The Occasional Perspective - 11/21/25

Opinions and Reflections 

Shameless Marketing – As I’ve noted in some of my prior blogs, over the last bunch of months (actually years 😊), I’ve had a side project of working on a book. It’s not my first book!! Actually, I’ve done two in over the last couple of decades related to “leadership”. However, my most recent effort has been focused on the need for “persistence” in making things happen!! And, it seems to me that such an approach is even more relevant today as we consider the international, domestic, as well as operational situations facing many organizations, nations, and the world.

So, if you’re inclined, check out The Persistence Factor, available on Amazon. It provides a framework for persistence that can be applied to any situation – not just health care. And, in my experience, having a “framework” is important for taking the learnings from one experience and applying them to another experience. If you’re a Kindle user, it’s only $0.99 for the time being or you can order up a hard copy. If you do pick up a copy, feedback would be appreciated. So, enough of marketing…let’s get to the state of health care…

The Intersection Of AI With Everything – The breadth of the impact of AI on life as we know it is breathtaking to say the least. If you want to stay up-to-date, consider signing up for a podcast by Azeem Azhar, who follows the changes quite closely. His most recent podcast on how AI is breaking and rebuilding the economy highlights this point, and while I agree, the unstated element is that it is also breaking and rebuilding the professions. Now, to some, that may be provocative. We are now seeing the application of AI systems that use music as a tool for reducing stress – and, is being used in surgical patients to reduce the need for a variety of induction and pain medications. Then, I pick up the most recent issue of TIME magazine, and there’s an article on how the surgical implant of chips is allowing individuals who were previously blind in one eye to see again with that eye. In other words, technology is beginning to seep into the “practice” of medicine, education, engineering, and a whole variety of other professional fields. I’m NOT necessarily concerned about it BUT, reminding us all that while humans are not perfect, neither is technology. The difference is that humans know (generally) when to back up. Technology frequently does not…

Long story short, I’m a big fan of the use of AI/ML and other technologies in healthcare. But, I’m also a big fan of continuing to have humans involved. What this means is that we need to do a MUCH BETTER JOB of educating and training our professionals on the implementation, use, and evaluation of these new technologies. AND, for the most part – such training is essentially absent from most professionals' training programs. For physicians and other clinicians, a basic understanding of these issues is definitely warranted from my perspective. Yet, only a very small proportion of the medical and health sciences schools are capable of developing such a training component. Now is the time to start the dialogue rather than waiting for inevitable problems to percolate forward…