Official Site)

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 #173: Before ChatGPT, Vinod Khosla predicted healthcare’s AI revolution appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this month’s Diving Deep episode of the Fixing Healthcare podcast, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle one of healthcare’s most misunderstood facts: nearly 91% of Americans receive some form of government healthcare assistance.

Whether your insurance comes through an employer, the online health insurance marketplace, Medicare or Medicaid, the government is footing part of the bill. But as federal debt surges and lawmakers search for places to cut spending, those subsidies—and your coverage—may be in jeopardy.

Dr. Pearl breaks down each of the five main ways the government subsidizes healthcare and explains why those programs are now in the political crosshairs. He also offers solutions to America’s spiraling healthcare costs, ones that go beyond cutting services.

Later in the episode, the focus turns to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new Secretary of Health and Human Services, and what his policies might mean for the future of American medicine.

Kennedy has promised to address chronic disease, mental health and pandemic preparedness, but his vaccine skepticism and unscientific treatment suggestions could further undermine public trust and worsen health outcomes.

Click play to hear the full conversation or check out these useful links below.

HELPFUL LINKS

• 91% Of Healthcare Is Government Subsidized. Is Yours Safe? (Forbes)
• Americans Are Dying Younger: Will RFK Jr.’s Policies Help Or Harm? (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #172: 91% of Americans get subsidized healthcare. What if it vanishes? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Medicine: The Truth, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr examine the alarming spread of measles across 25 U.S. states (with outbreaks in six). The disease, as of this episode’s publication, has already led to 700 cases and the confirmed deaths of two unvaccinated children.

Meanwhile, healthcare costs have ballooned to $5.2 trillion, federal funding cuts are hampering outbreak response (as well as important scientific research), and Medicaid expansion under the ACA is facing serious threats.

Dr. Pearl discusses the broader implications of these events along with a host of key topics covered in this episode:

• Measles cases top 700, with 60 hospitalizations and two pediatric deaths so far—making this the worst year for measles since 2019.
• RFK Jr. draws criticism for downplaying vaccine safety and promoting unproven treatments like cod liver oil and vitamin A.
• Federal healthcare spending rose 7.4% in 2024 to $5.2 trillion, with site-neutral payment reform under serious consideration.
• Massive HHS layoffs are threatening vaccine oversight, chronic disease research and global health initiatives like tuberculosis detection.
• Medicaid expansion under the ACA may be on the chopping block as Republicans look to trim $880 billion from federal spending.
• New leaders confirmed at the FDA and NIH, but Dr. Pearl questions whether they’ll have true autonomy under RFK’s restructuring plan.
• Academic research slows, with grant freezes, staff cuts and rescinded PhD offers throughout leading universities and academic medical centers.
• AI scribes reduce burnout, but cost savings remain elusive for providers and health systems.
• Tuberculosis remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease, and U.S. funding cuts may allow global cases to surge.
• GLP-1 warnings grow for women of childbearing age amid limited research and concerns about fetal risks.
• New study shows GenAI experienced ‘anxiety’ after reading traumatic stories—raising fresh questions about emotional modeling in virtual therapy tools.
• Opioid deaths fall to 82,000, down 25% in the past year, thanks to better treatment access, more naloxone and less fentanyl availability.
• Low back pain study finds invasive treatments are least ineffective with ibuprofen, NSAIDs and exercise still the best options.
• Allergy seasons are worsening, with climate change driving longer frost-free periods and increased pollen counts.

Tune in as Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr break down these pressing healthcare topics and explore what they mean for the future of American medicine.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #93: Measles death toll rises, healthcare spending hits $5.2 trillion appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this lively episode of Unfiltered, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr are joined once again by cardiologist and physician wellness advocate Dr. Jonathan Fisher. The trio takes an unexpected but fascinating journey into the symbolism, psychology and culture of physician attire—and what shifting trends reveal about the status of American medicine.

What starts as an observation about the absence of neckties at a medical conference quickly unspools a broader discussion about generational shifts, burnout, respect, identity and power within the profession. The conversation weaves together personal stories, data, sociological insights and policy-level implications, ultimately questioning whether the erosion of formality is a symptom—or potentially a cause—of deeper challenges facing clinicians today.

Key topics discussed in this episode include:

• How physician attire reflects broader cultural and generational trends
• The changing public perception of medical expertise and authority
• Why younger patients prefer informality, and what it signals about healthcare relationships
• The power dynamics behind the residency match system and physician pay
• How primary care continues to be devalued in rhetoric, reimbursement and recruitment
• Strategies to reclaim pride, purpose and influence in a system that too often sidelines physicians

As always, the episode ends with a thoughtful patient-perspective question from Jeremy, diving into the nuances of patient comfort, demographics and the enduring importance of trust.

For more raw, unfiltered commentary, listen to the full episode and check out these helpful links:

‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)

‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #171: The doctor is in … Lululemon? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In a special episode of Fixing Healthcare, Jeremy Corr flips the script and interviews fellow cohost Dr. Robert Pearl, who shares his expert view on the three most important technologies shaping the future of American medicine.

This conversation is part of Season 10’s exploration of tech-enabled healthcare transformation, featuring CEOs and leaders of healthcare leaders at major tech companies like Nvidia, Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Hippocratic AI. The season has showcased how leaders in the field are approaching the digital revolution in medicine. Now, it’s Pearl’s turn to offer his unique perspective—nearly one year after the release of his bestselling book, ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.

Pearl identifies three game-changing technologies:

1. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPTPearl calls these “the most significant breakthrough,” capable of offering patients real-time medical expertise and ushering in a new era of healthcare consumerism.

He shares several stories—including one about a CEO who used ChatGPT to identify his daughter’s rare illness in seconds—that illustrate the power of LLMs to close diagnostic gaps and empower patients with expertise in unprecedented ways.

2. Telemedicine as the perfect complement to AIPearl describes telemedicine as a “complementor,” a technology that, when paired with another (in this case, generative AI), becomes far more powerful than either could be alone. While AI can monitor patients 24/7 and identify emerging health issues, only telemedicine can instantly connect those patients to a human clinician for evaluation and care.

“The synergy of the two will be capable of overcoming the limitations and challenges of both time and distance,” Pearl explains. Together, these complementors can deliver real-time, personalized care while reducing costs and expanding access, especially in underserved and rural communities.

3. ‘Derivatives’ trained on distillation & real clinical interactionsPearl introduces a new class of AI-powered assistants designed to manage chronic diseases, perform triage and monitor patients at home. These tools, built through “knowledge distillation” and trained on actual clinician-patient exchanges, could help prevent hundreds of thousands of heart attacks, strokes and other major complications from chronic disease every year.

Pearl also addresses concerns about bias, liability and job displacement. He argues that AI won’t replace doctors but will change their roles, reduce burnout and make healthcare more affordable for everyone.

Additionally, Pearl praises the foresight of prior Season 10 guests while also pointing out that most focused on today’s tools (like documentation automation) rather than imagining the radically different world five to 10 years from now. Pearl believes generative AI will go far beyond helping doctors with administrative tasks. It will empower patients, reduce costs improve outcomes, and shift the balance of power in healthcare.

Click play to hear this wide-ranging, insightful discussion about the digital future of medicine.

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 #170: AI could save 500,000 lives, $1.5 trillion a year, says Dr. Pearl appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this month’s Diving Deep episode of the Fixing Healthcare podcast, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle the fusion of generative AI and telemedicine, demonstrating how the combination could radically improve chronic disease care in the United States and save millions of lives.

The conversation begins at the Paris AI Summit, where U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance surprised global attendees by blasting the world’s “self-conscious, risk-averse” approach to AI. Vance warned that overregulation could “paralyze” this generation-defining technology. Pearl notes a fundamental shift is now underway, with leaders beginning to view generative AI as a force for progress rather than a threat to contain.

From there, the hosts explore the rise of DeepSeek, a new open-source AI system out of China that has opened the door to game-changing medical advances: powerful medical applications that will be affordable to produce and accessible to all. Pearl explains how DeepSeek’s use of “knowledge distillation” combined with expert specialization, data compression and real patient interactions will enable health innovators to build hyper-specialized, disease-specific tools.

The most exciting prospect, Pearl says, lies in the synergy between GenAI and telemedicine. Alone, each technology has serious limitations. Together, they create a breakthrough model for 24/7, real-time care. This innovative blend of technologies would allow doctors and patients to overcome geographic, financial and clinical bottlenecks.

Pearl outlines how these tools could provide better chronic disease control, enhance access to rare specialists and prevent medical crises before they happen. He also issues a warning: none of this will happen without fundamental payment reform. As long as physicians are paid to treat complications—not prevent them—America will remain stuck in a costly and outdated model.

Click play to hear the full conversation or check out these useful links below.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Why DeepSeek Will Upend American Medicine (Forbes)
• How GenAI Plus Telemedicine Could Save Millions Of Lives (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #169: How GenAI, telemedicine can fix America’s chronic disease crisis appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome back cardiologist and burnout expert Dr. Jonathan Fisher for a candid discussion on how political decisions and healthcare policy changes are influencing doctors, patients and the broader medical system.

Drs. Pearl and Fisher examine the growing uncertainty in medicine, from potential Medicaid cuts and vaccine policy shifts to rising drug costs and global health challenges. They explore how these issues are increasing physician burnout, eroding trust in the doctor-patient relationship, and forcing clinicians to confront difficult ethical and financial dilemmas.

Key topics discussed in this episode include:

• The political forces reshaping American healthcare
• How Medicaid cuts could leave patients without care—and doctors with impossible choices
• The alarming resurgence of measles and the battle over vaccine policies
• Why physician burnout is worsening amid policy uncertainty
• The rise of medical mistrust and how doctors can rebuild patient confidence
• Leadership in times of crisis: what it takes to navigate an evolving healthcare landscape

For more raw, unfiltered commentary, listen to the full episode and check out these helpful links:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #168: How political unrest is changing American healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Medicine: The Truth, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr dive into the latest developments in American healthcare, from a severe flu outbreak to deep Medicaid cuts that could change health coverage as we know it.

This year’s influenza season is the worst in 15 years, leading to more flu hospitalizations and deaths than COVID-19 for the first time since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, a measles outbreak in Texas is raising alarms, fueled by low vaccination rates and a surprising response from the new Health and Human Services Secretary, RFK Jr. On the policy front, federal funding cuts to Medicaid and the NIH are already affecting hospitals, academic research and public health agencies.

Here’s a snapshot of just some of the major topics covered in this episode:

• Flu cases surging as hospitalizations now outpace COVID.
• A measles outbreak in Texas affecting unvaccinated children.
• Massive Medicaid cuts to the tune of $880 billion.
• NIH funding slashed with research centers feeling the squeeze.
• FDA staff cuts are slowing drug approvals.
• CDC is struggling to track new infectious disease threats amid cuts.
• Congress debating whether AI should write prescriptions.
• GLP-1 drugs may curb drinking, too.
• Kids’ test scores are still down from the pandemic.

Tune in as Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr break down these pressing healthcare topics and explore what they mean for the future of American medicine.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #92: The worst flu season in 15 years, a measles resurgence & Medicaid cuts appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the latest episode of Fixing Healthcare, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome Joe Petro, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Health & Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms.

A mechanical engineer by training, Petro offers a refreshing and sometimes surprising take on AI’s role in healthcare. Despite being at the forefront of innovation in one of the world’s largest tech companies, he describes himself as an “incredible technology skeptic.” He explains that skepticism is precisely what’s needed to ensure AI improves, rather than disrupts, the physician-patient relationship.

This conversation is part of Fixing Healthcare’s Season 10, which explores how technology—particularly AI—can reshape American medicine. Petro highlights three major shifts that will define the coming decade:

1. AI as the new co-pilot for doctorsPetro sees a future where AI functions as a real-time assistant to physicians, handling administrative burdens, generating clinical insights and optimizing workflows. He envisions AI acting like an augmented intelligence tool, offering guidance at the point of care rather than replacing human decision-making.

By reducing time spent on documentation and bureaucracy, AI lets clinicians focus more on patient interactions, improving both efficiency and quality of care. A prime example? Petro recounts how an AI-powered solution helped a hospital’s chief medical officer get home in time for dinner for the first time in 25 years.

Petro likens this transformation to the “Bridge” from Star Trek—a place where AI, data, and human expertise come together seamlessly. Just as Captain Kirk relied on real-time insights from the ship’s computer, doctors will soon have an intelligent, AI-powered assistant guiding their decision-making and simplifying their workflow.

2. The EHR is here to stay—but AI will completely change how we use itFor years, physicians have bemoaned electronic health records (EHRs), blaming them for burnout and inefficiency. Petro doesn’t believe they’re going away. Instead, AI will radically improve them.

Instead of static systems that require excessive manual input, AI-driven EHRs will automate documentation, surface relevant clinical insights and anticipate physician needs without ever typing a note. In fact, Petro describes a future where doctors never have to stare at a screen during a patient visit again. Instead, AI will listen in the background, generate documentation in real-time and provide decision support without disrupting the human connection between doctor and patient. This transformation, he argues, will reduce burnout, improve efficiency and ultimately lead to better care.

3. AI will shift healthcare from treatment to preventionA central theme of the discussion is how AI can help shift medicine’s focus from reactive treatment to proactive disease prevention. Petro describes a future where AI-powered virtual assistants track patient health data, predict complications and intervene early. All this will empower patients to manage chronic conditions more effectively.

He acknowledges regulatory and liability concerns but insists that the inevitability of AI-driven self-diagnosis will force the industry to adapt. He predicts AI-powered tools will soon deliver tailored medical insights, helping patients make informed decisions without waiting for in-person doctor visits.

Humanity, skepticism remain important Beyond these predictions, Petro doesn’t shy away from skepticism. He warns against blind faith in technology, stressing that successful implementation requires trust, rigorous testing and physician buy-in.

His passion for these topics are deeply personal. Petro shares a moving story about his mother, who struggled with health issues later in life. He emphasizes how empathetic, attentive care made all the difference for her—and how AI should be used to enable more of these meaningful interactions, not replace them.

Ultimately, Petro’s vision is both optimistic and cautionary. He sees AI as a tool to enhance, not replace, human decision-making in medicine. With healthcare systems struggling under the weight of administrative burdens, staffing shortages and rising costs, he believes AI represents an opportunity to ease these pressures while improving patient outcomes.

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 #167: How Microsoft’s AI solutions got a doctor home in time for dinner appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this month’s Diving Deep episode, part of the Fixing Healthcare podcast series, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr examine three pressing topics shaping the future of American medicine: the Musk-led effort to slash government spending (including healthcare programs), the neuroscience behind irrational decision-making and the defining moment facing UnitedHealth Group in the wake of its CEO’s tragic death.

We begin the episode with Donald Trump’s second term and the launch of DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency), led by Elon Musk. The duo share a vision of cutting billions, perhaps trillions, of dollars in “fraud and waste” from the federal budget. But with Social Security, Medicare, and defense deemed untouchable, Pearl explains why the focus will inevitably turn to Medicaid and online health insurance exchanges—programs that provide healthcare access to low-income Americans. He then breaks down the consequences, which include millions of Americans losing health coverage and, therefore, access to vital medical services.

Shifting gears, the hosts explore a fascinating cognitive phenomenon called “brainshift,” a subconscious process in which perception becomes altered when people are faced with situations that involve significant fear or reward. Drawing on research he conducted with neurologist Dr. George York, Pearl explains how brainshift can make irrational choices feel rational. To illustrate this phenomenon in medicine, Pearl points to various examples of brainshift and, ultimately, touches on ways to overcome its negative effects.

Finally, the episode revisits the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the pivotal decisions now facing the company’s leadership. Pearl and Corr analyze UnitedHealth Group’s long-standing strategy of cost-cutting and claim denials, a model that has made it the largest insurer in the U.S. but also a target of public and congressional scrutiny. CEO Andrew Witty now has a chance to shift the company’s approach from restricting care to preventing illness. Pearl outlines three bold moves UnitedHealth could take.

Click play to hear the full conversation and explore what it will take to transform healthcare for the better.

HELPFUL LINKS

• UnitedHealth Faces A Defining Moment After CEO’s Killing (Forbes)
• The TikTok Reversal And The Science Of Illogical Medical Decisions (Forbes)
• Musk’s DOGE Could Threaten The Health Of Millions Of Americans (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #166: Musk’s DOGE vs. healthcare + UnitedHealth’s defining moment appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome back cardiologist and burnout expert Dr. Jonathan Fisher to explore a surprising and growing trend: the rise of physician side gigs.

The discussion opens with eye-opening statistics: 40% of doctors now have a side gig, bringing in an average of $34,000 annually. This shift marks a stark departure from the past, when physicians expected to practice medicine full-time for decades.

Drs. Pearl and Fisher debate the driving forces behind this change, from rising burnout and financial pressures to shifting generational attitudes about work and career fulfillment.

The conversation also tackles broader questions about the evolving role of doctors in modern medicine. As AI reshapes healthcare and physicians increasingly work for large institutions rather than private practices, has medicine become less stimulating? Are doctors seeking side gigs as an outlet for creativity, financial stability or a deeper sense of purpose? And how can healthcare organizations adapt to retain and empower their workforce?

Key topics discussed in this episode include:
• The staggering rise in physician side gigs and what’s driving the trend
• How burnout, job dissatisfaction and financial pressures factor in
• The shift from independent practice to hospital employment
• Medicine’s declining intellectual stimulation and the search for creative outlets
• The role of AI in reshaping doctors’ work and financial futures
• What healthcare leaders must do to engage and retain top medical talent

For more raw, unfiltered commentary, listen to the full episode and check out these helpful links:

‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)

‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #165: Why doctors are doing side gigs appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Medicine: The Truth, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss some of the most pressing issues in medicine today, from the latest breakthroughs in generative AI to concerning trends in breast cancer and dementia.

A major shake-up in artificial intelligence is unfolding, with China’s DeepSeek releasing an open-source AI model that rivals industry leaders like ChatGPT and Gemini—at a fraction of the cost. Dr. Pearl explains how this could democratize AI in medicine, enabling more companies to develop specialized AI tools for chronic disease management, patient diagnosis and treatment recommendations. He predicts that within three to five years, AI-powered healthcare tools will be widely available, cutting costs while improving outcomes.

Meanwhile, UnitedHealth Group’s latest earnings call sheds light on how the insurance giant plans to navigate growing public anger over healthcare costs. The company, which generated $400 billion in revenue and employs 90,000 doctors, is blaming high prices on hospitals and drugmakers. Dr. Pearl questions whether United will continue its current approach—restricting care through denials and prior authorizations—or if it will finally take the lead in reducing costs by investing in chronic disease prevention and patient health.

Here’s a snapshot of just some of the other topics covered in this episode of Medicine: The Truth:

• The latest on winter viruses, vaccine safety and the MMR controversy
• The FDA’s plan to require clearer nutrition labels on food packaging
• A concerning rise in aggressive breast cancer cases among younger women
• Why dementia rates are expected to double over the next three decades
• The FDA’s approval of a groundbreaking non-opioid pain medication
• The Biden administration’s plan to negotiate drug prices, including Ozempic and Wegovy
• The U.S. decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization and its potential consequences

Tune in as Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr untangle these complex issues and explore what’s next for medicine in America.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #91: The future of AI in healthcare & the latest on vaccines, dementia, cancer appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the latest episode of Fixing Healthcare, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome Munjal Shah, co-founder and CEO of Hippocratic AI, to explore how generative AI can help address one of the biggest challenges in healthcare today: the growing shortage of clinical workers.

Shah, a serial entrepreneur with a background in artificial intelligence, founded Hippocratic AI with an aim to build safe, scalable AI-powered healthcare agents that can assist with non-diagnostic patient care. In this interview, he shares his company’s progress in developing virtual solutions, lowering healthcare costs and expanding access to care.

This discussion is part of Fixing Healthcare’s Season 10, which examines how technology is reshaping medicine. Shah highlights three key insights on how AI can support healthcare professionals and improve patient outcomes:

1. AI-powered virtual AgentsShah describes how Hippocratic AI is developing virtual agents that call patients, provide education and support chronic disease management—all at a fraction of the cost of human outreach. Unlike AI models designed for diagnostics or clinical documentation, Hippocratic focuses exclusively on non-prescriptive, patient-facing tasks within the scope of registered agents.

With AI-driven follow-ups, healthcare providers can now check in on all at-risk patients, not just the sickest 5-10%. Shah gives a powerful example of how missed blood pressure monitoring contributed to his mother’s heart failure—an outcome that AI-assisted outreach could have prevented.

2. Reducing healthcare costs while scaling patient supportOne of the biggest challenges in healthcare today is the inability to scale preventive care and chronic disease management due to limited staffing. Shah reveals that Hippocratic’s AI-powered agents operate at a cost of just $9 per hour, which he says is a game-changer for health systems struggling with resource shortages.

He envisions AI agents making millions of proactive calls, reminding patients to take their medications, checking for early signs of complications and preventing avoidable ER visits. The technology could also be used in disaster response—calling patients at risk during heat waves, hurricanes or blackouts to coordinate medical assistance.

3. Safety, supervision & real-world testing with AIDespite AI’s promise, Shah acknowledges that safety and accuracy remain top priorities. He explains how Hippocratic rigorously tests its models, using real nurses to evaluate and refine AI performance before deployment.

Unlike other AI tools that may hallucinate or provide misleading information, Hippocratic’s system is designed with 19 supervisory AI models to catch potential errors in real time. Shah argues that AI should complement, not replace, human clinicians—freeing them from administrative burdens so they can focus on hands-on patient care.

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 #164: AI vs. healthcare’s staffing crisis with Hippocratic’s CEO appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this month’s Diving Deep episode, part of the Fixing Healthcare podcast series, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle two powerful stories that stand at medicine’s crossroads.

Dr. Pearl begins by exploring the rise of Nvidia and the decline of Intel as a framework for understanding healthcare’s current challenges. Nvidia’s success in embracing cutting-edge GPU technology and pivoting toward future demands stands in stark contrast to Intel’s hesitation to adapt. The biggest lesson for healthcare professionals is clear: clinging to outdated models will lead to stagnation and failure. Pearl urges his colleagues in the industry to make an important series of shifts: to value-based care and chronic disease prevention that will transform the system, improve patient outcomes and empower clinicians.

The episode then shifts to the controversial public response to the killing of Brian Thompson. Pearl and Corr discuss why tens of thousands of Americans reacted to the news with “likes” and laughter on social media. Pearl explains how this visceral response reflects the agony of patients and families who feel abandoned and powerless in a system that prioritizes bureaucracy over compassion. He argues that healthcare’s failures should be reframed as a moral crisis—one that demands immediate and transformative action from leaders and policymakers.

Click play to hear the full conversation and explore what it will take to transform healthcare for the better.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Do We Care Enough To End The Suffering Our Healthcare System Inflicts? (Forbes)
• Healthcare Professionals Are Doomed—Unless They Learn From Nvidia, Intel (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #163: Lessons from the tech industry & a CEO’s tragic murder appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr are joined by cardiologist and burnout expert Dr. Jonathan Fisher for an up-close look at two pressing challenges in healthcare: the persistent issue of medical errors and the growing erosion of public trust in the U.S. healthcare system.

Dr. Pearl kicks off the discussion by highlighting a staggering statistic—400,000 people die annually from diagnostic errors in the U.S., with another 400,000 suffering permanent disability. Despite these figures, the conversation around AI in healthcare tends to focus on its limitations rather than its potential to reduce human error. Drs. Fisher and Pearl explore why physicians struggle to acknowledge medical mistakes and how shifting the culture to one of psychological safety and continuous learning could help.

The conversation later pivots to the recent assassination of a prominent healthcare CEO and the surprising public response on social media. Fisher and Pearl dissect the public’s growing disillusionment with the healthcare system, emphasizing the deep emotional pain that many Americans experience when they feel powerless to access or afford the care they need.

