Technology Enhancing Humanity with Eric Topol, MD

So let's talk a little bit about the expanded use of AI.

And I know that we and many of our listeners are actually concerned now about waning trust in science and public health.

So how optimistic are you, Eric, that AI can actually help address the misinformation and help communicate science more clearly to the public?

I'm very worried about that, Marla, because we're up against some major forces.

We have the richest person in the world with the largest social media platform owning it and spreading more misinformation than you would think would be possible.

AI, of course, is not great for screening misinformation and trying to debunk it.

So this is a really tough challenge that we're up against.

I don't have a good answer for that because the forces are so strong that are favoring, as you know, the misinformation travels so much faster and wider than good information.

So we have to come up with some new solutions.

I don't see any, frankly, that are going to counter the biggest problem perhaps we've ever seen that the science and biomedical community has ever confronted.

What can individual healthcare professionals do right now to better communicate with their patients and with the public at large? Are there things we can and should be doing?

Yeah, Bill, I'm glad you asked that because I do think that if every clinician and scientist, for that matter, stood up and got involved in social media and communicating to the public, we would have the gravitas and the force that's needed to reckon with this.

But as you know, it's very hard to get physicians involved.

to be activists.

They're very busy.

They kind of keep their head down and do their work.

And this is a real problem because if we could marshal that type of solidarity, then we have a counterforce, a very optimistic person.

But I'm not sure if we can get that type of unity to fight off the misinformation, disinformation.

The other thing, though, about patience, we don't listen to patience.

We don't have the gift of time.

That was the central concept in the Deep Medicine book, which is we have to get that back.

We have to be able to spend more time with patients, to listen to them, to establish trust, to have a real presence, not looking at a screen while we're supposed to have this precious time together and not even making eye contact.

I mean, that's absurd.

So we really have to get back to That bond, that intimate bond, inner human bond that has nothing to do with AI.

It's about the humanity in medicine, which is the essential feature that patients have to know that their doctor is really caring about them.