How good of a dish are you going to get when you use bad ingredients? Are you going to blame the recipe? Some people would, and by doing so, they would keep baking bad cooks and blaming the recipe for it. Algorithms work the same. You give AI bad data, you get bad results.

The metaphor works well until you realize that, when you end up with a lousy meal, you can throw it in the trash and order from a restaurant and get a new meal. But when the algorithm is fed bad data, and that is supposed to save peoples' lives—you got the picture, right?

So we need good data, good algorithms, and good technology; but that is not enough. Despite what many people like to think, there are no magic tech pills—humans envision, create, and use technology, and we need the right culture to obtains the right results. Our technology is only as good as we are, and culture drives everything we do as humans. If you feed machine learning with bias, you get an even more significant bias. If you inject bias into the medical culture, you kill people: both patients AND doctors.

The American healthcare system should be the best in the world, but today it is not; doctors are burning out and making mistakes. Technology is not accepted and utilized as it should be. Racism shouldn’t be part of the healthcare system, but it is.

Does it suck? Yes.

Is there hope? Absolutely.

Can technology help? You bet.

How? Have a listen.

About The Book

Doctors Are Taught How To Cure People. But They Don’t Always Know How To Care For Them.

Hardly anyone is happy with American healthcare these days. Patients are getting sicker and going bankrupt from medical bills. Doctors are burning out and making dangerous mistakes. Both parties blame our nation’s outdated and dysfunctional healthcare system. But that’s only part of the problem.

In this important and timely book, Dr. Robert Pearl shines a light on the unseen and often toxic culture of medicine. Today’s physicians have a surprising disdain for technology, an unhealthy obsession with status, and an increasingly complicated relationship with their patients. All of this can be traced back to their earliest experiences in medical school, where doctors inherit a set of norms, beliefs, and expectations that shape almost every decision they make, with profound consequences for the rest of us.

Uncaring draws an original and revealing portrait of what it’s actually like to be a doctor. It illuminates the complex and intimidating world of medicine for readers, and in the end offers a clear plan to save American healthcare.

About the author Dr. Robert Pearl is the former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group. Named one of Modern Healthcare’s 50 most influential physician leaders, Pearl is a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is the author of the Washington Post bestseller Mistreated, host of the Fixing Healthcare podcast, and a regular contributor to Forbes.

*Profits from Uncaring will be donated to Doctors Without Borders

Guests Dr. Robert M. Pearl, Former CEO of The Permanente Medical Group | Forbes Healthcare Contributor | Stanford Faculty | Bestselling Author (@RobertPearlMD on Twitter)

This Episode’s Sponsors

Nintex: https://itspm.ag/itspntweb

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Resources More about Dr. Robert M. Pearl and his book, Uncaring: https://robertpearlmd.com/uncaring/

Book: Mistreated: Why We think We’re Getting Good Healthcare—And Why We’re Usually Wrong: https://www.amazon.com/Mistreated-Getting-Health-Care-Usually/dp/1610397657

Note: All proceeds from the book go to Doctors Without Borders

Fixing Healthcare Podcast: https://www.fixinghealthcarepodcast.com/

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