CHC Radio

NEJM’s 1st AI Editor on Tech’s Pluses & Minuses

Originally broadcast August 22, 2023

As the year begins, some patients remain concerned about how far artificial intelligence (AI) is creeping into the exam room. But AI has been part of health care longer than most realize, according to Dr. Isaac Kohane, a Harvard University professor.

Kohane is the editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine’s first publication devoted to AI; it’s a groundbreaking role and we’re proud to share an encore presentation of the interview. He told hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that “In the 1980s, automated interpretation of an [echocardiogram] would have been considered AI. Now it’s the ability to look through a patient’s record and come up with a differential diagnosis, a second opinion, a therapeutic plan.”

Kohane shared a success story of a mother whose child had difficulty walking and chewing, suffered from headaches and had seen more than a dozen doctors over many years, with no diagnosis. After one doctor recommended a psychiatric course of action, the mother fed the reports from various past medical visits into a generative AI program, which provided an accurate diagnosis: tethered cord syndrome.

Cases like this can represent AI’s potential, said Kohane. But the nascent technology raises issues of bias. “You can run tests on these AI programs and say, ‘Would you propose that diagnosis more often if this was an African-American or an Indian-American?’ … And you can adjust these programs,” Kohane says. The exciting part is that the adjustment would be easier than undoing even unconscious bias among hundreds of thousands of health care professionals, he explained.

Conversations on Health Care

Share
Published by
Conversations on Health Care

Recent Posts

Food is Medicine: How Young Changemakers are Transforming Healthcare

Originally broadcast March 27, 2025 Two young innovators are leading a movement that proves food…

5 days ago

Hon. Mary Bono, Mothers for Awareness and Prevention of Drug Abuse

Mary Bono has left the halls of Congress, but she’s still winning with her efforts…

2 weeks ago

Michael J. Fox’s Foundation Makes Parkinson’s Breakthrough

Emmy award-winning actor Michael J. Fox shocked the world when he announced over 25 years…

3 weeks ago

Colorectal Cancer Rising for Millennials & Gen Z: How to Reverse the Trend

Originally broadcast February 15, 2024 About 1 in 5 colorectal patients are now under the…

4 weeks ago

Alzheimer’s Researchers Under Fire: Acclaimed Journalist Explains Why

Originally broadcast February 27, 2025. How reliable is the current research into the cause of…

1 month ago

Former Republican HHS Secretary Offers Bipartisan Wisdom

Dr. Louis Sullivan walked the halls of Congress and testified before committees when he was…

1 month ago