Key topics discussed in this episode include:

• Medical errors and AI’s potential role in reducing misdiagnoses
• The hidden fears and pressures physicians face in acknowledging mistakes
• Rebuilding trust in healthcare leadership amid rising public frustration
• The emotional toll of poor healthcare access and affordability
• Balancing new technology with traditional patient care
• Setting meaningful goals for healthcare organizations in the new year

For more raw, insightful commentary, listen to the full episode and check out these helpful links:

‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)

‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #162: Overcoming medical errors and rebuilding public trust appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Medicine: The Truth, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr take on the pressing medical challenges dominating headlines this winter.

From rising concerns about respiratory infections and vaccine skepticism to the harsh realities of healthcare costs, this episode delivers a comprehensive look at what’s happening in American medicine today.

The conversation opens with an update on winter viruses, including COVID-19, the flu, RSV and a resurgence of whooping cough. Dr. Pearl explains the risks posed by low vaccination rates and the new COVID variant, XEC, which combines troubling mutations from prior strains. Meanwhile, pertussis (whooping cough) infections have soared to six times higher than last year, endangering unvaccinated children and vulnerable infants.

The discussion also examines the role of vaccine skepticism in the political sphere, focusing on President-elect Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to a key health position. Dr. Pearl shares insights on the consequences of anti-vaccine rhetoric and what it could mean for public health policy.

Here’s a snapshot of just some of the other topics covered in this episode of Medicine: The Truth:

• The rise of bird flu and its potential to spark a pandemic
• Falling public confidence in healthcare quality and coverage
• The troubling response to the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s tragic death
• New regulations eliminating medical debt from credit scores
• Declining alcohol and marijuana use among teenagers
• Encouraging trends in obesity rates thanks to GLP-1 medications

Tune in as Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr untangle these complex issues and explore what’s next for medicine in America.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine” about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #90: Winter viruses, vaccine skepticism & America’s healthcare frustrations appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the latest episode of Fixing Healthcare, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome Dr. Karen DeSalvo, an internal medicine physician and the Chief Health Officer at Google, to explore the transformative impact of technology on healthcare.

Drawing from her vast experience—including roles as Health Commissioner in New Orleans and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology under the Obama administration—DeSalvo provides a compelling vision for how AI, multimodal data collection and cloud systems will shape the future of medicine.

This interview is part of Season 10, which focuses on how technology will redefine healthcare in the coming years. When asked by Dr. Pearl about the three technologies she believes will have the greatest impact on healthcare, DeSalvo highlighted the following:

1. Generative AI (Gen AI)DeSalvo delves into the revolutionary potential of generative AI in healthcare. She envisions a future where AI agents not only automate tasks but help healthcare providers achieve their “best selves.”

These agents will enhance clinical workflows, facilitate patient engagement and support personalized medicine. Beyond the clinical setting, DeSalvo foresees AI acting as a patient’s personal advocate, navigating health journeys, offering preventive insights and even revisiting doctor-patient visits to clarify instructions or analyze diagnostics. While acknowledging the current limitations of AI’s reliability, she predicts that as these models grow exponentially in power, their integration into healthcare teams will revolutionize care delivery.

2. Multimodal data collectionThe discussion shifts to the integration of multimodal data from various sources, such as sensors, smartphones and environmental monitors. DeSalvo explains how these technologies can create a comprehensive health narrative for individuals, aiding in the early detection of chronic diseases and other health issues.

She paints a futuristic picture where these tools seamlessly integrate into daily life, acting like a constant companion—“like having your primary care doctor or even your mom with you at all times”—nudging healthier behaviors and contextualizing health data in real time.

For underserved populations, such tools could expand access to culturally and linguistically appropriate care, bridging critical gaps in health equity.

3. Cloud technology and data systemsDeSalvo underscores the importance of cloud-based solutions in unlocking the potential of health data. She highlights the barriers posed by siloed, on-premise systems and paper records, which hinder care continuity, scientific research and patient experience.

Cloud environments, she argues, offer enhanced cybersecurity, interoperability and opportunities for rapid AI advancements. By making data accessible while maintaining privacy and security, cloud technology could drive equitable health outcomes globally and foster collaboration across healthcare organizations.

Throughout the episode, DeSalvo’s insights are grounded in her practical experiences in public health and technology. She shares examples of Google’s initiatives, such as using Android platforms to support community health workers in rural areas and leveraging AI tools like AlphaFold for groundbreaking protein-folding research. She emphasizes the importance of creating solutions tailored to real-world challenges, particularly in low-resource settings.

Dr. Pearl concludes the interview by reflecting on DeSalvo’s optimism for technology’s role in transforming healthcare. He predicts that the integration of AI, multimodal data and cloud systems will empower patients, improve health equity, and alleviate the burdens on clinicians, ultimately leading to better outcomes and a more effective healthcare system.

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 #161: AI will help docs be their best selves, says Google’s Karen DeSalvo appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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As we prepare to usher in 2025—with a new presidential administration and shifting congressional landscape—it’s the perfect time to revisit the politics of medicine, both in the workplace and on the national stage.

This Fixing Healthcare flashback features a December 2022 episode of Unfiltered, where cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr dive into this thorny topic with Zubin Damania, better known as ZDoggMD.

For Pearl, the relationship between medicine and politics wasn’t always so clear cut. He recalls his college decision to pursue healthcare, imagining it as a field free from the messiness of politics.

“Healthcare is about life and death,” Pearl reflects, laughing at his teenage naivety. “How could there be politics entwined inside that esteemed world?”

Of course, the reality proved far different, with politics and medicine deeply intertwined at every level—from hospital boardrooms to Capitol Hill.

In this lively discussion, ZDoggMD brings his characteristic humor and insight to the table as the trio explores how politics—whether institutional, cultural or governmental—shapes American healthcare. Together, they ponder whether logic and common sense have any chance of prevailing in a system so heavily influenced by competing interests.

To navigate the political landscape of medicine, press play and listen to this insightful episode.

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 #160: Fixing Healthcare flashback with Zubin Damania appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This holiday season, Fixing Healthcare hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr invite listeners to reflect on the most valuable gift you can give yourself: a healthier, happier heart.

In the spirit of well-being and renewal, we’re revisiting one of the first-ever “Unfiltered” episodes featuring Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and advocate for physician wellness. This flashback episode highlights timeless lessons from his acclaimed book, Just One Heart: A Cardiologist’s Guide to Healing, Health, and Happiness.

Originally aired in mid-2023, the interview dives into the “Seven Timeless Traits of the Heart”: steadiness, wisdom, openness, wholeness, courage, lightness, and warmth. Each trait offers actionable strategies and exercises to cultivate greater health, joy, and meaning in life.

“As you strengthen the seven traits of your heart,” Fisher says, “you will find more health, joy, meaning, and connection in your own life and have the tools to help others do the same.”

This episode serves as a perfect reminder that, during the holidays, taking care of your heart—both physically and emotionally—is a gift that keeps on giving. To discover more, press play and check out these helpful links:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s new book)
• A Cardiologist on Leading From the Heart (‘Human Leaders’ on LinkedIn)
• Meet ‘the mindful heart doctor’ (NHF)
• Brain, Heart, Spine: The Anatomy of Healthcare Leadership (Forbes)

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 #159: Fixing Healthcare flashback with Jonathan Fisher appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this month’s Diving Deep episode, part of the Fixing Healthcare podcast series, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle three critical topics shaping the future of medicine: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the escalating healthcare cost crisis and the potential of primary care to mitigate it, and the challenge of distinguishing hype from reality in the world of generative AI.

The episode begins as Dr. Pearl acknowledges the controversy surrounding Kennedy’s anti-establishment views, particularly on vaccines, but also highlights an upside: his focus on food reform. Pearl says that Kennedy’s willingness to challenge the food industry could create meaningful change, and he points to successful soda taxes and lead removal as examples of how bold action can improve public health.Next topic on today’s show: Pearl outlines his Enhanced Primary Care model to combat obesity and chronic disease:

1. Align incentives. Pay doctors for better patient outcomes, not just office visits.
2. Empower patients. Use generative AI and real-time monitoring tools to help patients manage their health between visits.

Finally, Dr. Pearl closes with a reality check on AI. While AI can’t override biology, it holds immense promise in empowering patients, improving outcomes, and reducing clinician burnout.

Click play to hear these insights and more, and explore how healthcare leaders can improve care for patients at all stages of life.

HELPFUL LINKS

• How RFK Jr. Could Reverse Our Nation’s Illogical Approach To Obesity (Forbes)
• Healthcare’s Cost Crisis: How Primary Care Can Deliver The Savings We Need (Forbes)
• 3 Simple Questions To Separate AI Reality From Hype In Medicine (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #158: RFK Jr., obesity, the healthcare cost crisis and AI appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this latest episode of Fixing Healthcare, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare at NVIDIA, to explore how the company’s technologies are reshaping healthcare.

Powell provides a fascinating lens through which to view healthcare’s future, especially as AI begins to play a more prominent role in patient care, diagnostics and clinical decision-making. The interview, part of Season 10’s deep dive into transformative healthcare technologies, kicks off with a question from Pearl: “What are the three technologies that will have the greatest impact on healthcare over the next five to 10 years?”

Here’s what Powell had to say:

1. Accelerated computingPowell explains how NVIDIA’s GPUs (graphics processing units) have revolutionized data processing, enabling breakthroughs in medical imaging, molecular simulations and AI-driven diagnostics. She highlights how GPUs’ parallel processing power surpasses traditional CPUs, unlocking new possibilities in real-time medical applications.

2. Generative AIThe conversation turns to the explosive growth of generative AI, powered by NVIDIA’s latest technologies. Powell details GenAI’s capacity to handle massive datasets, train neural networks and power applications like ChatGPT and digital health agents. These tools, she notes, will transform everything from clinical documentation to patient monitoring, and in turn will help to reduce clinician burnout, improve patient engagement and drive personalized treatments.

3. Robotics and physical AIPowell introduces the concept of “physical AI,” where robots equipped with advanced AI capabilities will redefine patient care. Powell highlights how this technology could automate surgical procedures, creating smarter hospital systems and deploying robots that enhance patient care and safety. She paints a picture of a future where AI technology not only optimizes operations but also enhances safety and outcomes.The company hopes to leverage its technologies—from real-time patient monitoring systems and digital avatars for mental health to clinical trial optimization tools—to solve healthcare’s thorniest problems.

A recurring theme in the episode is Powell’s emphasis on the “ecosystem of innovation” NVIDIA has built, fostering partnerships with startups and healthcare institutions worldwide. The company is planning to leverage its technologies—from real-time patient monitoring systems and digital avatars for mental health to clinical trial optimization tools—to solve healthcare’s thorniest problems.

Pearl and Powell also reflect on the implications of generative AI in healthcare, as explored in Pearl’s recent Forbes article, “Nvidia’s AI Bot Outperforms Nurses, Study Finds. Here’s What It Means” and his 2024 book “ChatGPT, MD.” Powell speaks to how NVIDIA’s innovations will complement, rather than replace, human expertise.

Pearl concludes the interview by predicting that generative AI will save hundreds of thousands of lives annually, make healthcare more affordable and alleviate the burnout crisis plaguing clinicians. He sees the triad of a dedicated clinician, an empowered patient and generative AI as the key to unlocking medicine’s full potential, delivering outcomes that far exceed what any one component could achieve alone.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about how technology is reshaping medicine.

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 #157: NVIDIA expects AI, robots to cure healthcare’s biggest problems appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this week’s Fixing Healthcare podcast, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr revisit one of the show’s most memorable interviews: Malcolm Gladwell’s first appearance in 2022.

Known for his sharp insights and masterful storytelling, Gladwell joined the podcast during a season focused on “breaking the rules of healthcare,” offering his perspective on what it takes to drive transformative change in medicine.

Note: Listeners are encouraged to check out Gladwell’s fabulous new book, Revenge of the Tipping Point, a re-evaluation of his groundbreaking work on social epidemics, now reframed for the modern world. It’s an excellent holiday gift for friends and family, alongside Dr. Pearl’s ChatGPT, MD, which Gladwell personally endorsed as a must-read for anyone curious about AI’s role in the future of healthcare.

This flashback episode highlights Gladwell’s exploration of rule breakers in healthcare, emphasizing the delicate balance between innovation and recklessness. Gladwell examines the personalities and motivations of iconoclasts, using vivid examples like Dr. Emil Freireich, the father of combination chemotherapy, and Elizabeth Holmes, the fallen biotech entrepreneur.

Dr. Pearl introduces this flashback by reaffirming the timeliness of Gladwell’s insights, noting that the qualities needed to break medicine’s entrenched rules are as relevant today as they were when the episode first aired. Gladwell’s stories and analysis offer inspiration and a framework for identifying the kinds of leaders who can disrupt American medicine for the better.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell (available now)
• Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History (podcast link)
• ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine (available now)

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 #156: Fixing Healthcare flashback with Malcolm Gladwell appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of the Fixing Healthcare podcast, co-host Dr. Robert Pearl marks the two-year anniversary of ChatGPT’s public launch with an exclusive reading from his 2024 book, “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.”

With the holiday season approaching, listeners are encouraged to consider ChatGPT, MD as a gift for friends and family. All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

The book was featured recently in a list of 25 nonfiction works recommended by bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote: “I was skeptical about the value artificial intelligence will bring to medicine, until I read ChatGPT, MD. Now I’m a believer. There is no one who writes more clearly and persuasively about the challenges and opportunities of modern medicine than Robert Pearl.”

In this episode of Fixing Healthcare, Pearl reads from two pivotal chapters. Chapter 11, “The Road to AI-Empowered Healthcare,” outlines a compelling vision for Healthcare 4.0—an era where the introduction of generative AI tools like ChatGPT empower patients and doctors to enhance efficiency, reduce burnout and restore patient-centered care. In Chapter 11.5, “ChatGPT’s Critical Analysis of Chapter Eleven,” Pearl’s AI co-author critiques his predictions, emphasizing the technological, economic and societal challenges that must be overcome to realize this future.

Pearl’s reading reveals the book’s central argument: generative AI offers a path to better healthcare, but success hinges on systemic reform, human-AI collaboration and leaders who are willing to confront medicine’s entrenched inefficiencies. As Pearl notes, the AI revolution in healthcare is not a foregone conclusion. If Americans fail to act decisively, the promise of Healthcare 4.0 will collapse under the weight of its own unrealized potential, leaving both doctors and patients at the mercy of corporate interests.

HELPFUL LINKS

• ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine (available now)
• A list of Malcolm Gladwell’s 25 book recommendations (link)
• Robert Pearl’s Monthly Musings on American Healthcare newsletter (link)

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 #155: The road to AI-empowered healthcare (from ‘ChatGPT, MD’) appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Medicine: The Truth, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle a wide array of medical issues, from the potential healthcare impact of a second Trump presidency to the latest trends in obesity treatments and respiratory infections.

With a historical election in the rearview mirror, the hosts dive into what a second Trump term could mean for Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and rural health. Among the key predictions: stricter work requirements for Medicaid, potential elimination of ACA subsidies and a likely push toward healthcare block grants for states.

The conversation also spotlights GLP-1 drugs, hailed as breakthroughs in weight-loss treatment. Dr. Pearl explains the pros and cons of these medications compared to bariatric surgery and the shifting dynamics they’ve introduced into obesity care.

Here’s a snapshot of just some of the topics covered on this episode of Medicine: The Truth:

• The implications of Trump’s second term
• GLP-1 drugs vs. bariatric surgery
• Rising prevalence of walking pneumonia
• Ethics of Alzheimer’s drug trials
• Why sitting too long can harm you—and why standing might not be the solution
• An unexpected outcome with advancements in IVF
• Artificial intelligence in diagnosis

Join Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr as they unpack these complex healthcare issues and shed light on the path ahead for American medicine.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine“ about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #89: Trump’s second term, weight-loss drugs & the rise of ‘walking pneumonia’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, cardiologist and well-being advocate Dr. Jonathan Fisher joins healthcare leader Dr. Robert Pearl and host Jeremy Corr to explore how healthcare professionals handle stress and what can be learned from other high-stakes fields like athletics.

The trio delves into various aspects of pressure in medical practice, comparing it to the intensity athletes experience in major sporting events. Drawing on their own medical experiences, they discuss how clinicians can find the right balance to achieve peak performance while maintaining their mental and physical health.

The show’s primary topics include:

• Understanding pressure in healthcare. Dr. Fisher explains the concept of “good” vs. “bad” pressure, citing research that shows the impact of too much stress on cognitive function and patient care. He draws parallels to the “Yerkes-Dodson” curve, which suggests an optimal level of stress for peak performance.
• Impact of external pressures. Drs. Pearl and Fisher talk about the variety of pressures doctors face today, from financial and administrative burdens to life-and-death decisions that impact patient care. They consider how these pressures affect different medical specialties and the importance of balancing professional demands with personal well-being.
• Lessons from athletics. Dr. Fisher reflects on how athletes manage social and performance pressures, comparing it to the scrutiny doctors face in healthcare settings. He emphasizes that, like athletes, healthcare professionals need to understand and manage both internal and external expectations to prevent burnout and sustain their careers.
• Leadership and support in high-stakes environments. Dr. Pearl shares insights from his experience leading Kaiser Permanente, highlighting the role of supportive leadership in helping clinicians manage pressure effectively. The discussion also addresses the importance of team dynamics and creating a culture where medical professionals feel empowered and defended in their roles.

To hear more about how to manage pressure in the workplace, listen to the full episode and check out these helpful links:

• ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s newest book)
• ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s newest book)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #154: Handling pressure in medicine with tips for doctors, leaders appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the latest episode of Fixing Healthcare, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome back Vinod Khosla, legendary investor and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, to discuss the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on healthcare. As the head of Khosla Ventures and an early investor in OpenAI, Khosla brings a unique perspective to the potential and challenges AI presents in medicine.

This interview is part of the show’s tenth season, which focuses on the future of technology in healthcare—the central focus of Dr. Pearl’s newest book ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine, with all profits going to Doctors Without Borders.

Khosla, known for his bold, often disruptive views on tech, shares a vision for AI-driven solutions that have the potential to reshape medical practice. Here are three key insights from the episode:

1. AI as an amplifier of physician capabilities

Khosla envisions a future where every physician could work with multiple “AI interns” to handle routine tasks, analyze data and assist in diagnostics. He argues that AI has the potential to vastly expand physician capacity, allowing doctors to provide more preventive and personalized care.

2. Continuous, AI-driven patient monitoringWith AI-enabled systems, Khosla sees healthcare shifting from reactive, episodic care to proactive, continuous monitoring. He believes wearable devices and AI models will enable real-time patient data analysis, catching health issues early and reducing the need for costly interventions.

3. The power of startups in driving healthcare innovationKhosla emphasizes that true innovation often comes from entrepreneurial startups rather than established companies. He advocates for partnerships between startups and large healthcare organizations to scale transformative technologies, noting that small, agile teams can push boundaries more effectively.

Tune in to hear Khosla’s bold predictions for the future of medicine, along with his advice for physicians, healthcare leader, and entrepreneurs seeking to navigate the chaos of American healthcare.

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 #153: Vinod Khosla on AI, disruption & the future of medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the latest episode of Diving Deep, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr explore three timely healthcare topics that are shaping the future of medicine. This episode focuses on denial in public health, the rise of patient consumerism and a potential fix for U.S. healthcare’s cost crisis.

The episode begins with an in-depth discussion about how denial functions as an unconscious defense mechanism that prevents patients, clinicians and health officials from acknowledging and reacting to health threats. Dr. Pearl highlights how denial not only hampered the response to COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS, but also to emerging health crises like mpox, along with chronic illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes.

Next, the conversation shifts to the growing trend of patient empowerment through consumerism. The hosts examine how advances in generative AI and at-home diagnostics are transforming the doctor-patient dynamic. Pearl notes that patients increasingly prefer convenience over traditional in-person visits, and with AI becoming more accurate and empathetic, the doctor’s role is evolving.

Finally, the hosts tackle the financial challenges plaguing the U.S. healthcare system. Pearl explains how capitation—a payment model that rewards doctors for keeping patients healthy—would flip the traditional fee-for-service model on its head. He draws on game theory principles to illustrate how trust and cooperation between payers and providers could lead to better patient outcomes and lower costs. A win-win for both sides.

Join the conversation as Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr dive deep into the most critical issues in American healthcare today.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Denial: The Hidden Link Connecting Mpox, COVID-19, HIV/AIDS
• The Consumer Revolution In Medicine Is (Finally) Here. What Comes Next?
• A Strange Way To Fix American Medicine: Game Theory

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

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

The post FHC #152: Tackling healthcare denial, consumerism & the cost crisis appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the latest episode of Medicine: The Truth, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr return with timely insights on some of the most pressing issues in healthcare today.

From the chilling implications of abortion restrictions on women’s health to the opaque and controversial role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in driving up drug prices, the episode covers a lot of ground.

The conversation kicks off with an update on COVID-19 and the flu season, emphasizing that while hospitalizations remain stable, low vaccination rates may raise concerns in the months ahead. Dr. Pearl also delves into the new abortion laws sweeping the nation, shedding light on tragic cases where legal fears prevent doctors from acting swiftly, endangering women’s lives.

The hosts then dive into the murky world of PBMs, where just three companies control nearly 80% of drug sales in the United States. Pearl explains how PBMs manipulate prices to favor expensive drugs while profiting off hidden rebates, all at the expense of patients and insurers. As legal battles between PBMs and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) unfold, the episode highlights the growing outrage over pharmaceutical price gouging.

Here’s a snapshot of just some topics covered in this episode of Medicine: The Truth:

• COVID-19 and flu season updates
• The dangers posed to women’s health by restrictive abortion laws
• A deep dive into the role of PBMs in the U.S. healthcare system
• Why healthcare costs are projected to rise by 8% next year
• The troubling future of drug pricing in America
• Why more parents aren’t vaccinating their kids
• A surge in at-home diagnostic testing
• The Nobel Prize in chemistry goes to …
• Why 98.6 isn’t the average body temperature
• Superbugs are coming

Join Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr as they unravel these complex healthcare challenges and offer insight into the future of medical care in America.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine“ about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #88: Abortion restrictions, PBMs and the rising cost of care appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Six years ago, Fixing Healthcare launched as a “podcast with a plan to fix American healthcare.” After more than 150 episodes—spanning three election cycles—the show has explored countless ideas for reform. Still, American healthcare remains plagued by high costs, uneven quality and limited access.

One of our earliest guests left us with some of the most provocative solutions to these problems: Dr. Don Berwick, a name synonymous with medicine’s “Triple Aim.” With the November elections less than a month away, we thought listeners would find value in revisting Berwick’s groundbreaking vision for healthcare reform.

As Berwick explained, “We need a system of three goals: better care for people when they’re in the care system, better health for populations, and lower per capita cost through improvement, not through rationing or withholding.”

Supporting the Triple Aim, Berwick called for healthcare to be recognized as a human right and advocated for a shift toward global, population-based budgets—moving away from the inflationary fee-for-service model that dominates today.

Cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr were intrigued by the clarity and cohesiveness of Berwick’s plan.

“We have a highly fragmented system in which people are trying to solve problems separately,” Berwick said. “That is just not going to work … we’re going to have to fix healthcare together.”

Berwick is clinical professor of pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School and professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is the former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), the co-founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and leader of the organization’s 100,000 Lives Campaign.

Helpful links:

Season 1 explainer: ‘Welcome to the toughest interview in healthcare’

Episode 5 recap: ‘Don Berwick brings a global perspective to fixing US healthcare’

The full transcript of this episode with Don Berwick

Don Berwick: Profiles in leadership

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

The post FHC #151: Six years later, Don Berwick’s vision for healthcare remains unfulfilled appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, cardiologist and physician well-being advocate Dr. Jonathan Fisher joins healthcare leader Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr, CEO of Executive Podcast Solutions, for a candid discussion about the evolving role of physicians in modern medicine.

The trio explores how systemic challenges—such as burnout, the loss of physician autonomy and the growing influence of private equity—are reshaping the trajectory of medical careers.

Today’s topics include:

• The burnout epidemic. Dr. Fisher reflects on how increasing administrative burdens, declining autonomy and career dissatisfaction have led many physicians to leave the field or seek non-clinical roles. He emphasizes the need for healthcare organizations to support doctors across different career stages, from early-career residents to seasoned clinicians.
• Restoring meaning and fulfillment. Drs. Pearl and Fisher discuss the importance of restoring meaning to physicians’ work by offering leadership opportunities and emphasizing the creative, humanistic aspects of medicine. They argue that physicians need more than just financial incentives. They also need a sense of purpose and the ability to make meaningful changes in patient care.
• The role of leadership in medicine. Drawing from his experience as CEO at Kaiser Permanente for 18 years, Dr. Pearl highlights how leadership training can empower doctors to take control of their practice environments, improve health outcomes and reduce medical errors.
• Balancing career and personal life. Both Fisher and Pearl emphasize the difficulty of balancing the demands of a medical career with personal fulfillment. They call for a broader cultural shift in healthcare, one that allows doctors to find meaning not just in their work, but in their lives outside the clinic as well.

To hear more about how these experts believe we can bring meaning back to medicine, listen to the full episode and check out these helpful links:

New book: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher)

New book: ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

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 #150: Restoring meaning in medicine—burnout and the physician career arc appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the second episode of Fixing Healthcare’s 10th season, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome back Dr. David Feinberg, chairman of Oracle Health, for a discussion centered on the future of technology in medicine.

Given the season’s focus on transformative technologies in medicine, Dr. Feinberg brings a wealth of experience as the former CEO of Cerner, VP of Google Health, and CEO of Geisinger Health.

As Dr. Pearl has highlighted throughout the season, technology—including artificial intelligence—is becoming a pivotal force in healthcare. His own book on the subject, ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine, explores this theme in great detail, and it debuted on the list of Amazon’s Top New Releases. All profits from Pearl’s book benefit Doctors Without Borders.

During the interview, Dr. Feinberg shares his thoughts on the three most important technological developments in healthcare over the next five to 10 years:

1. Technology stepping aside: Dr. Feinberg says one of the most critical advances in healthcare will involve technology getting “out of the way” of the doctor-patient relationship. He notes that while innovations have advanced healthcare, they often interfere with the time and connection between clinicians and their patients. Feinberg envisions a future where technology is present but not disruptive, allowing physicians to focus on their patients rather than on navigating electronic systems.

2. AI’s role in anticipatory medicine: Like many healthcare leaders, Feinberg identifies artificial intelligence as a major player in the future of healthcare. However, he offers a unique perspective by discussing AI’s potential beyond current applications like diagnostics and documentation. He predicts that AI will develop anticipatory abilities, allowing clinicians to foresee medical issues and prevent serious health problems. This could allow doctors to say to patients, “If we don’t get this [health issues] in order, the computer is telling us you won’t make it to your grandchild’s college graduation,” helping patients take critical action before it’s too late.

3. The power of the cloud: Here, Feinberg highlights the immense potential of cloud technology. He explains how the cloud can significantly enhance healthcare, particularly in terms of cybersecurity and data management. By leveraging cloud systems, hospitals can not only protect sensitive patient data but also streamline operations, enabling more effective analysis and use of healthcare information across platforms.

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

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 #149: Tech needs to get out of the way of healthcare, says Feinberg appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this month’s Diving Deep episode, part of the Fixing Healthcare podcast series, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr dive into two vital topics in healthcare: lessons learned from experts on end-of-life care and innovative solutions to address chronic disease in underserved communities.

The episode begins with an exploration of end-of-life care, revisiting Season 9 of the podcast series, which focused exclusively on this emotionally charged topic. Dr. Pearl reflects on his conversations with guests like Dr. Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal, and the powerful lesson that “people have goals besides living longer.” The hosts discuss how clinicians need to respect patient autonomy, particularly when the choices revolve around what makes life worth living versus prolonging survival at all costs.

Next, the conversation shifts to the topic of chronic disease management in underserved communities. Dr. Pearl references his recent Forbes article, which outlines how social determinants of health (SDOH) contribute to health inequities in the U.S. He introduces a practical solution: GenAI-driven health hubs, designed to combat chronic disease in low-income areas.

The hosts discuss the implementation of these hubs, explaining how they could provide affordable, targeted and technologically advanced support to individuals in areas where healthcare resources are limited. By leveraging generative AI tools, the hubs would help manage chronic diseases, reduce the burden on overworked doctors and prevent life-threatening complications. With a small investment, Dr. Pearl argues, these hubs could yield significant cost savings by preventing just one major health event, such as a heart attack or stroke.

Click play to hear these insights and more, and explore how healthcare leaders can improve care for patients at all stages of life.

HELPFUL LINKS

• 9 Powerful Lessons On Life You Can Learn From Experts On Death (Forbes)
• GenAI-Driven Health Hubs Can Combat Chronic Disease In Underserved Areas (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #148: End-of-life lessons and combatting health disparities appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl dive into timely and significant medical topics, focusing on the resurgence of COVID-19, rising healthcare costs and a growing shift toward patient empowerment through at-home testing solutions.

The episode kicks off with an update on the recent summertime surge of COVID-19, particularly in the Western and Southern parts of the country. Despite rising case numbers, researchers have noted that hospitalizations and deaths remain stable. The hosts discuss the release of new COVID-19 boosters, which are tailored to emerging variants. This comes at a time when skepticism about vaccinations persists, still fueled by misinformation and politics.

Shifting gears, the conversation moves to healthcare costs, particularly the burden on small businesses. Rising inflation and the increased use of costly GLP-1 (weight loss) medications are driving up medical costs, with premiums projected to rise sharply in the coming year.

Here’s a snapshot of the topics covered on this episode of Medicine: The Truth:

• COVID-19 resurgence
• Rising healthcare costs
• Long COVID updates
• Climate change and public health
• Mpox (formerly monkeypox)
• Medicare drug price negotiations
• At-home testing revolution
• Uterine transplants and advances in reproductive medicine

Throughout the episode, the hosts touch on the transformative potential of generative AI and other technological advances, arguing that patient empowerment and consumerism will continue to shape the future of healthcare.

Join the conversation as Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle the latest medical news and discuss the implications of these trends for the future of healthcare.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine“ about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #87: COVID-19 resurgence, soaring healthcare costs and the push for patient empowerment appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare features Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and advocate for physician well-being, and Dr. Robert Pearl, healthcare leader and author of ChatGPT, MD. Jeremy Corr, CEO of Executive Podcast Solutions, adds the patient’s perspective, as always.

In this episode, the trio takes a deep dive into the intriguing applications of Game Theory in healthcare. Dr. Pearl introduces Game Theory—a concept that analyzes how individuals or groups make decisions in competitive situations—drawing from its use in business to better understand interactions between physicians, insurers and healthcare organizations.

Today’s topics include:

• Game theory and healthcare economics: Dr. Pearl explains how Game Theory can help reframe the often adversarial relationships between doctors and insurers, exploring ways to move from lose-lose situations to more collaborative, win-win outcomes.
• The role of autonomy: Dr. Fisher explores the inherent conflict between physician autonomy and collective decision-making, noting how the fragmented nature of healthcare impacts both patient outcomes and physician satisfaction.
• Collaboration vs. competition: The group discusses the need for healthcare professionals to shift from tribalism and competition within and between specialties to a more cooperative approach that benefits patients.
• The prisoner’s dilemma: Dr. Pearl introduces this classic Game Theory scenario to illustrate the difficult choices doctors face when limited healthcare resources force tough decisions about patient care.

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

New book: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher)

New book: ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

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 #147: Game theory and healthcare—the complex relationship between doctors, payers and patients appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the first episode of Fixing Healthcare’s 10th season, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr speak with Dr. Eric Topol, a healthcare visionary and global technology leader.

This season focuses on the future of technology in healthcare, a topic close to Dr. Pearl’s heart. His newest book, ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine, debuted as an Amazon top new release. All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders.

Dr. Topol is a renowned cardiologist and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. He has been a pioneer in predicting how technology will shape the future of medicine. His bestselling book, Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again, explores the transformative power of AI in healthcare. During the interview, Dr. Topol highlights three ways technology will break the traditional rules of medicine:

• Precision Preventive Care: Dr. Topol emphasizes that AI will revolutionize preventive care by moving beyond the outdated practice of relying solely on age and sex to determine who needs screening. Instead, generative AI will analyze vast datasets, including polygenic risk scores, biomarkers and proteomic data, to identify individuals at the highest risk of developing life-threatening diseases like cancer or heart disease. This proactive approach will allow for targeted prevention, significantly improving outcomes.
• Reducing Misdiagnoses: The conversation turns to the persistent issue of diagnostic errors, a leading cause of preventable harm in healthcare. Dr. Topol discusses how AI can alleviate this problem by giving clinicians more time to think critically, providing deep analysis of patient data and interpreting medical images with unparalleled accuracy. This would dramatically reduce the current rate of misdiagnoses, which remains a significant life ending failure in healthcare.
• Transforming Clinical Documentation: Dr. Topol also explores how generative AI is already freeing from the burden of administrative tasks, particularly documentation. By automating the creation of high-quality electronic health records from conversations between doctors and patients, AI will allow clinicians to focus more on patient care, improving both efficiency and the patient experience.

Throughout the episode, Drs. Topol and Pearl discuss the broader implications of these technologies, including the potential to revolutionize medical research, the challenges of data security and the cultural shift required in healthcare to fully embrace these innovations.

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

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 #146: Dr. Eric Topol on how AI is changing healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In the final episode of season nine, Fixing Healthcare cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr sit down with Brad Stulberg, a renowned author and public health expert, to discuss the keys to living (and eventually dying) well. The interview concludes a season-long focus on ways to improve end-of-life care in the United States.

The hosts start with Stulberg’s recent New York Times recent op-ed, “The Key to Longevity Is Boring.” Stulberg, known for his work on human performance and well-being, emphasizes the power of simple, evidence-based habits for achieving a long and healthy life.

The conversation covers the importance of regular exercise, a nutritious diet, avoiding smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, and nurturing meaningful relationships. While these practices might seem mundane compared to the latest health fads and biohacks, Stulberg argues that they are the true keys to a life well lived.

He highlights research demonstrating that people who consistently follow these five principles live seven years longer on average, with six of those years spent in good health.

Key topics explored in this episode include:

• The myth of biohacking: Stulberg critiques the growing trend of biohacking, emphasizing that many popular supplements and extreme health practices are not supported by science and can detract from the joy of living.
• Exercise as a movement practice: Stulberg encourages a shift from viewing exercise as a chore to seeing it as a sustainable movement practice, whether it’s through sports, walking or other enjoyable activities.
• Nutrition without obsession: The discussion moves to the challenges of maintaining a nutritious diet amidst a culture obsessed with quick fixes and fad diets. Stulberg advises focusing on whole foods and avoiding ultra-processed products.
• Social connections: The episode delves into the vital role that relationships play in both mental and physical health, drawing on findings from the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which identified strong social connections as the most important factor for a long and healthy life.
• Debunking health anxiety: Stulberg touches on the rise of health anxiety fueled by the wellness industry and social media, urging listeners to focus on the basics rather than getting caught up in the latest trends.

Throughout the episode, Stulberg’s insights remind us that the path to longevity doesn’t require radical change or cutting-edge science. Instead, it’s about mastering the fundamentals—habits that are accessible to everyone.

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

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the upcoming book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 #145: The boring secrets to longevity with Brad Stulberg appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this month’s Diving Deep episode, part of the Fixing Healthcare podcast series, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle two crucial issues in American healthcare: the need for radical reform in medical education and the growing crisis surrounding Medicare’s payment model.

The episode opens with a critical examination of medical education in the United States. Dr. Pearl discusses how current medical training is rooted in outdated practices that fail to prepare future doctors for the challenges of modern medicine. He emphasizes the need for integrating generative AI into medical school curricula—not just as an add-on but as a core component—in order to improve chronic disease management, diagnostic accuracy and clinical research.

Next up in the episode, the hosts turn their attention to Medicare’s payment model, comparing it to the “cobra effect” where well-intentioned policies inadvertently worsen the problem they aim to solve. Dr. Pearl outlines the flaws in the current system, particularly how today’s fee-for-service model incentivizes volume over value, driving up healthcare costs while compromising patient care. He calls for a shift to a capitated payment model that rewards quality care and preventive medicine.

Click play to learn more or check out the various links below for additional information.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Medical Education Needs Radical Reform: AI, Alone, Isn’t The Answer
• Why Congress Should Change How Medicare Pays Physicians
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #144: Medical education reform and Medicare’s payment crisis appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth (MTT), hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl explore the latest developments in Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancer detection, COVID-19’s resurgence and other significant news.

The episode begins with a discussion on the surge of new COVID-19 cases, particularly in the western and southern U.S., where wastewater surveillance data indicates high virus levels. The hosts emphasize the importance of continued vaccination, especially with new variants emerging.

The conversation then shifts to advancements in cancer detection, highlighting a new blood test for colon cancer that shows promise in identifying early-stage cancers but falls short in detecting precancerous growths. This test, though not yet a replacement for colonoscopy or the fecal Immunochemical test (FIT), could encourage more people to undergo further screening when necessary.

In Alzheimer’s research, a new blood test offers a less invasive alternative as a first step in diagnosing the disease. While it represents a significant advance, the test is not yet a gamechanger due to the lack of effective treatments for Alzheimer’s.

Other topics covered in this episode include:

• COVID-19 updates and the impact of vaccination on long COVID
• Advances in genetic research for rare diseases like progeria
• The rise of new weight-loss medications and market competition
• The continued influence of pharmaceutical payments to physicians
• The potential of drones in cardiac arrest response
• Climate change’s impact on children’s health and education
• Increasing cancer rates among Gen X and millennials
• The rise of sexually transmitted diseases in older adults
• Mental health challenges and access to care
• Insights into the potential impact of the upcoming presidential election on healthcare policy

Join us for this insightful episode as we delve into these critical healthcare issues and explore the future of medicine.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine“ about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #86: New hope for Alzheimer’s, colon cancer and mental health appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Fixing Healthcare welcomes Dr. Atul Gawande, a renowned surgeon, writer and public health researcher who currently serves as the Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID.

He has a rich background as both a medical professional and a compassionate individual. Ten years ago, Dr. Gawande published the bestselling book “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,” which explored the intersection of medicine, aging, and the end-of-life journey. His father’s battle with a spinal tumor profoundly influenced the book, serving as a catalyst for Gawande to confront the limitations of medical interventions and the importance of addressing patients’ individual goals and fears as they approach the end of their lives.

This episode explores:

• Gawande’s personal story as he reflects on his father’s battle with a spinal tumor, highlighting the complexities and emotional challenges of dealing with serious health issues within a family.
• His father’s journey from being a vibrant individual and a dedicated surgeon to facing the limitations imposed by his illness provides; a profound context for the discussion on end-of-life care.
• Difficult decisions that families and patients face when confronted with terminal illnesses, along with the nuances of choosing between aggressive treatments and palliative care.
• Approaches to end-of-life care that respect the patient’s wishes and focus on enhancing the quality of life rather than merely extending it.
• The significance of having open and honest conversations about end-of-life preferences and the limitations of medical interventions.

This episode is part of the ninth season of Fixing Healthcare with cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr.

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#143: Navigating life’s final chapter with Atul Gawande appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare features Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and advocate for physician well-being; Dr. Robert Pearl, healthcare leader and author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD”; and Jeremy Corr, CEO of Executive Podcast Solutions, who adds the patient’s perspective.

On the show today, the trio delves into the intriguing concept of luck and its impact on medicine and life, exploring how perceptions of luck influence happiness, health outcomes and success.

Today’s topics include:

• Luck vs. serendipity: The distinction between luck and serendipity and the importance of recognizing and seizing opportunities.
• Optimism and mindset: The significance of optimism and a growth mindset, with references to Carol Dweck’s and Martin Seligman’s research.
• Privilege and social inequities: The role of privilege in perceived luck and how systemic factors contribute to opportunities and outcomes.
• Autonomy in medicine: The balance between autonomy and standardization in healthcare, and the conflict between individual clinician intuition and best practices.
• Community and accountability: The tension between personal autonomy and community responsibility, particularly in healthcare behaviors that impact public health and finances.

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

New book: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher)

New book: ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

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 #142: The role of luck in medicine and life appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this poignant episode of Fixing Healthcare, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr engage in a deep and heartfelt conversation with Lucy Kalanithi, MD.

Dr. Kalanithi, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University, reflects on the enduring impact of her late husband Paul Kalanithi’s memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, and her experiences navigating life, loss and love.

Dr. Pearl begins by acknowledging the profound influence of the memoir and commends Kalanithi for her beautifully written epilogue. The discussion delves into various aspects of her journey, highlighting the personal and philosophical reflections that have shaped her understanding of life and death.

This episode explores:

• Paul’s legacy. Kalanithi shares insights into Paul’s life as a neurosurgeon and writer, his philosophical interests, and how his terminal diagnosis profoundly influenced their lives and his writing.
• The decision to have a child. The episode explores the couple’s choice to have a child despite Paul’s terminal illness and the impact it has had on Kalanithi and their daughter, Cady.
• Coping with loss. Kalanithi discusses the challenges of facing Paul’s death, the physical and emotional toll it took, and how she found ways to process her grief.
• Legacy and memory. Paul’s memoir has helped keep his memory alive for friends, family and, most importantly, for Lucy and Cady. Kalanithi explains the importance of maintaining connections with the deceased while moving forward in life.
• Finding new love. Finally, she explains the complexities and nuances of falling in love again after such a significant loss, and how it does not diminish the love and memory of the deceased.

Throughout the episode, Kalanithi offers valuable advice for those navigating similar experiences, emphasizing the importance of palliative care, finding support, and allowing oneself to grieve fully. Her reflections on balancing the pain of loss with the beauty of new beginnings provide a deeply human perspective on end-of-life issues.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the upcoming book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 #141: Reflections on life after loss with Lucy Kalanithi appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This month’s “Diving Deep” episode, part of the Fixing Healthcare podcast series, takes a close look at two critical topics in the realm of healthcare: OpenAI’s newest update, GPT-4o, and the exorbitant pricing of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic.

Cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr explore the profound implications that these advancements and challenges hold for the future of medicine.

The episode begins with an in-depth discussion on OpenAI’s GPT-4o update. Dr. Pearl and Corr analyze how this generative AI tool, which now features human-like interactions, can revolutionize healthcare by enhancing diagnostic accuracy, treatment recommendations and patient monitoring.

Next, the conversation shifts to the high costs of GLP-1 drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic. Dr. Pearl sheds light on why these effective weight-loss medications remain out of reach for many Americans. The discussion includes a critical look at the disparity in global pricing and the urgent need for legislative action to make these life-saving drugs more affordable.

Click play to learn more or check out the various links below for additional information.

HELPFUL LINKS

• OpenAI’s Rule-Shattering GPT-4o Update Will Be Lifesaving, Too (Forbes)
• Wegovy And Ozempic Are Overpriced By 400-500% — Here’s A Quick Solution (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #140: Diving deep into GLP-1 drug prices and ChatGPT’s newest update appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Medicine: The Truth covers the latest news and most pressing issues in medicine today.

In this episode, hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl discuss the latest updates in healthcare costs, COVID-19, the spread of bird flu, and several other critical medical issues.

Starting with skyrocketing healthcare costs, new figures show that U.S. spending on medical care has surged to $4.8 trillion, with projections indicating a rise to $7.7 trillion by 2032. This increase threatens to outpace both general inflation and wages, affecting employer-based coverage, Medicare and Medicaid.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases are rising again, particularly in the western and southern U.S., as people gather indoors during hot weather. However, the current variants are not more dangerous than previous ones, keeping hospitalizations and deaths low. Today’s show also takes a look at a new report about the challenges and uncertainties of long COVID, which affects millions of adults and children.

The spread of H5 bird flu to cattle has raised alarms, with recent human cases in Michigan and Colorado. The CDC’s monitoring and potential vaccine development efforts are crucial to prevent a broader outbreak. With the failures of COVID-19 serving as backdrop, are health experts responding appropriately to this threat?

Join us to explore these critical issues and more. Here’s a snapshot of all the topics covered on this episode of Medicine: The Truth.

• Rising healthcare costs
• Bird flu concerns
• Supreme Court decision on abortion medication
• Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy drug
• Mortality rates post-pandemic
• Psychedelic therapy for PTSD
• New Alzheimer’s drug
• Social media’s impact on mental health
• STI rates and new CDC guidelines
• Unexpected outcomes of abortion restrictions
• Gender affirming treatment legislation
• Weight loss medications
• Economic impact of healthcare prices
• Long COVID insights

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine“ about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. All profits 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 #85: Skyrocketing healthcare costs and new insights into long COVID appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this special episode of “Diving Deep,” part of the Fixing Healthcare podcast series, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr dive deep into the economic and societal implications of rising healthcare costs with Zack Cooper.

Cooper, an associate professor of public health and economics at Yale, serves as director of health policy at Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He is a health economist whose data-driven insights have helped reshape public policy.

On today’s show, Cooper explains how employer-sponsored health insurance, which covers most Americans under 65, is anything but free. As healthcare prices rise, the costs are passed down to workers through increased premiums and, more insidiously, through job losses. Cooper’s research highlights that when healthcare prices increase, employers often respond by reducing their workforce to manage the higher insurance premiums, disproportionately affecting workers earning between $20,000 and $100,000 a year.

Cooper also discusses the broader impact of rising healthcare costs on communities. These costs contribute to decreased tax revenue and increased government spending on unemployment benefits and subsidies, leading to a negative cycle of economic decline in affected areas. The psychological toll of job losses, including increases in suicides and opioid overdoses, underscores the far-reaching consequences of healthcare inefficiencies.

Click play to learn more or check out the various links below for additional information.

HELPFUL LINKS

• 1% Steps for Health Care Reform Project (website)
• How to Fix the Hot Mess of U.S. Healthcare (Freakanomics)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #139: The hidden costs of rising healthcare prices with Zack Cooper appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare features Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and advocate for physician well-being; Dr. Robert Pearl, healthcare leader and author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD”; and Jeremy Corr, CEO of Executive Podcast Solution, who adds the patient’s perspective.

The trio explores the evolving roles of parents in modern families and their profound impact on health. Dr. Fisher shares insights on how traditional and contemporary parenting roles affect cardiovascular health and emotional well-being. Dr. Pearl delves into the long-term effects of secure and insecure attachments formed in childhood, while Jeremy Corr brings a relatable perspective from the patient’s viewpoint.

Topics include:

• The significance of secure attachment in preventing chronic stress and heart disease
• The challenges faced by single parents and the importance of a supportive community
• How celebrities and influencers affect our emotions and health through parasocial relationships
• The impact of digital devices on parenting and children’s mental health

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

New book: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher)

New book: ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

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 #138: Examining unhealthy relationships with parents, celebs & AI appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this special episode of Fixing Healthcare, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr dive into surprising insights and lessons drawn from Dr. Pearl’s literary works. Focusing on his 2017 book “Mistreated: Why We Think We’re Getting Good Healthcare—and Why We’re Usually Wrong,” and his new release, “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine,” Pearl compares the world healthcare, now and then.

The episode opens with Corr asking Pearl about the motivation behind his newest book and how it connects to his previous works. Dr. Pearl recounts his journey, starting with the revelations from his time as CEO of Kaiser Permanente, where he realized the systemic flaws in American healthcare. His first book, “Mistreated,” was written to highlight these issues, comparing healthcare to a 19th century cottage industry that was stuck in the past.

Despite the optimism following the publication “Mistreated,” Dr. Pearl observed that little had changed in the following years. This led him to explore the deep-seated cultural issues in medicine in his second book, “Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors and Patients.” Yet again, change remained elusive.

Pearl’s newest book, “ChatGPT, MD” emerged from the realization that a powerful tool like generative AI could finally catalyze the much-needed transformation in healthcare. This book, co-authored with ChatGPT itself, delves into the potential of AI to enhance diagnoses, manage chronic diseases and streamline patient care, making healthcare more efficient and equitable.

To illustrate the ongoing challenges and the potential impact of AI, Dr. Pearl reads excerpts from the first and last chapters of “Mistreated,” recounting the harrowing story of his father, Jack Pearl. Through this personal narrative, he highlights the tragic consequences of medical errors and systemic failures that led to his father’s untimely death.

Dr. Pearl then discusses three significant ways his father’s care could have been improved with the advent of generative AI. And he expresses optimism that the introduction of generative AI into healthcare can finally drive the changes he has long advocated for, making the system more effective, compassionate and patient-centered.

Tune in to this compelling episode to hear Dr. Pearl’s reflections and visions for the future of healthcare, and join the conversation on social media.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Buy “ChatGPT, MD” with all profits going to Doctors Without Borders (Amazon)
• Learn more about “Mistreated” and “Uncaring” (RobertPearlMD.com)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (monthly digital newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the upcoming book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 #137: How generative AI could have saved my father appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This episode of Fixing Healthcare continues the ninth season’s focus on end-of-life issues by exploring the often overlooked topics of love and sexuality during this critical time.

Cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome Dr. Pebble Kranz, a sexual medicine specialist and medical director at the Rochester Center for Sexual Wellness.

In a recent Medscape column titled “Physicians: Don’t Ignore Sexuality in Your Dying Patients,” Dr. Kranz wrote: “I have a long history of being interested in conversations that others avoid. In medical school, I felt that we didn’t talk enough about death, so I organized a lecture series on end-of-life care for my fellow students. Now, as a sexual medicine specialist, I have other conversations from which many medical providers shy away.”

She brings a unique perspective to the podcast, highlighting the importance of addressing sexual concerns for patients nearing the end of their lives. She discusses the need for healthcare providers to have open, honest conversations about sexuality, noting that patients often want to discuss these issues, but clinicians are frequently uncomfortable or unprepared to do so.

Throughout the interview, Dr. Kranz emphasizes that sexuality is a vital part of human identity and well-being, extending from young adulthood through old age, and even in illness. She shares insights from her work, including the story of a 75-year-old patient with cancer who sought to maintain her sexual health despite her illness.

The episode addresses several key points:

• The cultural and medical taboos surrounding discussions of sexuality, especially for patients at the end of life.
• The importance of medical education in preparing clinicians to handle sexual health concerns.
• Strategies for expanding the concept of sexual play and intimacy to accommodate the changing needs and capabilities of patients.
• The role of healthcare providers in facilitating conversations about sexual health and providing appropriate treatments.

Dr. Kranz also touches on the emotional and existential dimensions of sexuality, explaining how physical intimacy can help patients feel more connected to themselves and others, even as they face terminal illness. She advocates for more privacy and support in hospital settings to allow patients to express their sexuality and maintain close relationships.

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

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the upcoming book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 #136: Love and sexuality at the end of life with Dr. Pebble Kranz appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This month’s “Diving Deep” episode, part of the Fixing Healthcare podcast series, delves into a pair of stories that will have a significant impact on the U.S. healthcare workforce. Cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr explore the intricate legalities surrounding medical malpractice in the age of AI, as well as the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recent rule to ban non-compete clauses.

The episode begins with an in-depth look at a new set of liability issues in medicine: What happens when AI harms a patient? Dr. Pearl discusses how concerns among clinicians are shifting—from AI reliability to liability. Highlighting insights from Michelle Mello, a professor of law and health policy at Stanford University, the segment addresses the complexities of determining liability when AI tools are involved in patient care. Dr. Pearl outlines key considerations for healthcare professionals, emphasizing the importance of understanding AI’s limitations, negotiating terms of use with AI developers, and staying informed about the legal landscape.

Next, the conversation transitions to the FTC’s groundbreaking decision to ban non-compete agreements. This ruling, set to take effect in September, is anticipated to have a profound impact on the medical profession by boosting career mobility, increasing competition and potentially reducing healthcare costs. Dr. Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss the winners and losers of this new regulation, focusing on how the ban will benefit newly trained clinicians and patients in competitive healthcare markets while posing challenges for large health systems and hospital administrators.

Click play to learn more or check out the various links below for additional information.

HELPFUL LINKS

• If AI Harms A Patient, Who Gets Sued? (Forbes)
• Healthcare Winners And Losers After FTC Bans Noncompete Agreements (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #135: Diving Deep into AI-medical malpractice & FTC’s non-compete ban appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth examines important updates in women’s health, focusing on mammograms and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), among other pressing news topics in medicine.

The U.S. Preventive Task Force has updated its mammogram guidelines, now recommending that screenings start at age 40 instead of 50 and occur every two years. This adjustment responds to data showing that breast cancer is occurring earlier, potentially due to changes in pregnancy timing and related hormonal impacts. By starting screenings a decade earlier, the Task Force projects a 19% reduction in breast cancer deaths in the U.S.

The hosts discussion then revisits the use of hormone replacement therapy. After concerns in the early 2000s about its link to increased cancer risks, new studies indicate HRT is safe for younger post-menopausal women under 60. These studies correct earlier misconceptions, showing no increase in heart risk or mortality and a lower risk of breast cancer with estrogen-only treatments. Dr. Pearl highlights the necessity of data-driven medical practices to prevent the overreactions of the past.

The episode advocates for informed healthcare decisions, particularly in how women are treated during menopause. Join us to explore these critical issues and more. Here’s a snapshot of all the topics covered on this episode of Medicine: The Truth.

• Medical debt now affects more than 100 million Americans
• Seniors have seen the biggest rise in mental health diagnoses
• Why drug ODs are down for the time since the onset of Covid-19
• New recommendations for mammogram screenings
• New data on hormone medications for menopause
• Hospitals now demanding patients pay in advance
• The mystery of Beethoven’s deafness finally solved
• 320,000 children lost a parent to a drug overdose from 2011-2021
• A new program to attract more people to mental health counseling
• The newest research on Alzheimer’s Disease treatments
• Why half of rural hospitals are losing money
• Status of the pig-kidney transplant recipient?
• AI vs. clinician’s diagnostic accuracy in the emergency room
• Does H5N1 have what it takes to become a viral pandemic?
• Longevity vs. “healthy life expectancy”
• The death of Walmart Health and what it means for other retailers

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine“ about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #84: The latest research on mammograms, hormone (HRT) medications appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare features Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and advocate for physician well-being; Dr. Robert Pearl, healthcare leader and author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD”; and Jeremy Corr, CEO of Executive Podcast Solution, who adds the patient’s perspective.

Today, the trio dives deep into why lifestyle medicine improvements—such as diet, weight loss, mental health, and relaxation—are so challenging for people. Dr. Fisher discusses the psychological and motivational factors that create barriers to change, while Dr. Pearl explores how generative AI could assist in overcoming these hurdles. Jeremy Corr brings the patient’s viewpoint, emphasizing the real-world difficulties and potential solutions from a non-clinician’s perspective.

Join the panel as they explore the complexities of human behavior, the role of healthcare professionals in coaching patients, and the innovative technologies that could revolutionize how we approach health and well-being. This episode provides insightful strategies and compassionate advice for anyone looking to make lasting, positive change in their life.

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

New book: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher)

New book: ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

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 #134: An unfiltered look at the challenges of lifestyle medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This episode of Fixing Healthcare dives into the essential yet often misunderstood world of palliative and hospice care—part of this ninth season’s continued focus on end-of-life issues.

Our guest today, Dr. Monique Danielle Schaulis, MD, MPH, is a board-certified physician in both Emergency Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She is currently practicing at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco. With extensive experience and a compassionate approach, Dr. Schaulis sheds light on the critical role of palliative care in modern healthcare.

Alongside cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr, Schaulis tackles common myths and misunderstandings surrounding palliative care. She explains why palliative care is not just for end-of-life situations, and how it can be integrated with curative treatments at any stage of a serious illness. She emphasizes that palliative care is a holistic medical specialty focused on improving the quality of life for patients of all ages by addressing physical, psychosocial, spiritual, and existential distress.

This episode also explores why American culture struggles with the acceptance of death and palliative care. Dr. Schaulis reflects on how historical developments in medical technology and a lack of training for physicians on end-of-life conversations contribute to this issue. Tune in to learn more about the transformative potential of palliative care and how it can enhance quality of life for patients—and their families.

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 #133: The many misconceptions of palliative care appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This month’s “Diving Deep” episode, part of the Fixing Healthcare podcast series, takes a close look at two transformative AI developments in healthcare. Cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr explore the profound medical potential of ChatGPT’s new “memory” and Nvidia’s new AI bots, which the company claims can outperform nurses in some tasks.

The episode begins with a spotlight on ChatGPT’s enhanced memory capabilities. This breakthrough could revolutionize healthcare by making interactions more contextual and patient-specific, potentially leading to more accurate diagnoses and personalized care. Dr. Pearl discusses how this new AI feature could integrate vast amounts of medical data, dramatically improving clinical outcomes by overcoming the current limitations of electronic health records and knowledge accessibility.

Next, the conversation shifts to Nvidia’s latest innovation: AI bots that have shown promising results in performing certain nursing tasks more accurately than humans. This segment examines the implications of such technology in healthcare, discussing both the efficiency gains and the ethical considerations of integrating AI at this level of care.

Throughout the episode, Corr quizzes Pearl on these advancements, unpacking their medical relevance and vast potential. The discussion is not only a deep dive into the current capabilities of AI in medicine but also a thoughtful exploration of its future trajectory and the ethical landscape that accompanies it.

Click play to learn more or check out the various links below for additional information.

HELPFUL LINKS

• 3 Ways ChatGPT’s ‘Memory’ Can Spark Breakthroughs In Healthcare (Forbes)
• Nvidia’s AI Bot Outperforms Nurses, Study Finds. Here’s What It Means. (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #132: Diving deep into ChatGPT’s ‘memory’ and Nvidia’s AI bot appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Medicine: The Truth covers the latest news and most pressing issues in medicine today. The headline story for this episode focuses on the FTC’s vote to ban non-compete agreements.

Co-host Dr. Robert Pearl explains how these clauses were originally designed to protect trade secrets, but have been used in healthcare to prevent doctors from taking new positions—and taking their patients with them.

Non-compete policies not only disrupt the doctor-patient relationship but also contribute to higher healthcare costs. As Pearl has written about in Forbes and other outlets, hospital consolidation has long been a strategic move to control market share, leading to increased medical bills and facility fees. Non-compete clauses have been central to maintaining this monopoly. It’s no surprise the ban is being fiercely opposed by the American Hospital Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Alongside cohost Jeremy Corr, Pearl unpacks this issue and the following topics in this episode of Medicine: The Truth.

• Care organizations led by primary care physicians are most effective, efficient
• 263,000 docs have become employees since 2012
• The FTC ban on non-compete clauses
• Research finds weight-loss drugs also treat sleep apnea
• Patient receives a pig’s kidney in experimental transplant
• S. doctors accepted $12.1 billion from drug companies over the past 10 years
• Paxlovid ineffective for vaccinated individuals with Covid-19
• Why financial breaks didn’t spur insulin usage among diabetics
• The impact of Covid-19 on child development
• HHS mandates attending doctors get permission for pelvic, prostate exams
• ChatGPT becoming more reliable and accurate in diagnosing disease
• Unnecessary inpatient care cost $6 billion last year
• Republicans reported 25% more severe reactions to Covid-19 vaccine

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine“ about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #83: How will the FTC’s non-compete ban affect healthcare workers? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Today’s episode of Fixing Healthcare is a true sign of the times in medicine. Not only is generative AI the topic of today’s podcast, it’s also an active participant. Co-host Jeremy Corr used ChatGPT to come up with questions for fellow co-host Dr. Robert Pearl about “ChatGPT, MD,” a new book that Pearl co-authored with ChatGPT.

Still following? This unique setup underscores the dynamic relationship between artificial intelligence, medicine and healthcare leadership.

ChatGPT, with questions voiced by Jeremy Corr, delves into Dr. Pearl’s decision to write “ChatGPT, MD,” a book that aims to demystify the potential and practicalities of AI in healthcare. The discussion moves through a series of insightful questions, thoughtfully generated by AI, to probe the nuances of integrating large language models like ChatGPT into the medical field. These questions explore the opportunities AI presents for improving diagnostic accuracy, personalizing patient care, and streamlining administrative processes in healthcare settings.

As the conversation unfolds, it becomes clear that AI’s integration into healthcare promises significant advancements, but it also raises important ethical, legal and operational considerations.

Note to listeners: all profits from Dr. Pearl’s book go to Doctors Without Borders.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Buy “ChatGPT, MD” with all profits going to Doctors Without Borders (Amazon)
• Empowering patients: Navigating medical information with AI (KevinMD)
• My journey with AI and medicine: ‘ChatGPT, MD’ is here (RobertPearlMD.com)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the coauthor of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 Podcasts or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post FHC #131: ChatGPT interviews Dr. Pearl about their new book, ‘ChatGPT, MD’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare, the conversation dives deep into the role of AI in medicine with Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and advocate for physician well-being; Dr. Robert Pearl, author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD”; and Jeremy Corr, CEO of Executive Podcast Solution, who adds the patient’s perspective.

The panel examines the current applications of AI in the medical field, highlighting early successes and the challenges of integrating a technology that isn’t quite ready for widespread adoption.

Recent studies indicate that 40% of doctors feel comfortable using AI for specific clinical and administrative tasks. However, many patients express concerns about physicians becoming overly dependent on AI for diagnoses and treatments. Fisher, Pearl and Corr cut through the noise to focus on the facts, helping listeners understand what AI can currently achieve, its potential in the near future, and the issues to watch as technology firms and healthcare leaders smooth out the rough edges.

As always, Corr voices a critical patient-oriented question – this one about the potential risks of AI in healthcare and how to mitigate patient concerns.

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

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

Buy now: ‘ChatGPT, MD’ (Robert Pearl’s new book)

3 Ways ChatGPT’s ‘Memory’ Can Spark Breakthroughs In Healthcare (Forbes)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

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 #130: An unfiltered look at AI’s current, future uses in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In a special episode of the Fixing Healthcare podcast, co-host Dr. Robert Pearl, former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group and a respected voice in healthcare, shares two chapters from his latest work, “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine,” which he co-authored with the generative AI model ChatGPT.

Listener note: All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders

Celebrating the book’s release, which has already clinched the #1 new release spot on Amazon, Dr. Pearl chose to read excerpts from two pivotal chapters, providing listeners a unique glimpse into the collaborative process between a human author and generative AI.

Dr. Pearl reads from chapter five, a section primarily penned by him, followed by chapter six, where ChatGPT took the lead, crafting 90% of the content. The exercise offered an intriguing comparison, allowing listeners to discern the nuances between human and AI contributions.

Throughout, Dr. Pearl emphasized the collaborative nature of the book, underscoring the potential of generative AI to revolutionize healthcare by enhancing the partnership between patients and doctors.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Empowering patients: Navigating medical information with AI (KevinMD)
• My journey with AI and medicine: ‘ChatGPT, MD’ is here (RobertPearlMD.com)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the upcoming book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 #129: A reading from Dr. Pearl’s newest book, ‘ChatGPT, MD’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth delves into the lasting impact of adverse childhood events (ACEs) on mental and physical health in adulthood. A groundbreaking study involving over 25,000 Swedish twins has shed new light on the significant role the environment plays in shaping mental health outcomes, revealing that individuals who experienced major childhood traumas were substantially more likely to develop psychiatric illnesses compared to their non-traumatized twin counterparts.

Podcast cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr unpack these findings, exploring the intricate relationship between childhood adversity and later life health challenges, including depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and even physical ailments like heart disease and cancer. The discussion extends to the influence of genetics versus environment on mental health and the transformative potential of nurturing healthier environments for children to mitigate these long-term impacts.

Are we underestimating the power of our childhood experiences on our adult well-being? Join us to explore this critical question and more in today’s thought-provoking episode. Here’s a snapshot of all the topics covered on this episode of Medicine: The Truth.

• The latest on birth control availability
• The link between COVID vaccination and political affiliation
• The Alabama Supreme Court’s decision on IVF embryos
• New twin study about mental health and childhood trauma
• How to close the “empathy gap” in medicine
• New data on fentanyl deaths
• Voters’ top healthcare concerns in 2024
• ER visits up for kids taking parents’ sleep medications
• Price of new drugs defy White House actions
• Healthcare held hostage by ransomware attack
• Generative AI’s latest medical advance
• Consumers growing more comfortable with AI in medicine
• How the Dobbs ruling affected abortion rates

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the new book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine“ about the impact of AI on the future of medicine. 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 #82: How do childhood traumas shape our health as adults? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Late last year, Fixing Healthcare cohost Dr. Robert Pearl read a remarkable essay in the New York Times titled, “I Promised My Sister I Would Write About How She Chose to Die.” In that essay, Steven Petrow offers a deeply personal account of his sister Julie’s choice to use Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) in New Jersey.

Her journey, marked by advanced ovarian cancer and the exhaustion of treatment options, illustrates the importance of MAID as a means of taking control at life’s end. The piece advocates for wider awareness and accessibility of such options, emphasizing the dignity in making a profound and personal choice.

Petrow, a contributing columnist at The Washington Post and the author, most recently, of “Stupid Things I Won’t Do When I Get Old,” joins the podcast today to discuss a panoply of end of life issues, which is the focus of this ninth season of Fixing Healthcare.

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

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the upcoming book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 #128: ‘I Promised My Sister I Would Write About How She Chose to Die’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Fixing Healthcare co-host Dr. Robert Pearl recently returned from a surgical mission in the Philippines. The trip not only reignited his passion for global surgery, but it also provided three key lessons about American healthcare.

That’s the first topic of this week’s “Diving Deep” program. The second takes a different look at the state of American healthcare, this time through the lens of human evolution.

Pearl notes, “In a world where change is the only constant, the swift currents of modern life contrast starkly with the sluggish pace of genetic evolution—and of American healthcare, too.”

He and co-host Jeremy Corr discuss whether our nation’s healthcare system can evolve as fast as our DNA. Two relatively recent biological events offer profound insights into American medicine—along with a warning about what happens when healthcare systems fail to change.

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

• 3 Surprising Lessons U.S. Medicine Can Learn From Around The World (Forbes)
• How Genetic Insights Can Reshape American Medicine (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of the upcoming book “ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.” 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 #127: Diving deep into the state of American healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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As Dr. Robert Pearl puts the finisihing touches on his upcoming book “ChatGPT, MD,” the cohost thought it would be a fitting time to read a chapter from his previous book “Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors & Patients.” All profits from sales of Pearl’s books go to Doctors Without Borders.

What you’re about to hear is the story of Judy, a colleague of Dr. Pearl’s at Kaiser Permanente, and Judy’s spouse. It’s a story about acceptance and kindness, about love without labels, about honoring commitments in good times and bad, and about the enduring power of hope in life’s most challenging moments.

Tune in and join the conversation on social media. You can also learn more about this topic and the book of Uncaring via the links below.

HELPFUL LINKS

• The story of Judy at Kaiser Permanente (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Learn more about the book ‘Uncaring’ (RobertPearlMD.com)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #126: On finding peace with who you are appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth takes a look at the mental and physical health of America’s youth.

More than ever before, kids 17 and under are getting their medical care at drug stores and retail clinics, signaling a further decline in traditional doctor-patient relationships. Meanwhile, new data show that young people, especially adolescent girls, experienced a massive increase in antidepressant medication usage during the pandemic—trends that continue today at an alarming rate.

Podcast cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss what’s happening with America’s young people. Are the kids going to be alright? Find out on today’s show.

Here’s a snapshot of all the topics covered on this episode of Medicine: The Truth.

• The effectiveness of the latest COVID-19 vaccines
• In-person vs. virtual visits following medical abortion
• The impact of COVID-19 on babies and their mothers
• The rise of cervical cancer among low-income women
• Why younger patients are getting their care at retail clinics
• Antidepressant prescriptions boomed among adolescent girls
• Unpaid medical bills are also on the rise
• Ransomware attacks are preventing Rx refills
• Insurers are cracking down on popular weight-loss drugs
• Alabama’s courts rule against IVF treatments
• How Jimmy Carter has survived a year in hospice
• An unprecedented donation to a medical school is sparking hope
• The importance of healthcare in this year’s election
• The impact of running on prostate cancer
• The residual impact of Long COVID

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

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 #81: Are the kids alright, medically? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This ninth season of Fixing Healthcare continues its focus on complex end-of-life issues. In this episode, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr venture outside the traditional walls of medicine for help understanding the spiritual and communal aspects of end-of-life decision making. Joining today’s show is Rabbi Melanie Aron. As a Jewish scholar and expert in Reform Judaism with a rich history of spiritual leadership and personal compassion, she brings a unique perspective to this important topic.

Serving Congregation Shir Hadash of Los Gatos for over three decades, and now as Rabbi Emerita, her involvement with diverse, interfaith organizations reflects her commitment to community and open dialogue. Rabbi Aron’s experiences offer invaluable insights into how different traditions and communities navigate end-of-life decisions.

This episode explores:

• Religious traditions and their influence over the medical decisions of people who are nearing the end of their lives.
• The difference between legal restrictions on end-of-life medical care and the moral/ethical considerations that still confront people of faith.
• What religion can teach clinicians about providing more compassionate medical care at the end of life.
• Situations where religions institutions and medical institutions agree and disagree on end-of-life treatments.
• Brain death, Alzheimer’s, hospice care, assisted dying—seen through the lens of religious texts and teachings.
• Whether mental and physical health be treated similarly when making moral and ethical decisions around a person’s death.
• Advice for families struggling with the reality that a loved one has a terminal disease.

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 #125: Beyond medicine—a Rabbi’s insights on end-of-life issues appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being. This February, what more appropriate topic to discuss with a heart doctor than love?

Dr. Fisher, whose upcoming book “Just One Heart” dedicates an entire chapter to the topic, says that love is a skill that requires practice, work and considered thought. The elevated amount of dedication and commitment needed to find and foster love is not unlike the journey toward becoming a doctor. Dr. Fisher recalls some of the obstacles he faced in both arenas: his study of cardiology and of love.

“In medical school and residency training, I did not value love,” said Dr. Fisher. “I valued success and becoming a great doctor. And, actually, that was part of the reason I became burned out. I under-valued and under-indexed love and over-indexed success, at least the way that it was modeled to me by my teachers.”

Fixing Healthcare cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr help Dr. Fisher explore the importance of love in all aspects of life. Dr. Fisher offers tips and techniques for mastering the “skill” of love. Dr. Pearl describes the medical and psychological consequences tied to the lack of love in one’s life and how recently he elevated his love of medicine during a surgical mission to the Philippines. They share statistical evidence of love’s impact on happiness, professional satisfaction and even longevity. And, as always, Jeremy Corr chimes in with a question on behalf of patients.

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

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

Rediscovering The Mission, Purpose Of Medicine (Forbes)

Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (RobertPearlMD.com)

Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn)

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 #124: An unfiltered look at the science & skill of love appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Healthcare used to be a “country club competition,” in the words of past Fixing Healthcare guest Dr. Robert Burgelman. By this, he meant that doctors, insurers, drug makers and others worked well together and stayed out of each other’s respective lanes, trusting each other to keep the wheels of medicine churning slowly forward. Disputes, if any, were resolved quietly and kept behind the scenes.

Those days are gone and, in 2024, three major healthcare conflicts are set to erupt. In this episode of Diving Deep, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss this year’s cutthroat competitions and intense disputes, each of them being played out in public.

Later in the episode, Dr. Pearl dives deep into the OpenAI saga involving its CEO (turned ex-CEO turned CEO again) Sam Altman and his very public feud with the company’s board of directors. Setting the dramatics aside, Pearl examines the important lessons that healthcare leaders should take from this dispute and from Altman’s leadership style.

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

• 3 Huge Healthcare Battles Set To Erupt In 2024 (Forbes)
• Sam Altman’s Wild Year Offers 3 Critical Lessons for Healthcare Leaders (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #123: Diving deep into healthcare’s biggest battles of 2024 appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Fixing Healthcare welcomes Dr. Atul Gawande, a renowned surgeon, writer and public health researcher who currently serves as the Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID.

He has a rich background as both a medical professional and a compassionate individual. Ten years ago, Dr. Gawande published the bestselling book “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,” which explored the intersection of medicine, aging, and the end-of-life journey. His father’s battle with a spinal tumor profoundly influenced the book, serving as a catalyst for Gawande to confront the limitations of medical interventions and the importance of addressing patients’ individual goals and fears as they approach the end of their lives.

This episode explores:

• Gawande’s personal story as he reflects on his father’s battle with a spinal tumor, highlighting the complexities and emotional challenges of dealing with serious health issues within a family.
• His father’s journey from being a vibrant individual and a dedicated surgeon to facing the limitations imposed by his illness provides; a profound context for the discussion on end-of-life care.
• Difficult decisions that families and patients face when confronted with terminal illnesses, along with the nuances of choosing between aggressive treatments and palliative care.
• Approaches to end-of-life care that respect the patient’s wishes and focus on enhancing the quality of life rather than merely extending it.
• The significance of having open and honest conversations about end-of-life preferences and the limitations of medical interventions.

This episode is part of the ninth season of Fixing Healthcare with cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr.

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 #122: Navigating life’s final chapter with Atul Gawande appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth looks at the latest in new drug approvals and new drug pricing, topics that have become inseparable in our nation’s healthcare conversation.

One study found that the average “launch price” of new drugs has increased from $2,115 per year in 2008 to $180,007 per year in 2021. And there’s no sign drug makers are slowing down. Already in 2024, pharma companies have raised prices on 775 new medications.

Podcast cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss the cost of new drugs and their relative value. Are Americans getting what they’re paying for? For that answer and more, here’s a snapshot of topics covered on today’s show:

• As many as 2 million new cases per day of Covid, RSV and flu
• FDA approves a new sickle cell disease treatment
• The latest Covid variant, JN.1, and its impact on Americans
• A morning-sickness hormone discovered by Cambridge researchers
• Drug rebates coming this year for Medicare patients?
• The link between drug makers and non-profit patient advocacy groups
• Congress mulling price transparency laws despite intense lobbying
• The latest on GLP-1 weight-loss medications
• Infected Americans no longer isolating, masking
• What now for 10 million Americans who lost Medicaid coverage?
• Venture capital firm buys one of largest health systems in Ohio
• Should you turn to YouTube for emergency medical advice?

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

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 #80: What’s new in drug discovery and pricing? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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

Last Wednesday, January 17, was “Quit Day,” when most people give up on their New Year’s resolutions to get fit, eat better and try new things. Today’s show leads with an up-close look at the annual ritual of making (and breaking) resolutions.

“I have a little bit of skepticism about resolutions in general,” says Dr. Fisher, adding, “I certainly make resolutions for myself, especially around fitness, around relationships, around nutrition. But I want to ask, what does it actually mean to have a resolution? If you resolve to do something, doesn’t that mean you’re going to do it once and for all, and you don’t have to keep making these things every year?”

Fixing Healthcare cohost Dr. Robert Pearl notes that there’s very little in healthcare that we do once and that’s it. “Maybe get our appendix taken out,” he says, but the point is that these promises we make to ourselves don’t come with an annual (or 17-day) stopping point. Perhaps it is the gravity of these resolutions that makes it all the more difficult to keep them.

Today’s show explores why it’s so hard to get resolutions to stick, and what people can do to live happier, healthier lives without the pressure of this oft-failed tradition. Later in the episode, Dr. Fisher discusses the “placebo effect” and its impact on medicine. The group concludes with a discussion of “flow” and the positive psychological principle of being in the zone. As always, cohost Jeremy Corr chimes in with a question on behalf of patients.

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

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

5 New Year’s Resolutions That Can Save Your Life (Forbes)

3 Beneficial Healthcare Laws The 118th Congress Could (Actually) Pass (Forbes)

Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn)

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 #121: An unfiltered look at resolutions, kept and unkept appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This week, cohost Dr. Robert Pearl is on a plastic surgery mission trip to the Philippines where he will be repairing the cleft lips and palates of children. While he’s away, we’re revisiting one of the most popular episodes from 2023 featuring Dr. Zubin Damania, known to many as ZDoggMD.

Zubin Damania is a UCSF- and Stanford-trained internist and founder of Turntable Health, an innovative primary care clinic and model for Health 3.0. As a way to address his own burnout and find his voice, he started producing videos and live shows under the pseudonym “ZDoggMD.” His persona became a grassroots movement, reaching more than 1 billion people across a wide array of different media.

In this episode, Drs. Pearl and Z discuss the hero’s journey in healthcare. The concept of the “hero’s journey” was popularized by the American writer Joseph Cambell, and it applies aptly to American healthcare. In every medical professional’s career, there is a calling, a fear of failure and people along the way who provide support (or pose additional challenges). Listen to find who are healthcare’s heroes today, what are the dragons that need slaying, how doctors will overcome their fear of failure and what journeys still lie ahead.

For more, press play.

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 #120: Revisiting the hero’s journey with Dr. Zubin Damania (ZDoggMD) appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Clinician burnout is a major problem in the United States. But as cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss in today’s episode of Diving Deep, burnout is not a distinctly American problem.

Recent data from The Commonwealth Fund indicates that primary care doctors in the United States are as satisfied as their peers in the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This seems surprising given the unique challenges and frustrations posed by the American healthcare system. But if the system isn’t the sole cause of doctor dissatisfaction, then what else is there?

Dr. Pearl offers a surprising take on the global origins of clinician burnout and, in the second half of today’s show, he offers a technology-based solution to reverse our nation’s surge in chronic illnesses and the clinician burnout crisis. Finally, Pearl acknowledges and addresses the likely skepticism of doctors, especially considering the longstanding failure of heavily hyped tech when it comes to improving medical outcomes or professional satisfaction.

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

• Burnout In US Healthcare: New Data, Surprising Insights (Forbes)
• ChatGPT Will Reduce Clinician Burnout, If Doctors Embrace It (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #119: Diving deep into clinician burnout and ChatGPT as a solution appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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What a year it was for American healthcare. Generative AI exploded onto the scene and scored in the top echelon of test takers on the U.S. medical licensing exam. America’s largest retailers made several multibillion-dollar acquisitions in the primary care, telemedicine and home-health arenas. Diabetes drugs stunned researchers with their ability to help patients lose weight.

These are just a few of the biggest stories from 2023 that cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss on today’s episode of Fixing Healthcare, which also takes a bold look ahead at 2024. Which healthcare issues will matter most in this election year? Which technologies are set to make on impact on America’s health? Will the physician burnout crisis get better or worse in the year to come?

Here’s a snapshot of the topics covered on today’s show:

• The explosion of generative AI (ChatGPT)
• The rise of the ‘retail giants’ in healthcare
• Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs
• Medicare Advantage saw enrollment surge in 2023
• The tech breakthrough to fight sickle cell disease
• Overdoses, suicides and other healthcare failures of the last year
• The threat of rationing in 2024
• The Roe v. Wade fallout
• Addressing physician burnout in the U.S.
• The most promising medical technologies coming in 2024
• Which healthcare issues will matter most at the polls?
• How to contain drug and care-delivery costs going forward
• Healthcare staffing shortages: causes and solutions
• A telehealth comeback in 2024?
• America needs a mental health check
• Who was Dr. Pearl’s greatest career influence?

Click play to learn more or check out the various links below for additional information.

MUST-READ ARTICLES FROM 2023

• The AI-Empowered Patient Is Coming: Are Doctors Ready? (Forbes)
• 15 Innovative Ideas For Fixing Healthcare From 15 Brilliant Minds (Forbes)
• American healthcare: The good, bad, ugly, future (LinkedIn)
• How The U.S. Government Can Solve The Obesity Epidemic (Forbes)
• Burnout In Medicine: New Data, Surprising Insights (Forbes)
• Subscribe: Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #118: 2023 in review plus 2024 preview and predictions appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Bubbly and precocious, Hunter was every parent’s dream child and every teacher’s ideal student. By age 14, she had already enrolled in classes at a local college to augment her course schedule. She played soccer, softball, basketball and ran track in high school. She was on the swim team. She even tried cheerleading, though that wasn’t her cup of tea, said Maria, Hunter’s mom.

Maria describes her daughter with words like “amazing” and “beautiful” and “unstoppable.” But to truly appreciate the power of this mother-daughter duo, you have to understand what the two of them went through together. Theirs is a story of medical trials and tribulations, of heartbreaking diagnoses and difficult medical decisions. Their story challenges both conventional wisdom and the doctor-patient relationship.

In today’s episode, Dr. Robert Pearl’s reads a chapter from his critically acclaimed book, “Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors & Patients.” All profits from sales of the book go to Doctors Without Borders. This episode is part of season nine of Fixing Healthcare, which tackles the difficult topic of death, examining end-of-life issues from multiple angles.

Tune in and join the conversation on social media. You can also learn more about this topic and the book of Uncaring via the links below.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Kirkus starred review: ‘Uncaring’ (Kirkus Reviews)
• Learn more about the book ‘Uncaring’ (RobertPearlMD.com)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #117: The Young and the Breathless appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Welcome to season nine of Fixing Healthcare with cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. This season tackles the difficult topic of death, examining end-of-life issues from multiple angles.

Today’s episode features a reading from Dr. Robert Pearl’s most recent book “Uncaring: How the Culture of Medicine Kills Doctors & Patients,” which is available in audio book, eBook and hardcover. All profits from sales go to Doctors Without Borders.

What you’re about to hear is the story of David, a colleague and friend of Dr. Pearl’s at Kaiser Permanente. David lived a beautiful life that was cut short by illness. In his final years, he and his family faced a difficult decision, one that raises important questions for all of us about ethics, morality, the law and the choices we make at the end of life.

Tune in and join the conversation on social media. You can also learn more about this topic and the book of Uncaring via the links below.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Life’s most difficult decision: An excerpt from ‘Uncaring’ (RobertPearlMD.com)
• Learn more about the book ‘Uncaring’ (RobertPearlMD.com)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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 #116: Death of a Surgeon appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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As it was this time last year, ‘tis the season for sneezing once again. While carolers are coughing and shoppers are sniffling, podcast cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr are tracking the seasonal surge in Covid-19, influenza and RSV.

Half a year has passed since the federal government declared an end to the public health emergency for Covid-19. But public health experts are worried that the lack of masking and social distancing this year could send tens of thousands of Americans to the hospital before winter’s end.

On today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, listeners will uncover critical insights about this season’s most important health trends.

Here’s a snapshot of topics covered on today’s show:

• Tracking the ‘triple-demic’ this holiday
• The major downtick in vaccine boosters for Covid-19
• A major uptick in another vaccine-preventable disease
• A scary new statistic concerning a mental health crisis
• The risk of viral spread in nursing homes
• New poll suggests most Americans know someone with long-Covid
• A (very small) rebound in life expectancy after the pandemic
• America’s ongoing struggles to rein in healthcare costs
• The latest news with weight-loss drugs
• A new technology to empower patients like never before
• A big breakthrough in the battle against sickle-cell disease
• The biggest health story affecting kids and parents today
• Training more primary care doctors

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

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 #79: Why do viruses love the holidays? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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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:

• Whether doctors should “save a life at any cost”
• How the Terri Schiavo case influenced our nation’s views on end of life
• What are the rights of patients in terms of the “right to die”
• The purpose of advanced directives in medicine
• How ethics committees define “life” in medical disputes
• Weighing the input of doctors, patients and families
• The ethics of medical aid in dying laws
• Lessons from around the world about end-of-life care

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

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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)

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.

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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

• How America Skimps On Healthcare (Forbes)
• How Generative AI Will Upend The Doctor-Patient Relationship (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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.

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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:

• Organizational culture: what it is and isn’t
• How doctors learn “the unwritten rules” of medical culture
• How norms form and what control leaders have over them
• Why handwashing isn’t as normal in medicine as you might think
• Auditing and assessing norms as part of the culture-change process
• The power of subcultures within a healthcare organization
• How new leaders should approach cultural change in medicine
• What to do if you find yourself in a toxic culture
• Creating collectivist (vs. individualistic) goals in healthcare
• More powerful: a common purpose or a common enemy?
• Why gratitude goes a long way
• How generative AI (like ChatGPT) will change medical culture

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

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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:

• AI is making massive inroads in predicting next Covid-19 strains
• Paxlovid prices are going up: why and by how much?
• The link between Long Covid and inflammation
• Average family health premiums topped $24,000
• Why are patients less satisfied with hospital care?
• Telemedicine usage continues to dip following pandemic highs
• The results of 49 pilot programs since 2011 to reduce medical costs
• Study: daily exercise vs. anti-depressive medications
• How social determinants of health affect pre-teens
• The U.S. infant mortality rate is getting worse: Why?
• Hundreds of thousands exited healthcare profession in 2020-21
• Efficacy updates on the Covid-19, flu vaccines
• How rural areas are affected by hospital closures

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

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.

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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)

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.

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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

• The AI-Empowered Patient Is Coming: Are Doctors Ready? (Forbes)
• Dark Magic: Drug Companies And The Art Of Deception (Forbes)
• Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter)

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.

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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:

• Irrationality and “anchoring,” the use of prior decisions to make future ones
• The pitfalls confronting the consumers and producers of healthcare
• Why, in health, we need to celebrate the idea of “nothing bad happens”
• His work helping the Israeli government with its Covid-19 strategy
• How stress leads to a misbelief in doctors, the government, etc.
• Whether misbelief can be a positive for patients
• Much, much more

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.

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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:

• Data on the new vaccine and its efficacy against the newer variants
• The surprising reason Americans won’t get the new shot
• Why the CDC is recommending this antibiotic after unprotected sex
• The reason healthcare costs will rise 6.5% in 2024
• How health benefits affect entrepreneurship, employee wages and prices
• An unexpected development in government negotiations of drug prices
• The return of the free Covid-19 testing kit program
• Results of a genetically engineered pig heart transplant
• Why innovative medical researchers struggle to get due recognition
• KP’s massive labor strike and the reasons behind it
• A new entrant among the retail giants trying to disrupt healthcare

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

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.

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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)

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.

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It’s no secret that doctors hold themselves to incredibly high standards, driven by a dedication to patients and a desire to save lives. It’s also understood that, in medicine, self-imposed high standards are fully reinforced by colleagues, administrators and an endless chain of performance metrics.

However, less commonly understood (and almost never discussed) is how the pursuit of 24/7 perfection creates an environment where people are afraid to admit their wrongdoings, failures and limitations. The fear of making mistakes or acknowledging uncertainties frequently deters healthcare professionals from voicing concerns or proposing innovative solutions.

This kind of psychological safety vacuum has adverse consequences, says Amy C. Edmonson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School and a nationally recognized expert in leadership. She is the author of the new book “Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well.”

In this episode of Fixing Healthcare, Edmondson discusses:

• The two situations in medicine where it’s both okay and desirable to fail.
• How inclusive leaders can make medicine a journey of continuous learning.
• The need to create environments of psychological safety.
• The failure of the medical education system to create a ‘teaming’ mindset.
• The benefits of hierarchy in medicine and the conditions necessary for it to succeed.
• Much, much more.

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 #107: Amy C. Edmonson on ‘failing well’ in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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He’s back! Dr. Zubin Damania (aka ZDoggMD), one of the show’s most popular returning guests, rejoins Fixing Healthcare hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr for a heartfelt look at the ugly, imperfect and oh-so human side of medicine.

In this episode, the trio discusses:

• The roots of our anxiety as patients and as clinicians
• Why so many Americans put off preventive screenings and treatment for chronic diseases
• The fear that haunts so many doctors and nurses: making a mistake
• Taking shame out of unconscious bias so that we can honestly discuss solutions for inequitable care
• And, as an extension of all these difficult emotions, the men share their thoughts on the hit movie of the summer, Barbie

Dr. Z is a UCSF- and Stanford-trained internist and founder of Turntable Health, an innovative primary care clinic and model for Health 3.0. His persona, ZDoggMD, amassed an army of followers—owing to his clever healthcare parody videos and cutting take on modern medicine.

Hit the play button to start the episode or check out more background about our guest via the links below.

Helpful links:

• The Incident Report: ZDoggMD’s Live Show
• ZDoggMD’s website: Health 3.0
• ZDoggMD diagnoses the culture of medicine (on Fixing Healthcare)
• ZDoggMD has a plan to fix American healthcare (on Fixing Healthcare)

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 #106: ZDoggMD on patient anxiety, medical bias & the Barbie movie appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Albert Einstein pointed out that time is relative. And when it comes to healthcare, five years can feel like a long and short amount of time. That’s certainly true of ...

The post FHC #105: Diving deep into the good, bad and ugly of U.S. healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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The weight-loss drug Wegovy reduces serious heart disease, the nation’s No. 1 cause of death, according to a new clinical trial.

Proponents of the drug describe this finding as an added bonus to the drug’s prescribed purpose: shedding excess pounds.

In a nation where 60% of the population is obese or overweight and where 600,000+ die from cardiovascular events each year, the question is how can we afford not to prescribe more of these lifesaving medications?

The answer is complicated, says podcast cohost Dr. Robert Pearl, who explains that the cost of drugs in the U.S. remains disproportionately higher than in all other nations. The price of Ozempic (another drug known to assist with weight-loss) costs five times more in the United States than in Japan and 10 times more than in most European nations.

When it comes to paying for drugs that could make a huge difference in our nation’s health, who’s on the hook? That question and many others are answered on this episode of “Medicine: The Truth.”

Also featured on today’s program:

• The newest coronavirus variant: the most-transmissible yet?
• A newly approved medication for post-partum depression
• Why middleclass families have the nation’s highest medical debt
• Measuring the medical performance of AI vs. doctors
• Striking the right balance when regulating drugmakers
• The folly of BMI (body mass index) calculations
• Right arm or left: Does it matter when getting Covid vaccinations?
• Using pig kidneys for humans in need of a transplant
• The new leading cause of death for America’s kids
• The cost imbalance of weight-loss drugs in U.S. vs. elsewhere
• Reflecting on Robert Burgelman’s appearance on FHC
• The unending debate over physician autonomy
• Biden places 10 drugs on discount list for Medicare negotiations

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

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 #76: Can Rx weight-loss drugs help prevent heart attacks, too? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Dr. Robert Burgelman is the Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management and the Director of the Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. As a worldwide expert on ...

The post FHC #104: Robert Burgelman on strategic leadership in healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being, for a fascinating debate about American healthcare. Alongside cohost Jeremy ...

The post FHC #103: Too much or not enough in American healthcare? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Time and again, researchers have confirmed that the American healthcare system is ineffective, too expensive and falling further behind its international peers in critical measures of performance. In this episode ...

The post FHC #102: Diving deep into value-based care and the need for ‘system-ness’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Dr. Sachin Jain joins the podcast for the first time to talk about leadership in American healthcare. And his diagnosis is grim. “In American healthcare, we’ve lost our ethical and ...

The post FHC #101: Sachin Jain on the leadership crisis in American healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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More Americans over the age of 65 are now selecting Medicare Advantage over traditional Medicare for their health insurance coverage, according to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO). What’s more, ...

The post MTT #75: Original Medicare or Medicare Advantage? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Welcome to the 100th episode of Fixing Healthcare. To kick things off, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr are taking the opportunity to examine what has improved (and, notably, hasn’t ...

The post FHC #100: Diving deep into weight-loss drugs + toxic leadership appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being. Alongside cohost Jeremy Corr, Dr. Robert Pearl kicks off the ...

The post FHC #99: Why is healthcare so expensive and who will fix it? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Returning to the Fixing Healthcare podcast for a third time is Dr. Don Berwick, here to talk about the dire need for leadership to address our nation’s many healthcare crises. ...

The post FHC #98: Don Berwick on leadership, greed + a promising youth movement appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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As Americans everywhere gather around their BBQ grills and gaze up at fireworks, Fixing Healthcare hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl revisit an important episode from the show’s current ...

The post FHC #97: Fixing Healthcare flashback with Malcolm Gladwell appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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The FDA moved forward this month with a recommendation to change the composition of Covid-19 boosters in time for fall. Whereas the current vaxx, a cocktail designed to target the ...

The post MTT #74: A change in the Covid-19 booster? A new Alzheimer’s drug? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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U.S. healthcare is in financial crisis. Patients are feeling the pain, acutely. Nearly 90 million Americans are enrolled in Medicaid at a time when medical bills have become the leading ...

The post FHC #96: Diving deep into the financial crisis of U.S. healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being. He joins cohosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl to ...

The post FHC #95: This cardiologist took care of 20,000 hearts before taking care of his own appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Abraham Verghese is an American physician, author, Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Vice Chair of Education at Stanford University Medical School. He is also the author ...

The post FHC #94: Abraham Verghese on ‘The Covenant of Water’ and the practice of medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Dr. Zeev Neuwirth, Clinical Chief of Care Transformation for Atrium Health, returns to the Fixing Healthcare podcast for a tell-all talk about leadership in healthcare: the good, the bad and the nonexistent.

Neuwirth is the author of “Reframing Healthcare” and host of the podcast “Creating A New Healthcare.” His upcoming book “Beyond The Walls: Megatrends, Movements And Market Disruptors Transforming American Healthcare” will hit bookshelves this fall. It is, in many ways, a collection of insights from the foremost leaders in American medicine.

He joins Dr. Robert Pearl, a longtime healthcare executive and physician leader, and Jeremy Corr, CEO of Executive Podcast Solutions, to share what he has learned about effective leadership and what it will take to lift our nation’s healthcare system “over the wall” of traditional, inefficient, inconvenient and overly in-person medical care.

Helpful links: Beyond the Walls: MegaTrends, Movements and Market Disruptors Transforming American Healthcare (Amazon pre-order) * Creating A New Healthcare (Zeev’s podcast) * Can A Consumer Approach Transform American Medicine? (Psychiatric News) * It’s 2040: How Did U.S. Medicine Become Best In The World?* (Forbes)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a new book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.”

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 #93: Zeev Neuwirth on the future ‘titans’ of healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Today’s episode of “Medicine: The Truth” (formerly “Coronavirus: The Truth”) looks at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic on the same day that the Twitter hashtag #CovidIsNotOver is trending.

This month, both the U.S. government and the World Health Organization made decisive statements on the transition out of a global crisis.

“It is time for countries to transition from emergency mode to managing Covid-19 alongside other infectious diseases,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In support of that statement, Covid-19 deaths continue to fall and may soon dip below 1,000 weekly mortalities, which would put the virus’ annual mortality in the same range as seasonal flu and traffic accidents.

Still, more than 1.1 million Americans have died from the virus while many more live with comprised immune systems and, therefore, remain at heightened risk from infection. These troubling figures leave us with difficult questions.

How many Covid-19 deaths could have been avoided? Why did Black and Hispanic individuals die from Covid-19 more frequently than white and Asian people? Are we any safer or better prepared for the next pandemic?

Hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss these questions and several other pressing healthcare topics, including: a major change in the recommended age for mammogram screenings, the DEA’s plan to reduce deaths from opioid addiction and overdose, and new about FDA advisors backing over-the-counter birth control pills.

Tune in for the full conversation around Covid-19 and a host of healthcare topics. As always, Dr. Pearl and Jeremy eagerly follow the facts, uncover the truth, and help listeners understand how the world’s biggest healthcare stories affect us all. Click here for more info: https://www.fixinghealthcarepodcast.com/

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 #73: #CovidIsNotOver or is it? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Since ChatGPT burst onto the tech scene in November 2022, the generative AI application has become one of the hottest topics in the world—and in the world of medicine, especially.

Fixing Healthcare cohost Dr. Robert Pearl is a recognized med-tech leader whose insights and perspectives on generative AI have appeared in USA Today, MSN, Wired, Global News, MedPage Today, Modern Healthcare, Becker’s Hospital Review and on SiriusXM.

In this episode of ‘Diving Deep,’ Pearl tackles your questions about ChatGPT and its potential uses in medical care. He responds to dozens of listeners who have asked about the safety, security and potential risks of ChatGPT and other generative AI in healthcare.

Among the questions answered on today’s show: Will generative AI be HIPAA compliant and secure? Will it help with home health? How will it impact the doctor-patient relationship? Click play to learn more or check out the various links below for additional information.

HELPFUL LINKS

• ChatGPT’s Use In Medicine Raises Questions Of Security, Privacy, Bias (Forbes)
• Will Generative AI Wreck Or Rekindle The Doctor-Patient Relationship? (Forbes)
• ChatGPT is poised to upend medical information. For better and worse. (USA Today)
• ChatGPT Can Help Doctors—and Hurt Patients (WIRED)
• How ChatGPT may change the role of physicians (MSN via Global News)

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 #92: Diving deep into the future of AI in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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

He joins cohosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl to discuss the lines between human and machine.

ChatGPT is constantly challenging our understanding of what generative AI can accomplish. From acing medical-licensing tests to coding entire websites from simple prompts and even simulating talented musicians like Drake and Weeknd, the question now is: what can’t AI do?

Dr. Pearl posits that the singularity—a once-hypothetical future point at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable—may be nearing. Dr. Fisher points out that humans tend to overestimate their abilities and, therefore, are overlooking the many limitations of the human mind.

These observations dovetail with humanity’s existing anti-tech biases. Take self-driving cars, for example. Pearl notes that humans are often outraged when an autonomous vehicle kills a pedestrian and, yet, rarely is our outrage targeted at the 50,000 human-generated auto deaths that occur each year.

How will this thinking, and our very human biases, apply to medicine—both for patients and doctors?

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

When you realize your favorite new song was performed by … AI (NPR)

AI has better ‘bedside manner’ than some doctors, study finds (The Guardian)

Will generative AI wreck or rekindle the doctor-patient relationship? (LinkedIn)

ChatGPT can help doctors—and hurt patients (Wired)

ChatGPT’s raises questions of medical security, privacy, bias (Forbes)

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 #91: An unfiltered look at what AI can (and cannot) do appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Malcolm Gladwell—author of “Outliers: The Story Of Success” and “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants”—knows a thing or two about good leaders and bad ones. His insights on leadership blanket his popular books, articles and speeches.

He also knows a thing or two about navigating the American healthcare system. As a relatively new father and the son of a woman in her 90s, Gladwell says, “Observing people at those ends of life, you realize that what you really want from the healthcare system is reassurance as much as anything … You want someone you can call on the phone or email, and who will respond really quickly and tell you it’s going to be okay.”

In this episode of Fixing Healthcare, Gladwell combines his passion for codifying and analyzing effective leadership with his healthcare experiences to prescribe a new path forward.

He joins Robert Pearl, a longtime physician leader and healthcare CEO, and Jeremy Corr, CEO of Executive Podcast Solutions, for a sprawling discussion about blazing new trails in medicine—from hospital C-suites to physician offices to the AI systems that will undoubtedly impact the future of medical care.

Helpful links: Revisionist History (A Malcolm Gladwell podcast) * Malcolm Gladwell on breaking the rules of healthcare (FHC #43) * Outliers (book) * David and Goliath (book) * The ordinary greatness of Roger Bannister (The New Yorker) * Was Jack Welch the greatest CEO of his day—or the worst? (The New Yorker)*

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a new book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.”

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 #90: Malcolm Gladwell on a new kind of healthcare leader appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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On today’s episode of “Medicine: The Truth” (formerly “Coronavirus: The Truth”), hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle more of healthcare’s hottest issues and biggest problems.

Today’s show begins with the “end” of the Covid-19 pandemic. This month, the Biden administration signed a bipartisan congressional resolution to end the Public Health Emergency (PHE) declaration that began in March 2020 under then-president Trump. Pearl points out that the official White House notice brought the pandemic to a rather anticlimactic conclusion. After more than 1,000 days of “emergency,” there were no fireworks, no parades, nothing to celebrate a moment for which our nation waited years.

Pearl and Corr then take a step-back look at our nation’s Covid-19 response, offering perspective by comparing it with other high-level government failures.

“When I think of conflicts that ended poorly for the U.S., like Vietnam or Iraq, the conclusions of those wars were treated similarly to how the end of the Covid-19 emergency declaration was handled,” observed Pearl who then asks his cohost, “Do you think the lack of enthusiasm shown by how the government managed the official conclusion to the pandemic reflected a sense of failure or just an acknowledgement that Americans put the pandemic in the rearview mirror months earlier?”

Tune in for the full conversation around Covid-19 and a host pressing healthcare topics. As always, Dr. Pearl and Jeremy eagerly follow the facts, uncover the truth, and help listeners understand how the world’s biggest healthcare stories affect us all. Click here for more info: https://www.fixinghealthcarepodcast.com/.

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 #72: The Covid-19 pandemic is over! Did anyone notice? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Healthcare regulations have played an essential role in our nation’s health and safety. The FDA has, historically, protected the public from harmful food and medications. The DEA has prevented and investigated illicit drugs. CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, has regulated the healthcare system for seniors and people in need.

Fixing Healthcare cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss the role of regulators in the context of modern-day healthcare. They find that these regulatory bodies are in a position now to do more harm than good thanks to outdated thinking about technology and present-day healthcare delivery.

In this episode of Diving Deep, Pearl and Corr also return to a previous topic: the conglomerate of healthcare monopolies: hospitals, drug companies, insurer. These players wield tremendous power. But none is poised to win healthcare’s long game. The duo concludes today’s show by explaining who will control the “monopoly” board in five to 10 years.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Healthcare Regulators’ Outdated Thinking Will Cost American Lives
• In Healthcare’s Game Of Monopoly, One Player Will Control The Board

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 #89: Diving deep into medical regulations and monopolies appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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The Fixing Healthcare podcast welcomes back Ian Morrison. He is a globalist, futurist and popular returning guest who, in Season 1, taught us that “every healthcare system sucks in its own unique way.”

Now in Season 8, podcast cohosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl ask Ian to focus on leadership—how doctors, government officials and others can bring about meaningful change in the U.S. healthcare system. He highlights leaders who have driven healthcare improvement and ones who have stood in the way. And he describes what our nation will need to do in order to develop the leaders of tomorrow.

• FHC episode 6: Every healthcare system sucks in its own unique way
• FHC episode 45: Drs. Alexa and Siri? A healthcare futurist weighs in.
• Large Employers Are Suiting Up to Fix Healthcare (Medpage Today)

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 #88: Good healthcare leaders vs. bad healthcare leaders appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare features Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being. He joins cohosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl to discuss a pair of difficult topics in medicine: death and love.

To begin, Dr. Pearl asks Dr. Fisher to elaborate on why physicians find it so difficult to accept death as a natural part of life. Later, Pearl describes a patient who suffered greatly as a result of physicians continuing to provide treatments with no hope for cure or a return to normal. He wonders if patients and physicians alike would benefit from a measurement of the pain and discomfort inflicted on patients in their course of dying.

In the second half of the podcast, the two talk about the post-apocalyptic HBO series The Last Of Us. The doctors both found the show powerful and filled with high drama. But they were moved most by the love that characters demonstrated in the face of fear and desperation. They discuss how the themes apply directly to healthcare today and to the Covid-19 pandemic. Warning: minor spoiler alters.

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

Dealing with grief and shame—with Dr. Jonathan Fisher

Life’s most difficult decision: An excerpt from ‘Uncaring’

The best medicine for patients: The truth

Interview: How the culture of medicine kills doctors and patients

Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare: Following The Science

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 #87: An unfiltered look at death, medicine’s No. 1 villain appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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On today’s episode of “Medicine: The Truth” (formerly “Coronavirus: The Truth”), hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle more of healthcare’s hottest issues and biggest problems.

In this show, the hosts discuss the promise (and pitfalls) of generative AI and its future applications in medicine. Are patients ready to get their diagnoses and treatment plans from something (like ChatGPT) rather than someone (their doctor)?

The conversation then shifts to the monopolistic controls of drug makers and price-driving approaches that a longtime healthcare CEO and commentator Dr. Pearl says, “even I could never imagine.” Pearl describes a drug that generates $13 billion in revenue for a company that charges $200,000 per patient per year, 19-times more than it cost in 2007.

As always, Dr. Pearl and Jeremy eagerly follow the facts, uncover the truth, and help listeners understand how the world’s biggest healthcare stories affect us all. Click here for more info: https://www.fixinghealthcarepodcast.com/

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 #71: Why is this drug 19-times more expensive than it was in 2007? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Fixing Healthcare cohost Dr. Robert Pearl has long been a go-to resource on all-things AI in medicine. His recent insights and perspectives on ChatGPT have appeared in USA Today, MedPage Today, Forbes and other outlets.

In this episode of Diving Deep, Jeremy Corr asks Pearl about this new and highly controversial technology. How might it improve hospital care, medical education and patient health – and what are the potential pitfalls? That conversation is immediately followed by a familiar topic, as the hosts dive even deeper in healthcare’s conglomerate of monopolies. This time, they examine private equity-backed doctors and the health insurance industry.

As always, this show probes some of healthcare’s most complex topics and deep-seated problems, delivering thoughtful analysis and solutions. To dive in, press play and peruse the links below.

HELPFUL LINKS

• How Will ChatGPT Affect Medical Care? (USA Today)
• 5 Ways ChatGPT Will Change Healthcare Forever, For Better (Forbes)
• GPT-4 Is Here. How Can Doctors Use Generative AI Now? (MedPage Today)
• Poll: You down with ChatGPT? (RobertPearlMD.com)
• Private Equity And The Monopolization Of Medical Care (Forbes)
• Why Health Insurers Can, But Won’t, Break Up Medical Monopolies (Forbes)
• Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn Newsletter)

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 #86: Diving deep into GPT-4 (the new ChatGPT) and medicine’s future appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode, Dr. Robert Pearl fields questions from Fixing Healthcare co-host Jeremy Corr about Pearl’s experiences as a healthcare leader, educator, author and columnist.

This season’s focus: How better, bolder leadership can fix American healthcare.

Few know better than Pearl how to turn a struggling healthcare enterprise into a category frontrunner. Under his leadership, Pearl turned Kaiser Permanente into a leader in healthcare technology, quality and patient satisfaction—all while reducing prices. His proven track record and bold vision for the future of medicine represent the gold standard for health systems and primary care organizations across the country.

“Leadership is making things happen that otherwise would not,” says Dr. Pearl. “In broadest terms, leaders create a vision that others can see. Then they align people around that vision. And, finally, they motivate them to move forward.”

Learn more about Pearl’s path from surgeon to healthcare executive and hear his lessons on leadership in this must-hear episode.

Helpful links:

Dr. Robert Pearl and Kaiser Permanente: A Lesson in Strategic Leadership (Stanford)

Healthcare leadership: Making medicine a team sport (LinkedIn)

Brain, Heart, Spine: The Anatomy Of Healthcare Leadership (Forbes)

Becoming a Senior Physician Leader and the Power of Capitation (YouTube)

Permanente CEO shares leadership lessons learned throughout his career (Fierce Healthcare)

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a new book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.”

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 #85: Dr. Robert Pearl’s leadership vision for American healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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About 15 years ago, Dr. James Chen, a Taiwanese immigrant, was diagnosed with cancer. Throughout his treatment, he experienced the kind of fragmented, low-tech care that too many Americans accept as normal. After his recovery, Chen set out to create a new, better primary care system.

Today, his sons Christopher and Gordon Chen carry forth their father’s mission, providing underserved patients (primarily low-income seniors managing multiple chronic conditions) with a level of concierge-style care typically reserved for the wealthy. Chris, now CEO, and his brother Gordon, Chief Medical Officer, now oversee than 100 medical centers in 15 states.

This is season eight of Fixing Healthcare, which focuses on how leadership can drive transformative improvements in medicine. In this episode, the Chen brothers discuss the future of primary care, the role Medicare Advantage (and capitation) will play, and how their leadership philosophy honors the example set by their father.

HELPFUL LINKS

• Humana, ChenMed ink 5-year (Medicare Advantage) deal (Becker’s)
• Lessons on disrupting primary care (RobertPearlMD.com)
• Managing the most expensive patients (Harvard Business Review)
• The ChenMed channel (YouTube)

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 #84: ChenMed brothers feel ‘moral imperative’ to give seniors affordable, VIP care appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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On today’s episode of “Medicine: The Truth” (formerly “Coronavirus: The Truth”), hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr tackle healthcare’s hottest issues and biggest problems.

The show begins with a question: Why, according to the Commonwealth Fund, is American healthcare once again in last place, lagging its global peers? For the answer, Dr. Pearl borrows from the world of sports. Whether it’s “blocking and tackling” in football or “the plays you should make” in baseball, American healthcare falls short when it comes to the fundamentals: preventing disease, managing chronic illness, and keeping patients safe and out of the hospital.

In Covid-19 news, Dr. Pearl addresses the latest data out of China. While it has long been assumed the country uncounted its Covid-19 death toll (attributing less than 100,000 fatalities to the virus), analysis of year over year mortality rates indicates the true mortality total is between 1 and 1.5 million. This, despite nearly three years of lockdowns, resulting in major economic difficulties.

As always, Dr. Pearl and Jeremy eagerly follow the facts, uncover the truth, and help listeners understand how the world’s biggest healthcare stories affect us all. Click here for more info: https://www.fixinghealthcarepodcast.com/

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 #70: Why does U.S. healthcare rank last among wealthy countries (again)? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In any industry, too much market consolidation limits competition, choice and access to goods and services, all of which drives up prices.

But there’s another—often overlooked—consequence. Market leaders that grow too powerful become complacent. And, when that happens, innovation dies. Healthcare is a prime example.

Welcome to Diving Deep. Each month, this show probes some of healthcare’s most complex topics and deep-seated problems, delivering thoughtful analysis and solutions.

Today, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr explore the many ways healthcare has become monopolized, from hospitals and health systems to the drug industry and beyond. Whether you provide medical care or receive it, you’ll learn much from this conversation. To dive in, press play and peruse the helpful links below.

HELPFUL LINKS

• How Drug Companies Monopolize Medicine (Forbes)
• U.S. Healthcare: A Conglomerate Of Monopolies (Forbes)
• Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn Newsletter)

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 #83: Diving deep into the many monopolies of U.S. healthcare appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Valentine’s Day is here—a time to celebrate the heart. In this episode, Drs. Robert Pearl and Zubin Damania (aka ZDoggMD) discuss a series of studies confirming that interpersonal relationships (with friends, family, etc.) have the biggest impact on life expectancy and overall wellness.

This raises the question: Is there a role for medicine in addressing this most vital component of health?

At Turntable Health, the primary-care venture Dr. Z founded in Las Vegas, the traditional “waiting room” was converted into a community space where patients could hang out, have conversations, participate in mindfulness classes and even form friendships (in a HIPAA-compliant way, he added).

“We are social creatures and we need others,” says ZDoggMD.

In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, cohosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Pearl, along with ZDoggMD, discuss the “L” word, the importance of relationships in good health and how clinicians can set aside denial (a cultural tenet of medicine) and let emotion safely enter in to medical practice.

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

Social Relationships and Health: A Flashpoint for Health Policy

Loneliness and Social Isolation Linked to Serious Health Conditions

Healthy Relationships Matter More Than We Think

Do Social Ties Affect Our Health?

ZDoggMD’s YouTube playlist on “Consciousness & Mindfulness”

How One Clinic Disrupted Primary Care, Made Patients Healthier & Failed

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 #82: An unfiltered look at love and life expectancy appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Dr. Eric Topol, now a three-time returning guest on the Fixing Healthcare podcast, discusses 21st-century lessons in leadership.

Topol is the director of the Scripps Research Institute and a professor of molecular medicine. He has published more than 1,200 peer-reviewed articles and serves as the editor-in-chief of Medscape. He has authored three bestselling books including his most recent, “Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again.”

In this episode, Topol talks about the future of medical leadership and the role of AI (including ChatGPT), genomics research and genome editing, medical education and the retail/pharmacy giants in healthcare.

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 #81: Eric Topol on the future of AI, medical education and leadership appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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For three years, all eyes (and ears) were turned toward the Covid-19 pandemic. And since early 2020, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr have hosted the popular podcast “Coronavirus: The Truth.”

That show has cut through the fearmongering and misinformation circulated on social media to bring listeners the truth about the coronavirus—with informed commentary, helpful context and reporting from only the most credible sources. Over the past year, as other medical issues have rivaled this viral pandemic in threat and public interest, the duo have added broader healthcare topics to the show.

Today, “Coronavirus: The Truth” becomes “Medicine: The Truth.” Using the same format, the show will tackle healthcare’s hottest issues and biggest problems—including news and information about Covid-19 when relevant.

As always, Dr. Pearl and Jeremy will follow the facts, uncover the truth, and help listeners understand what’s holding back our nation’s health. Topics will feature the latest medical issues affecting patients and their physicians. The show will explore major public health problems, medical technologies, drug developments, and much more.

Listener note: If you’re currently subscribed to or following Coronavirus: The Truth on Apple, Spotify or any other podcast platform, you don’t have to change a thing. Just sit back and enjoy our new show Medicine: The Truth. If you’re new to the show, you can also hear it by following/subscribing to the Fixing Healthcare podcast.

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

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 CTT #69: Welcome to our new show ‘Medicine: The Truth’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Without looking it up, how many Americans do you think are enrolled in Medicaid, the government-funded program that provides health coverage to low-income adults, children and families?

The answer is one of three shocking healthcare statistics you’ll hear about on today’s program.

Welcome back to Diving Deep, the first new episode of the new year. Each month, this show probes some of healthcare’s most complex topics and deep-seated problems.

Today, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr dive into a topic that’s sure to surprise listeners: three shocking healthcare statistics for 2023. But first, the hosts go inside the newly sworn-in Congress to discuss three viable, beneficial healthcare laws that could (actually) pass over the next two years. To end the show, Dr. Pearl weighs in on what leaders can do, starting in 2023, to fix the mess that is American healthcare.

Whether you provide medical care or receive it, you’ll learn much from this conversation. To dive in, press play or peruse the helpful links below.

HELPFUL LINKS

• 3 Beneficial Healthcare Laws The 118th Congress Could (Actually) Pass (Forbes)
• 3 Shocking Healthcare Statistics For 2023 (Forbes)
• Brain, Heart Spine: The Anatomy Of Healthcare Leadership (Forbes)
• Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn Newsletter)
• Our Real, Existential Medical Crisis? (Keen On Podcast)

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 #80: 3 shocking healthcare stats + 3 beneficial healthcare laws appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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The internet (and nearly every American industry) is abuzz with a new phenomenon called ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), a remarkable artificial intelligence chatbot launched in November 2022 that has an uncanny ability to generate human-like text.

Recent headlines tell of the potential havoc this AI can inflict: “ChatGPT writes medical research abstracts that can fool scientists” and “Use of ChatGPT in counseling sessions is raising ethical questions.”

Dr. Z lauded ChatGPT’s ability to write a convincing Doc Vader script—a scary thought for the nation’s No. 1 healthcare satirist. But what else can AI accomplish? In this Unfiltered episode of Fixing Healthcare, cohosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl join ZDoggMD to talk about hyper-realistic AI and explore its influence on American healthcare.

Press play for a fresh take on this technology’s potential impact on medicine.

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 #79: An unfiltered look at ChatGPT and medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This episode kicks off season eight of the Fixing Healthcare podcast.

The guest: Dr. David Feinberg, currently chairman of Oracle Healthcare, former CEO of Cerner (acquired by Oracle in 2022), and previous head of both Google Health and Geisinger. This is Dr. Feinberg’s third appearance on the show. He joined hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr in season one (episode 3) and season six (episode 41).

The focus of Season 8: How better, bolder leadership can fix American healthcare.

As Dr. Pearl explains at the top of the podcast: “The medical and academic leaders featured on Season 8 of Fixing Healthcare will discuss the difference that strong leadership can make, both for patients and clinicians. I know their insights will be educational and inspirational. Hopefully, 2023 will be the year that our country takes the strides needed to make American healthcare, once again, the best in the world.”

In the episode, Dr. Feinberg and the hosts discuss:

• Getting patients to prioritize healthy choices and lifestyle changes
• Advice for future physician leaders
• What Google knows about maximizing public health
• Why tech has a trust problem among patients and doctors
• The benefits of teams and teamwork
• The government’s role in helping people make healthy choices
• Why good communication improves medical outcomes
• How leaders can rebuild medical care around the patient, not the clinician
• Whether it’s possible to achieve better quality, cost and access in healthcare—all at once?
• What is “human capital management” in medicine?
• Where healthcare leadership can be most effective (be it academic medical centers, community health systems or elsewhere) and the downsides of each

Helpful links:

David Feinberg joins Fixing Healthcare season 1 (episode 3)

David Feinberg joins Fixing Healthcare season 6 (episode 41)

A retrospective on Cerner’s transition to Oracle

The man behind Larry Ellison’s health care gamble

Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a new book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.”

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 #78: How leadership can fix healthcare, with Dr. David Feinberg appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This week, Fixing Healthcare hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl conclude their holiday tribute to episodes past with this 2018 interview of Dr. Don Berwick.

Don is the former president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and led the organization’s 100,000 Lives Campaign. He’s the former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and has served on the faculty for Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health.

This is the third and final Fixing Healthcare flashback episode—all of which have featured ideas from season one to fix American healthcare from the nation’s top leaders.

The purpose? To quote Dr. Pearl: “My hope in replaying these ideas is to help listeners once again realize how much could be done to transform American healthcare and improve people’s lives. And simultaneously, help them recognize how far we are from delivering the excellence in healthcare Americans want, need and deserve.”

Helpful links:

Season 1 explainer: ‘Welcome to the toughest interview in healthcare’

Episode 5 recap: ‘Don Berwick brings a global perspective to fixing US healthcare’

The full transcript of this episode with Don Berwick

Don Berwick: Profiles in leadership

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 #77: Fixing Healthcare flashback with Don Berwick appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This holiday season, Fixing Healthcare hosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl are mixing things up with a look back in time—way back, in fact, to the season-one finale with healthcare futurist Ian Morrison.

During this 2019 interview, Morrison earned the distinction of becoming the first (and still the only) guest to propose “Medicare Advantage for All” as a solution for fixing healthcare.

He explained: “Medicare Advantage for All reconciles different (American) values with regard to competition and the role of government, but mandates that everybody is in the system and covered.”

So, is “Medicare Advantage for All” a possible fix for the future of American healthcare? Did any of Morrison’s other healthcare predictions prove true? Tune in to find out.

Helpful links:

Season 1 explainer: ‘Welcome to the toughest interview in healthcare’

Episode 1 recap: ‘Ian Morrison says every healthcare system sucks in its own unique way’

The full transcript of this episode with Ian Morrison

Ian Morrison’s website

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 #76: Fixing Healthcare flashback with Ian Morrison appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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In this episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl discuss the long list of viral enemies attacking Americans this winter. Chief among them: Covid-19, RSV and seasonal influenza, the latter of which has tallied 8.7 million cases and 78,000 hospitalizations so far (40 times higher than at this point last year).

How seriously should American take these viral threats as we approach the holiday gathering season? You’ll find this topic and all the other [time stamped] questions from today’s show here:

[00:52] Each show begins with the most recent and relevant facts concerning the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on American life. What’s happening and what does it mean?

[02:45] Listener question: What’s the data on the new bivalent vaccine vs. the old one?

[07:48] How might researchers best communicate discrepancies in scientific data to patients? What should organizations like the CDC and WHO do?

[08:47] What’s new regarding the ‘tripledemic’ since the last episode?

[11:03] What’s happening with the flu?

[13:28] Why are Chinese citizens protesting “Zero-Covid” restrictions?

[16:28] What caused the near-global breakdown in public policy during Covid-19?

[18:53] Who are the people comprising the 300-350 deaths in the United States each day from Covid-19?

[22:50]: Kids and Covid-19: what’s new?

[25:03] What’s new in healthcare beyond Covid-19?

[26:44] How can patients help prevent the scourge of chronic disease in the United States?

[28:19] What has happened to cancer screening since the start of the pandemic?

This episode is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify and other podcast platforms.

If you have coronavirus questions for the hosts, please visit the contact page or send us a message on Twitter or LinkedIn.

To ensure the credibility of this program, Coronavirus: The Truth* refuses to accept sponsorship, outside funding sources or guests with any financial or personal conflicts of interest.

The post CTT #68: The worst flu season in over a decade? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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This Fixing Healthcare podcast series “Diving Deep” probes some of healthcare’s most complex topics and deep-seated problems.

On today’s episode, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss two imperatives for healthcare leadership in the 21st century: changing the way docs use technology and changing the way we pay for medical care.

For more information on healthcare leadership, check out Dr. Pearl’s latest columns on Forbes and LinkedIn. For listeners interested in show notes, here’s a discussion guide:

LEADERSHIP + TECHNOLOGY * What does the metaphor of the iron triangle represent in medicine? * Why is U.S. healthcare lacking effective leadership? * What is the “anatomy of healthcare leadership”? * How might a leader begin to change healthcare, locally? * What would leaders most like to change about the care patients receive today? * How do we make the ideal real in healthcare today? * What are some technologies that could transform medical care? * How could technologies change care for patients with chronic disease? * Once clinicians agree with the logic of new tech, how can leaders appeal to them on an emotional level? * How can real patient stories help persuade docs to embrace change? * In addition to the brain and heart, what is the role of the spine for leaders? * How did cohost Dr. Pearl use his spine to push technology forward at Kaiser? * What are the biggest problems a leader might experience when implementing new technological solutions?

LEADERSHIP + MONEY * Do Americans get what they pay for from healthcare today? * What are the biggest cost barriers to reforming healthcare? * What’s the problem with fee-for-service? * What is the alternative to fee for service? * How does “capitation” change the incentives for physicians? * Doesn’t capitation lead to delayed and denied care? * Why aren’t doctors jumping at pay-for-value models? * How do leaders use their brain, heart and spine differently to reform healthcare payments? * Can leaders make a case for capitation on an emotional level? * Why do leaders need a strong spine to advance capitation? * What else is needed to move away from fee-for-service as the method of reimbursement?

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 #75: Diving deep into healthcare technology and capitation appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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As a college freshman, Fixing Healthcare cohost Dr. Robert Pearl decided that rather than becoming a university professor as he had planned, he’d go into a field without politics: medicine. He laughs about how naïve he was as a 17-year-old.

“Healthcare is about life and death,” said Pearl, recalling his decision, “How could there be politics entwined inside that esteemed world?” Of course, Pearl soon learned that politics and medicine are a tangled mess.

In this episode of Unfiltered, Pearl and his cohost Jeremy Corr join ZDoggMD to look at the relationship between medicine and politics and if there’s any opportunity for logic to prevail.

To find out, press play or keep reading.

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.

UNFILTERED TRANSCRIPTJeremy Corr:

Hello, and welcome to Unfiltered, our newest program in our weekly healthcare podcast series. Joining us each month is Dr. Zubin Damania, known to many as ZDoggMD. For 25 minutes, he and Robbie will engage in unscripted and hard-hitting conversation about art, politics, entertainment, and much more. As nationally recognized physicians and healthcare policy experts, they’ll apply the lessons they extract to medical practice, then I’ll pose a question to the two of them based on what I’ve heard. Robbie, why don’t you kick it off?

Robert Pearl:

Hey, Zubin, how was your Thanksgiving?

Zubin Damania:

It was thankful. I really enjoyed it. My wife was on call, which meant we didn’t have to go through the full production of the meal. We went to a half meal, which was absolutely great. I had 70% less bloat and 100% more gratitude. How about you?

Robert Pearl:

I had a great time. I was over at my sisters and had a bunch of folks there. Did you do anything special to communicate your gratitude to others?

Zubin Damania:

I texted a lot of people that I had been a little out of touch with, and just to convey how important they are in my whole life and journey.

Robert Pearl:

Excellent. That sounds great. So I don’t know if I ever told you that I became a doctor to avoid politics.

Zubin Damania:

I didn’t know that.

Robert Pearl:

Yeah. So I was in college. I was a philosophy major, and my hero, who was a philosophy professor, quite an excellent one, he went on to become the chairman at Reed College, didn’t get tenure because of his political views, and I decided then that I wanted to do something that would have no politics. I mean, healthcare is about life and death. How could there be politics entwined inside that esteemed world? And so that’s truly why at the age of 17 I decided that I’d become a doctor, and I learned stuff later on. Any thoughts on that observation, and what we can do to minimize the politics in medicine?

Zubin Damania:

Well, you had me at philosophy major. I don’t remember you… You must have told me that, but that’s impressive. If I could go back in time and do it again, I would do philosophy instead of music and molecular biology, although that’s kind of philosophy in a way. Yeah, politics and medicine have been to some degree dance partners for a long time, but I think right now it actually just reflects how politicized everything is, and how everything is so kind of divided. Although, I’ll say this, Robbie, I’m sensing something in the air, and I might have said this at our last conversation, but I really think something is shifting. I feel like people are starting to wake up to the fact that we are really divided over nothing substantial in the sense that we’re all trying to find truth and goodness, and we just have a slightly different spin on it, and medicine maybe will wake up, but as usual, we’re about a decade or two behind the rest of the culture.

Robert Pearl:

Actually, I think that you’re correct, and I think we saw that in the most recent midterms that there was a lot more people I’ll say in the middle rather than the 20%, at both extremes, who were yelling the loudest and typing with all capitals and explanation points, but there’s a lot of people in the middle, and they want to know the truth. And I think in many ways, I’m not talking about the specifics of the outcome, but the election process itself, and, of course, we didn’t even have any attempt except in Nevada to just get rid of the entire voting and somehow have a different method of selecting candidates based upon maybe some sorcery or something else that could go into its place.

Zubin Damania:

Yeah.

Robert Pearl:

But one of the things… Sorry, go on.

Zubin Damania:

No, no, no. I was just going to say in Nevada we have a lot of interesting things like legalized prostitution among other things, so we are a special state.

Robert Pearl:

Oh, excellent. That’s right. You were there. Exactly. Legalized gambling, prostitution, so on. Yeah. One of the things that strikes me as I think about the politics is that you would think that the health status would drive the politics, by which I mean if a lot of people didn’t have coverage, then they would be attracted to a party that would be likely to give them the coverage, and we think about people voting their interests. If there was a lot of opioid addiction in a particular geography, you would think that that would be a very high concern, and yet we see almost the opposite. Tell me where you live, and I’ll tell you your view on a problem. Whether for you it’s a particular medical challenge or not doesn’t seem to be the driver as opposed to where you happen to own a home and in many cases grow up. This seems really strange to me.

Zubin Damania:

Yeah, it does, and again, all things seem strange if you look at humans as rational actors that work in their best interests all the time. And unfortunately I think we’re emotional, intuitive creatures that are the product of our conditioning and our moral sort of taste buds. And I think if your moral taste buds are concerned about say liberty versus oppression or government controlling things, even though you’re desperate for care, and you need it, and it would save your life or your family’s life, I think through that moral lens you’ll see any sort of government “intrusion” into healthcare is something that’s adverse, and you’ll fight tooth and nail.

There’s also a tribal component on all sides of this, like you said, where you grow up, and I think where you grow up is to some degree it conditions how you are, but to another degree you’re kind of attracted to those places that are an expression of your own sort of moral matrix. And so I think it’s a variety of those factors, and so people do not necessarily vote, or act, or think in their best interests always, if you look at their best interests from that standpoint. But if you look at their best interests as a morality play, they almost always do it in that way it seems. Yeah, that’s just my sense of this.

Robert Pearl:

I always love talking to you, because I think about things that I hadn’t contemplated before. About a decade ago, I did some research with a neurologist named George, and George and I looked at brain scans, and we looked at what happens when people get put into situations of great threat or great opportunity, and what we found, George York and myself, was that there’s actually a shift in our brain in terms of perception. In the last show you mentioned the amygdala, the source of great fear, and what you see is that the amygdala first gets stimulated, and then as you mentioned actually in the last show, how the occipital lobes change, and we see things differently, and by see it’s not just a vision. It’s all of our senses.

It’s our perception of the world, and maybe some of these pieces are that there are fears or maybe hopes that people have that actually change their perception. And when you move someplace else where there’s different fears, and different hopes, different views of the world because of circumstances, then you change that perception, and maybe that accounts for some of this great shift in how we relate to each other or fail to do so, and maybe some of it is coming together to recognize that we may share in more common fears and more common hopes than we otherwise might realize.

Zubin Damania:

This is a really interesting insight actually, Robbie, because it made me think of something. You were saying sometimes I’ll prompt you. This prompted me, because there is this idea that part of the reason where… There are many reasons why we’re so divided and politicized nowadays, but one of them might be that your local scenario kind of conditions you and vice versa, but the global village that we have with social media is that now there’s a saying, “Good fences make good neighbors.” When not much about someone else they’re actually all right. The more about them sometimes it’s like, “Hmm, I’m not sure about this.”

And when you take disparate ideas from different geographies that are evolved differently to suit that geography, and you place them adjacent to each other, that’s when the all caps starts happening on Twitter, because somebody that you never would’ve really known that well, and you still don’t know them well, but you know them in a social media way, are hitting you with ideas that seem so antithetical to that moral palette that they do generate that fear. It’s that fear of loss of identity, the fear of loss of self, that this is who I am, right? I’m this liberal, or I’m this conservative, or I’m this libertarian, and suddenly you’re met with somebody who’s giving you totally different ideas, and it becomes instantly a kind of like, “Okay, fight or flight. I must defend this,” sort of identity.

And what may be happening is we’re getting so used to social media now that we might be starting to transcend that initial shock and start to see what you’re pointing out, which is, “Hey, actually we’re all in this game.” And actually when you start to point out how divided we are, people start to wake up and go, “Yeah, we are kind of getting played by this, the news cycle, and social media, and this kind of thing.” So it is really interesting.

Robert Pearl:

So let’s try to meld the politics and the health. One of the areas that I’m increasingly concerned about is the LBGTQ population, and how in this environment they’re going to be able to get good healthcare across the nation in all 50 states. Do you have any thoughts about, first of all, the hatred that’s seems to be often directed particularly at trans individuals, and how will they get their healthcare needs met from an optimal medical perspective?

Zubin Damania:

Yeah. And this is one of those things where… Who said this? It was recently the World Cup, and the Iranian media was questioning American soccer players, and they asked a black soccer player. They said, “What’s it like living in a country where you’re discriminated against?” And obviously this was all politicized because of the whole Iran-US thing. And so this journalist was really trying to provoke this guy to say, “Yeah, we live in a super racist country where people are discriminated against because we keep accusing them of discriminated against women, which they do.” And he said, “Yeah, it is interesting, but I’ll say this, in America, one of the things I’ve noticed is we’re constantly trying to get better. There’s always some feeling that there is a kind of progress, and that makes it much easier to live here and deal with it, and I want to be part of the change.”

And I think with trans, with LGBTQ+, and all of that, I think that’s also what we see. These issues were repressed previously. Now the repression is less, and so we’re seeing them come to the fore, and it’s louder in sort of the culture, and so it’s easy to feel that there’s no progress, but I think that even that the conversations are happening is progress, so it’s a lot of it is ignorance. A lot of it is just lack of knowledge, and reactionism, and that kind of thing, and I think it is going to continue to progress. I mean, just look at the bill now that that’s going through the Senate where they’re going to codify protections on gay marriage say. That would’ve been unheard of a decade ago, and so I’m actually optimistic, but you can’t stop working for it, right? You can’t stop being part of the progress.

Robert Pearl:

Again, another interesting thought that I hadn’t had before about how as soon as you stop pushing forward, you slide back, and that it’s not a question of pushing forward always to make progress. It’s pushing forward even to hold the progress that you have, and I can think of a lot of examples where as soon as people stop pushing, what we see is that everything slides back to where it came from even though I can’t find the rationality for why it started there.

Zubin Damania:

Yeah, I think it takes a collective effort, and you’ll always get resistance and even understanding the resistance is a good thing. If you can see through other people’s eyes and go, “Okay, what is it that… What is this? Is this fear of other? Is this just misunderstanding? Is this a kind of projection where there’s something about them that they feel isn’t as mainstream, and they don’t want… They’re projecting this onto others.” You wrote your book Uncaring about medical culture, and I think what I loved about that book is that you just shined a direct light on things like emotional repression, projection, denial, the things that we do in medicine that we’re conditioned to do, that are really fundamentally quite harmful to progress, and I think it’s true in broader society as well. We have an epidemic, a pandemic of emotional repression, and avoidance, and projection as a result.

Robert Pearl:

Well, for any listeners who might not have read the book, let me point out that a part of why I focused on denial is that denial is what makes the medical culture great. How else do you go into the streets during the plague and take care of people knowing that it’s a contagious disease, even though you have no idea what contagion means, because it hasn’t been yet discovered, or how do you go into ERs and take care of patients early in the pandemic when you don’t have protective gear? You have to deny the risk to yourself in order to put the patient first, but I also note that that tendency towards denial can spill over when there are things that we don’t necessarily want to see, and I thought of that this week. I don’t know if you noticed that the Merriam Webster word of the year is gaslighting. Did you know that?

Zubin Damania:

I didn’t know that, but it doesn’t surprise me.

Robert Pearl:

Yeah, and there’s actually a lot of studies that have come out that said that it’s very frequent, and actually it’s very frequent in the LGBTQ+ population that we talked about, when they go for care. It’s actually very frequent when women go for care. I think many of the groups that have felt as though there’s a certain level of discrimination, the truth is that in the doctor’s office it’s there as well. The complaints are not taken as seriously. Problems that otherwise might be investigated are assumed to be simply psychological, and, of course, in medicine we deny that psychological is as important as physical, and you go on, and on, and on. Your thoughts on what we can do about it?

Zubin Damania:

Yeah, I mean, again, this is our culture. You’re right. I mean, and the gaslighting is an interesting thing because I think a lot of it is unconscious, right? People are doing it not intentionally. It’s a kind of pattern of behavior. You try to make people feel like they’re not right in the head because you’re either projecting or denying something about the nature of their care, and I think it doesn’t happen at a conscious level. So until you bring it into the light of awareness, and you actually make it explicit in a way that doesn’t actually threaten the identity structures of the person you’re talking with. That’s the problem is a full frontal assault, and I think this is why in the culture right now, the full frontal assault of progress on people who are more say conservative, it leads to kind of a psychological reactance, and because, again, we’re going to defend our identity structures on all sides of it.

So there’s a way to do that I think that is much more compassionate and actually effective. So we have to focus on those strategies. Those kind of alt middle strategies that I talk about I think are more effective ways to bring progress that also is inclusive of people that feel they’ve also been left behind.

Robert Pearl:

The reason I like the word denial, although I’ll have to tell you that there’s some readers who didn’t like it, but I like the word because of the point you just made. It’s subconscious. We’re not aware of it. We act in ways without being conscious that this is what we’re doing. We don’t see it, and that makes me think about all the problems that if you read the literature, it’s so clear how important they are, social determinants of health, racial disparities. You know, 10% of Americans are still uninsured. It used to be 16% before the ACA, and I don’t hear a whole lot of conversation about that. Last night, I teach in the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and last night our guest speaker was a guy named Dr. Dr. Devi Shetty, who’s been the podcast, and whom I’ve spoken about before, and it was fascinating.

What he said is that he believes that India will be the first nation in which the healthcare you receive will not be dependent upon the amount of money that you have. In his mind, in a nation of 1.4 billion people. And the podcast he did with me a couple of months ago is just so inspirational. It’s great, and this reflected it. He worries about all 1.4 billion people and asks himself, “How do we provide care to the last of that 1.4 billion that’s as good as we provide to the best?” And in our country we tell ourselves we provide the same care to everyone, but when you look at the data, there’s not a shred of truth about that, and I don’t hear it being talked about in a broader context of people.

I think people look at it very much by what do I and my family get? What do the people that I’m most close with in my community get? And that’s about as far as we look, and we don’t see all the implications. It’s mainly about the system of healthcare, but I think it’s really about the values of the nation.

Zubin Damania:

Yeah, I think what you nailed particularly explicitly there is the values of the nation, and America really was kind of founded in this kind of oppositional way where there’s almost an unwritten social contract that listen, listen, listen, listen, we all hate rich people for being rich and having everything, but secretly we want to be that rich person, and one day we want to have those things, and we want that opportunity to do that, to live at the top of the hierarchy. And I think it’s an unconscious kind of contract that has existed in the strata of American psyche for a long time, and that’s why something as egalitarian as a universal coverage, or everyone being treated equally in healthcare is something in the American psyche that reacts to that, and to be honest, I mean, my parents are from India. It is a vastly hierarchical, horrifically hierarchical.

In fact, when I first visited, I was taken aback by the servant class there that was treated almost akin to slaves. I mean, and part of this is the sort of general caste system, but it’s just all accepted there. And coming from America, it was a shock. It was like, “Wait, wait, you can’t treat other humans like this.” So it’s good to see Devi Shetty actually trying to unwind that, because on some level there’s aspects of Indian culture that are so community focused, and we’re all in this together. And so those things coexist, and so it can be a little schizophrenic at times.

Robert Pearl:

Well, I think that’s very true what you said, because I’ve been there too, and the disparities are massive, but the idea of asking, of starting with the question, “How do we provide excellent care to all,” I think is a fascinating path. It’s the one that he’s on, and interestingly enough, much of his answer is technology. And he says that because in a poor country there’s not enough resources. If I have a sack of rice, and I give half of it to you because you’re hungry, I only have a half sack left. If I have a computer program that allows me to get great care, and I give you a copy, I still have my computer program. And so it’s a resource that you can give away. It’s like gratitude. I can give you all the gratitude in the world, and I haven’t depleted myself at all. In fact, I’ve actually augmented my satisfaction, my happiness, my fulfillment.

Zubin Damania:

I think that’s a beautiful way to put it, and it’s very similar to thinking about compassion as opposed to empathy. Empathy is feeling someone’s pain, affective empathy as your own. That does exhaust you, actually, but compassion, which is love and concern in the face of suffering and an unconditional kind of love, that actually fills you with kind of an elevation, and it’s inexhaustible. And so technology, absolutely, so there was ways to scale what we do in medicine that allow the human relationship at the center to kind of still flourish while scaling, and I think you’re absolutely right. You’re absolutely right. And actually, it’s got to be central to our answer, because we have resource limitation across the globe when it comes to high quality healthcare. So how do you scale it in that kind of way? I like that software analogy. It’s actually a very good one. One piece of software can serve infinite numbers of people.

Robert Pearl:

Absolutely. So let me ask you a slightly tangential question, but it still is this split in society that it’s been bothering me ever since I read the Pew Research study on it about two weeks ago, and I’ve wanted to ask you about it. So in this study, only 41% of people, and this was 12,000 individuals they surveyed, thought that scientific experts are better than others at making policy decisions about scientific issues, and that negative view is held by both Democrats and Republicans. We’ve looked at this question of scientific expertise throughout COVID 19, and we’ve certainly come to the conclusion that those with the scientific backgrounds aren’t necessarily the ones that we should be trusting, and I wonder your thoughts. You’ve been right in the middle of this scrum, if you want to think about it in that way, over this issue of the role of the expert as we look at whether you want to talk about COVID or just healthcare policy in general.

Zubin Damania:

Yeah, this is something that really, like you said, I’ve been kind of in the middle of it, and this is the thing. I have always kind of worked hard, early pre-pandemic especially to defend the role of expertise in healthcare, because it is invaluable. When you’re talking about recommending a type of surgery, having an interaction with a patient where it’s an interpretive dance of their hopes, dreams, and fears, and goals, and your knowledge. The your knowledge component is a very important part of the equation, right? Now, I think what’s happened here though is… And the fact that Democrats and Republicans are both saying this makes you think also of China. So here you have say let’s say a scientific technocracy, autocracy ruling class that says, “You know what? We can actually literally prevent deaths by locking people in their homes, and the number of deaths that result from that will be less than the number of deaths that happen from COVID.”

And to some degree so far they’ve proven themselves correct, because they have the lowest per capita, if you believe their numbers, per capita death rate from COVID, but they’ve had to do these draconian things about policy-wise, and just now people are standing up and saying, “You know what? Enough is enough.” And I think what humans here are saying in America, are saying is, “Yeah, it’s…” or they’re not saying this explicitly, but I think this is the motivation is, “Expertise is great and wonderful, but when it comes to policy, we actually want to determine what our values say in the setting of that knowledge. So it may be that we could prevent all this COVID, but we’re actually more interested in going out to eat, seeing our friends without masks, not having our kids be out of school,” these kind of things.

And so that disjunction between values, which are what politics tries to apply, or policy, and scientific expertise I think has manifested now with people saying, “You know what? I don’t trust these guys to make policy.” And so I think that’s what’s happening. Now, I’m curious what you think, but that’s been my feeling. And the problem is they’re throwing the baby out with the bath water, so now they’re like, “Well I don’t trust these guys to tell me I should vaccinate my children against mumps, because the way they managed COVID I felt was incompatible with my values. What are they telling me about mandates for childhood vaccines?” So it’s really causing all this collateral damage to public health now.

Robert Pearl:

No, I really love that, because as you know, I’ve been focusing a lot the past year on these rules of healthcare that I believe many of which need to be broken, and we have maybe the strongest rule, which is to save a life at any cost, and at any cost means any cost. If kids lose a year of school, that’s a cost to save one life, or two lives, or three lives. Now, we could spend a lot of time debating this issue. It’s certainly been debated by Talmudic scholars across history, but I think at some point we have to accept that death is a reality that we can’t overcome, and we probably need to take a broader view of what that means. What’s the impact to people’s lives of missing a year of education? What’s it going to mean for them and their families? How many people are going to die even though we won’t know exactly who they are as a result of that because of their family’s socioeconomic situations? Those conversations never penetrate into medicine.

Zubin Damania:

Oh, you nailed it, man. And again, it gets to get to that root of what you wrote about in Uncaring. It’s our denial, which again can be an adaptive denial. It’s unconscious about that death is something that is inevitable, and that it’s not necessarily the worst enemy, and it has to do with your values. So Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, who’s been on my show several times, is coming again on Saturday. Early in the pandemic, we started doing a series of shows where we were really trying to talk people off the ledge a little bit and talk about these issues. And she said to me, and she said this on camera eventually, but initially she told me off camera that she had lost her husband, who was roughly her age, late forties, early fifties to cancer right before the pandemic, and he was a cardiologist, worked super hard.

Who knows if it was radiation exposure or what, but he had a head and neck cancer, and he died, and she has two young sons, and she’s raising them alone now, and the pandemic hits, and she’s watching people, the medical system treating death like it is the worst possible thing in the universe relative to actually living your life. And it became a kind of passion for her to say, “Listen, we all look at risk differently. Here’s how you can look at risk here rather than just save a life at any cost.” And that was part of her motivation. And again, she was woken up by this tragedy that hit her and her family, and sometimes it takes something that horrible to pull the rug out of under your denial, and you shouldn’t have to have that, right? We ought to be cognizant of this as a society and as individuals in healthcare, but it’s not been part of our sort of process.

Robert Pearl:

Let me ask you one last question. It’s one question that I got asked. I was keynoting a large event a couple of weeks ago, and at the end you know you have the Q&A, and an individual stood up, wasn’t a physician, and asked me whether with more and more doctors becoming employees, whether we’re seeing, and he used the phrase, “Loss of motivation to drive change,” whether medicine is just similar to everyone else with quiet quitting, and burnout, and a sense that dedication to work isn’t worth the effort and the energy, or whether the traditional purpose and mission of medicine still persists. You have probably the broadest network of millions of people who follow you and communicate with you. What do you think? How would you answer that question?

Zubin Damania:

That’s a great question, and from the standpoint of say an independent physician, you might ask that question. From a standpoint of an employed physician, you might not know anything differently, but this is my take. Hey, remember when we didn’t have a lot of employed physicians? How much change, progress, innovation, and transformation did we get? Zero. It’s the same thing that they’re all conditioned by their incentives, by their training, by inertia, by fear. And the employed physicians have a different set of conditioning in inertia and fear, but I don’t think it’s vastly different than the old way of doing things in terms of generating innovation. I think if you want to find the roots of our failure to innovate or to feel invested in the change, I think it goes right to medical school, which you’ve talked about.

I mean, we’re basically trained to, we’re conditioned to memorize facts, half of which are eventually shown to be untrue, but they don’t tell you which half, because they don’t know, and then you’re conditioned to obey authority in the second two years, and you’re afraid you’re going to hurt someone, and you don’t want to rock the boat. And so it doesn’t matter. You come out with that conditioning. You’re really trained that way. So employed or not employed, at least if you’re an employed physician, you have this network of support, and you have an organization theoretically that could support you, or it could be seen to be trying to harm you or control you, but a lot of it is our own perspective until we kind of wake up to what we’re repressing, denying, projecting, and so on in our own conditioning, our system is going to be very unlikely to change, because our organizations are epiphenomenon of who we are.

Robert Pearl:

My answer was that, no, what I see is physicians are just as motivated to want to make medicine better, just as motivated to want to do the best for patients. They’re frustrated by the system. They’re frustrated by the inability to make change happen, and sometimes when you’re frustrated you lose the energy needed to try to drive change, but I still believe, and maybe I’m being too optimistic, which is why I asked you, or maybe just too idealistic, that the people who go into medicine are motivated by the right reasons, and that given the opportunity, they would push hard on the block, the cart, whatever you want to be saying it to be, to move it forward, and to make it accelerate at an ever faster rate.

Zubin Damania:

Oh, I think you’re absolutely right given the opportunity, and when they see these little cracks. We all think about our best day in medicine, and it’s always this kind of connectedness. It’s always this kind of autonomy, tools, teams, trust, and the patient. And it just kind of is a flow state, and I think if you give people more opportunities to actualize those flow states, show them bright spots where these things are working, and kind of just point directionally, because we all kind of know where we kind of generally want to be. We just don’t necessarily know how to get there. I think things will start. It’s inevitable. The change is already happening. It’s like what we said earlier in the thing. I sense the shift in the air.

I think the same thing is happening in medicine. There’s huge intractable seeming problems, but it’s always that way before the caterpillar spins the chrysalis and the transformation happens that you could never have predicted. So I think I’m with you on the optimism. I may be less of an idealist in this sense that it’s going to be a lot more brutal I think, and people will feel a certain way about it that’s very negative, but I think it’s inevitably going to go in a good place if we keep on the direction.

Robert Pearl:

I love it, because I’m more of an idealist. I think people have all the right motivation. I’m a little bit less of an optimist, because I think the hurdles are so tall that it’s going to take a massive amount of energy to make change happen, but with that, let’s turn it over to Jeremy for his question to us, and I can’t wait to have the next opportunity to be able to learn from your experience, and to have new views into the world.

Zubin Damania:

Likewise.

Jeremy Corr:

When it comes to politics, many voters on both sides of the aisle seem to think that the elected officials on their side are fighting for them when it comes to healthcare, while believing the other side is making healthcare worse for both them in society, whether it’s the issue of abortion, Medicare, drug pricing, transgender issues, et cetera, and I would say that the hot issue on everyone’s mind right now is freedom of speech versus censoring what some people consider disinformation or hateful speech on social media. What I really want to ask though is for a reality check from both of you. When there is so much money in politics via campaign financing, lobbying, et cetera, coming into both Republicans and Democrats from big pharma, health insurance companies, health tech companies, et cetera, is either side really fighting for the best interests of lower and middle class voters when it comes to healthcare issues, or are they just focusing on keeping these big and influential healthcare companies happy?

Zubin Damania:

Oh, I’d love to defer to Robbie first on this one, because I’m dying of curiosity to hear your take.

Robert Pearl:

I think, Jeremy, you’re raising two separate issues. I think the first issue is relative to the healthcare system, and a professor that I teach with, Robert Burgelman at Stanford, talks about medicine as being a super unmoving industry. Nothing changes over time, and he doesn’t understand why that is the case, and I think you’ve described the reason, which is there’s so many people in it, around it, impacted by it, making money from it for whom change is not what they want, and they have the power, and they have the money to be able to make stability be the example that sits within it. In contrast, I think that within the healthcare itself, that the politics, that the money is not the force that’s restraining change. I think that it’s within the people itself, it’s the difficulty of making that change happen, and I think it’s the amount of time that it takes, and I just think that it’s too much.

And that’s why I’m a big believer that the change will come not through the political process, because I think that will be blocked by the money forces that exist, but it’s going to come actually through the economics, and that’s why I’m a big believer that it’s going to be the retail forces that will drive it, the Amazons of the world and the CVSs of the world, the Walmarts of the world that are going to make the change happen. I think they’re going to drive it not necessarily out of some commitment to improving the health of people. They’re going to drive it out of a profit motive, but I think that it will create a more positive change for the country, at least that’s my optimism, and that I think that once physicians get behind it, and nurses get behind it, and patients get behind it, and they can see an improvement to happen, that there will be what Zubin has talked about, this very major shift suddenly, and what seemed impossible and then seemed possible now will seem inevitable.

Zubin Damania:

Yeah, and I think Upton Sinclair, I think it was, who said, “It’s impossible to make a man believe something if his salary depends on him not believing it.” And I think in medicine for many people, our salaries depend on us not believing, not changing to some degree, and that includes big legacy players like pharma, and insurance companies, and those kind of things, and politics just feeds right into that, and money is all the currency, the lifeblood of that. But once, like Robbie says, once the realities of the economics start to click in, and you do have these sort of disruptive agents like Amazon kind of pushing things like our old Turntable/Iora Health Model that’s now part of Amazon, when those are normalized, and consumers, the patients are able to vote with their feet a little bit, you’ll start to see change, and it will pull in especially the younger generation of healthcare professionals, who have been kind of hungry for this kind of change. They want to do the right thing. They are idealistic, and given an opportunity to practice in that kind of world, they’ll take it.

So it’s actually very, very, very encouraging. I think the shift will happen. Now, the last pitch I’ll give is personal, and I always say this, and I’m sure I can feel this is probably not true, but I can feel Robbie rolling his eyes at me. It is that people have to wake up too to their own transformation. They have to see that this sort of egoic striving that we’ve always been conditioned to do is a bit of an illusion, and once we see past that, we do emerge a world where that is actualized in a way that it’s very hard to predict, but it’ll definitely be better than what we’re going through now.

Jeremy Corr:

We hope you enjoyed this podcast, and we’ll tell your friends and colleagues about it. Please follow Fixing Healthcare on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. If you like the show, please rate it five stars and leave a review. If you want information on healthcare topics, you can visit Robbie’s website at Robertpearlmd.com or visit our website at Fixinghealthcarepodcast.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter at Fixing HC Podcast. Thank you for listening to Fixing Healthcare’s newest series, Unfiltered, with Dr. Robert Pearl, Jeremy Corr, and Dr. Zubin Damania. Have a great day.

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Season seven of the Fixing Healthcare podcast focuses on the unwritten and outdated rules of American healthcare—many of which Dr. Marty Makary would badly like to see broken. In this ...

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A group of researchers in the UK examined hundreds of brain scans that were taken both before and after people became infected with the coronavirus. The study, published in Nature, ...

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Welcome back to the Fixing Healthcare series, “Diving Deep,” which features a robust and probing discussion about some of healthcare’s most deep-seated problems. In this episode, Dr. Robert Pearl Jeremy ...

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Welcome to Unfiltered, a new show that brings together two iconic voices in healthcare for an unscripted, hard-hitting half hour of talk. Twice, Dr. Robert Pearl has appeared on The ...

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The Fixing Healthcare podcast welcomes back Ian Morrison, a globalist, futurist and popular returning guest who, in Season 1, taught us that “every healthcare system sucks in its own unique ...

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After more than two years of Covid-19 restrictions, most parts of the country are dropping mask mandates per new CDC guidance. It seems government officials are more confident than ever ...

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Welcome to the new Fixing Healthcare series, “Diving Deep,” which features a robust and probing discussion about some of healthcare’s most deep-seated problems. With cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy ...

The post FHC #44: Diving deep into how we select and pay American doctors appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Research on 4,000 women over six months found that Covid-19 vaccines are linked to a small increase in menstrual cycle length. Such a delay is common when a woman’s body ...

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Some of medicine’s greatest breakthroughs began as seemingly crazy ideas. In the 1950s, for example, Dr. Emil Freireich hypothesized that the only way to cure childhood leukemia was to take ...

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When it comes to healthcare, the digital hands of Google reach far and wide. Medical school students and residents use Google Search to find obscure case reports and make difficult ...

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Drug makers Pfizer and Moderna are testing a new vaccine specific to the Omicron variant—with an ETA around summer 2022 or even later. The timing is important as scientists recognize ...

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These days, it seems just about every decision comes with risk: Should I invite friends or family over? Should I dine out? Can I safely return to work or school? ...

The post CTT #55: Can I trust the results of at-home Covid-19 tests? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Greetings and happy-ish New Year. If you’re here for the latest information on Omicron, check out episode #53 or tune in for episode #55 on January 18, 2022. For now, ...

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This week’s guest is Fixing Healthcare alum David Feinberg. In August 2021, Dr. Feinberg was named CEO of Cerner, a leading provider of “electronic health records” or EHRs. Just four ...

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CTT #53: How dangerous is Omicron, based on the latest data? Omicron, the mysterious new variant accounting for nearly 3 of every 4 new cases in the United States, is ...

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Medical professionals and budding entrepreneurs love to talk about the technologies that will someday revolutionize patient care. Our guest on Fixing Healthcare is already funding and fashioning those technologies to ...

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This week, America has Omicron on the mind. Listeners flooded the CTT inbox with questions about the new variant. Among them: Is Omicron more transmissible or lethal than Delta? Are ...

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Americans who’ve received two shots of Pfizer or Moderna, or the single-dose J&J vaccine, are considered “fully vaccinated” … for now. That could change, depending on the data, according to ...

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George Halverson was CEO of Health Partners in Minnesota for 18 years and CEO of Kaiser Permanente for 12. As a health-plan leader, he spent 30 years fixing healthcare. He ...

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There was time when Coronavirus: The Truth cohosts Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl assumed the show would be irrelevant and retired by episode 20. This week, which marks the ...

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In this episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl tackle more than a dozen timely and tricky Covid-19 questions. This week: What should listeners know about ...

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Merck’s new oral antiviral medication (molnupiravir) has been labeled a “huge, huge advance” in the fight against Covid-19 by a Harvard Medical School virologist. The pill also has been called ...

The post CTT #48: Is Merck’s anti-Covid pill really the ‘holy grail’? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Our guest today is Dr. Ernest Grant, president of the American Nurses Association (ANA). He is the first male president in the organization’s 125-year history. And his passion for nursing ...

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Data points, alone, never tell the whole story. Numbers are often used and misused to confirm our personal biases rather than to inform or reform our thinking. No matter how ...

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A listener wrote in about Ivermectin—a drug used to kill worms and parasitic infections—because her friends had recommended it for treating Covid-19. To date, 14 studies have concluded that Ivermectin ...

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Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, envisions a future where the iconic “H” comes to symbolize much more than a building where people go for acute ...

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A while back, Houston Methodist hospital gave its 26,000 employees an ultimatum: Get vaccinated or get a new job. All but 100 or so workers complied and, now, hospital leaders ...

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“As you know my son starts kindergarten in a couple of weeks,” Jeremy Corr said to his cohost Dr. Robert Pearl in this episode of Coronavirus: The Truth. “I know ...

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Goodbye, Marcus Welby, M.D., that lovable TV doctor from the early ‘70s whose humble private practice dealt with everything from impotence to Alzheimer’s disease. Hello to integrated, team-based, 21st-century medicine ...

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In this episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, Jeremy Corr and Dr. Robert Pearl dive deep into the ever-thickening plotline around booster shots. Drug companies like Pfizer are pushing for them. ...

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“How worried should people be about the Delta variant?” asked one listener of Coronavirus: The Truth. The answer: Very. “Data published online this week shows the Delta variant spreads 225% ...

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This episode kicks off season 6 of the Fixing Healthcare podcast and, this time around, cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr are flipping the show’s format on its head. ...

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A close look at data from 2.9 million households revealed something bizarre about birthdays. Results of a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine indicated a 31% higher frequency of Covid-19 ...

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As the pandemic winds down, scientists and pollsters are looking closer at public health decisions in hindsight. A new Axios-Ipsos poll looked into whether masking and social distancing actually saved ...

The post CTT #40: Was social distancing a waste of time? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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The first four seasons of the Fixing Healthcare podcast focused on how to fix the U.S. healthcare system—its perverse payment model, clunky computer systems and regulatory dysfunctions. However, contrary to ...

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Several recent news stories have revived the debate over whether the novel coronavirus was first transmitted from a bat to a human via a wet market in Wuhan, China, or ...

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Dr. Anthony Fauci recently called for schools to reopen “full blast,” with in-person classes five days a week. Meanwhile, CDC officials said that schools should resume in-person learning as soon ...

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Marty Makary, a nationally renowned surgeon and educator at Johns Hopkins, goes about life as if having ingested a truth serum for which there is no antidote. Hear him speak ...

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Co-host Dr. Pearl spoke with several critical care physicians in a recent Forbes article. One of those doctors described waking up regularly before sunrise, covered in sweat. Another seasoned physician ...

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The FDA has recommended a temporary pause of the J&J vaccine until scientists can sort out what’s causing a rare (and, in one case, fatal) blood clot in a six ...

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Alison Hadden is a lifelong athlete, an adventurer and was, by age 38, a marketing executive at three different billion-dollar tech companies. But in 2018, Alison says “life burst through ...

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As vaccines get rolled out to younger and younger Americans, parents have questions and are raising serious concerns. Polls show just half of U.S. parents plan to get their children ...

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On Forbes, Dr. Robert Pearl wrote about his recent trip from San Diego to New York, which he referred to as the “Covid-19 Flight From Hell.” The article has been ...

The post CTT #34: What happened after Dr. Pearl’s ‘Covid-19 flight from hell’? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Dr. Jen Gunter is known by many titles. She’s been called Twitter’s resident gynecologist, the Internet’s OB-GYN, and medicine’s fiercest advocate for women’s health. In her writing for The New ...

The post Episode 31: Dr. Jen Gunter vs. sexism, pseudoscience & the wellness-industrial complex appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Moderna, Pfizer and now Johnson & Johnson have emerged as surprising heroes of the Covid-19 pandemic—pulling our nation out of this pandemic one vaccine shot at a time. This week, ...

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A respected doctor recently published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal predicting, “We’ll have herd immunity by April.” Many other respected doctors took to social media to contradict him, ...

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When the producers of Fox first reached out to Dr. Lisa Sanders with the idea of turning her New York Times column into a TV show called House, she was ...

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A listener of this show wrote in with a question about her ongoing coronavirus symptoms. A month after testing positive, she’s still not back to feeling like herself. According to ...

The post CTT #31: How long do Covid-19 symptoms persist? What’s a normal recovery? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Variants (or mutant strains) of the coronavirus have popped up in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil. These strains are highly transmissible, sparking concerns that the variants could be more ...

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American doctors have it rough these days. Not only are they fighting to keep Covid-19 patients alive as hospitalizations surge, but they are also struggling to navigate the ever-changing and ...

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In a Northern California hospital, a freezer containing over 800 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine suddenly broke down. Local leaders realized they had less than two hours to administer the ...

The post CTT #29: What went wrong with the vaccine rollout? Is it fixable? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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It has been a busy two weeks for news outlets covering the coronavirus pandemic. The holidays brought a surge in new cases and deaths. A coronavirus mutation was reported in ...

The post CTT #28: Are coronavirus mutations in the UK cause for concern in the US? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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On Friday, the FDA authorized Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. The announcement marked a major milestone in the fight against the coronavirus. Still, there’s a lot left to be sorted out in ...

The post CTT #27: Now that a Covid-19 vaccine is approved, what’s next? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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American doctors have gained a reputation for resisting the types of technologies that could make healthcare more convenient and cost-effective. But have physicians really earned their technophobic stigma? This episode ...

The post Episode 28: Eric Topol sees the future of medicine as ‘man plus machine’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

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Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr dedicated Episode #25 to addressing the most prevalent conspiracy theories about Covid-19. The show dove deep into the ...

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Welcome to episode 25 of “Coronavirus: The Truth,” a podcast that focuses on the facts surrounding COVID-19. Today’s show breaks from our traditional format. It is dedicated to addressing the ...

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Back in June, a young Black physician stood outside the Sterling Hall of Medicine at Yale University with a sign in her hands that read: “Stop Killing Black People.” Then ...

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Podcast cohost Jeremy Corr is the father of a four-year-old son. Like many parents, Jeremy is inundated with information (much of it conflicting) about the coronavirus, its spread among children ...

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Last Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Americans to rethink their Thanksgiving plans. Reactions have been mixed. Some people agree with public health officials. Others are outraged. Regardless of the reaction, ...

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In this episode, Fixing Healthcare hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr welcome their first returning guest, Zubin Damania, a physician and entertainer known to his legions of followers as ...

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President Donald Trump tweeted today that he will soon leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he has been receiving treatment for Covid-19. Trump’s physician said the president is ...

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There has been no shortage of surprising statistics to emerge from this pandemic. Dr. Robert Pearl’s upcoming Forbes article, “Three Misleading, Dangerous Coronavirus Statistics” (available here on Tuesday, Sept. 21), ...

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No expert has gained more insight into the organizational factors associated with physician and health-system performance than Stephen M. Shortell. He is a graduate school professor and dean emeritus of ...

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In this, the 20th episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr address the most pressing questions concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. What are “super spreaders”? Will ...

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Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Americans have time and again seen highly touted solutions fall short of their hype. Remdisivir, once thought to be a miracle treatment, was recently determined to ...

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Fans of Coronavirus: The Truth have lauded the show’s unbiased, fact-based approach to delivering COVID-19 news and information. But finding unbiased, fact-based info isn’t easy amid today’s politically charged news ...

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Anne Wojcicki is a biologist, entrepreneur and the CEO of 23andMe, the leading consumer genetics and research company with more than 12 million customers worldwide.  On this episode, Wojcicki spoke ...

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“Voters look to elected officials to lead in times of war,” says co-host Dr. Robert Pearl in this episode of Coronvirus: The Truth. “In the minds of most Americans, this ...

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Four months after President Trump announced a “state of emergency,” Americans are still as confused as ever about the true state of the pandemic. Our confusion starts with the news: ...

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Exactly what went wrong? Exactly when? Exactly how did we fail and exactly what could have been done to prevent it? Exactly which errors did U.S. healthcare officials make between ...

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“One step forward, two steps back,” is how Dr. Robert Pearl describes the recent rise in coronavirus cases throughout the country. He notes that further attempts to hurry the nation’s ...

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Looking back on the coronavirus pandemic and the national response, Dr. Robert Pearl says, “I believe that historians will judge the American people well and nearly all of our leaders ...

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As head of the Food and Drug Administration from 1990 to 1997, Dr. David A. Kessler went to war with cigarette companies, approved life-saving HIV/AIDS medications, and introduced consumers to ...

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For prestigious, peer-reviewed medical journals, the retraction of an article is an incredibly rare event. Last week, it happened twice: in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. ...

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Recent demonstrations and violence sparked by the death of George Floyd are “like a river,” as Dr. Robert Pearl puts it, with many streams coming together to form a powerful ...

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The past week brought promising news from Moderna, a biotech company that announced the results of its early vaccine trials—an announcement that sent the firm’s stock price up 30%. However, ...

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Looking over the horizon of the current coronavirus pandemic, it’s hard to get a clear picture of the “new normal” everyone seems to be talking about. As Dr. Robert Pearl ...

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Each week, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr receive dozens of questions from friends, colleagues and listeners. Most questions are about practical, everyday concerns. “Can my son visit his girlfriend?” ...

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John Sculley, the former CEO of PepsiCo and Apple, now has his “head in the cloud” as chairman of the Boston-based health-tech company RxAdvance. In this, the fourth season of ...

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“I find this study to be one of the most encouraging since this pandemic began,” says Dr. Robert Pearl, referring to research out of Yale that confirms new saliva-based testing ...

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Dr. Robert Pearl, co-host of this show, struck a chord this week with his most recent Forbes column, “3 Coronavirus Facts Americans Must Know Before Returning To Work,” which quickly ...

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It was a big week for science in our nation’s ongoing quest to better understand and combat the coronavirus pandemic. Researchers from Stanford University released findings from a study indicating ...

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Over the past two weeks, high-profile leaders in the worlds of business, politics and health have put forth plans to reopen the country, mitigate further damage from the coronavirus and ...

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Welcome to the first episode of season 4. This season of the Fixing Healthcare podcast focuses on finding big ideas and the people behind them. The journey begins with Dr. ...

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Physician and bestselling author Dr. Robert Pearl fears the nation is in denial about the trajectory of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic: “Many people I speak with and nearly all of ...

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In this episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr delve into a “surprising” topic. That is, why do the news media and public seem so ...

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In the second episode of Coronavirus: The Truth, hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr examine several difficult but important questions surrounding the future of the coronavirus pandemic in the ...

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From the hosts of the Fixing Healthcare podcast comes a new and necessary show that focuses on the facts surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19). This podcast offers science-based updates on the ...

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In the final episode of season three, we welcome Dr. David Shulkin, the ninth U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. For most of his career, David was a physician and then ...

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In this episode, we welcome Representative Eric Swalwell, from California’s 15th Congressional District. A former presidential candidate and a rising star in the democratic party, Eric serves on several House ...

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In this episode, we welcome James Carville, one of the most recognizable figures in American politics. Carville came to fame as the lead strategist on Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign ...

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Stephen Bergman, who goes by the pseudonym Samuel Shem, took the medical and literary worlds by storm in 1978 when he published his provocative satire “The House of God,” based ...

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After eight months of working at his first job out of college, Tyler Shultz was at a crossroads. He realized the device that he was hired to engineer was a ...

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Presidential hopeful John Delaney joined the Fixing Healthcare podcast to spell out his plan for the future of American healthcare policy. In this, the second episode of season three, physician ...

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Welcome to a new season of the Fixing Healthcare podcast. As co-hosts Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr turn their attention to the politics of American healthcare, they were eager to ...

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In this “bonus episode,” co-hosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr offer their take on the best ideas and most promising solutions from seasons one and two of the Fixing ...

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