Could AI Help Save Lives? With Dr Charlotte Blease

Sep 5, 2025

In this insightful discussion, Dr. Charlotte Blease, a health informaticist and author with a background in philosophy, shares her expertise on AI's potential to revolutionize healthcare. She highlights how AI can alleviate burnout among overworked medical professionals, reduce diagnostic errors, and promote equitable access to care. Blease emphasizes the importance of thoughtfully implementing AI to enhance both patient outcomes and doctor well-being, while addressing ethical concerns and potential biases in healthcare algorithms. A must-listen for anyone interested in the future of medicine!

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INSIGHT

Human Limits Drive Diagnostic Errors

Diagnostic error is common because doctors face massive cognitive and systemic limits, not just negligence.
Charlotte Blease argues AI could target these human psychological limits to reduce errors.

INSIGHT

Knowledge Overload In Medicine

Medical knowledge grows faster than any clinician can absorb, creating a practical ceiling on up-to-date care.
Blease quantifies the scale: scanning 2% of relevant literature would take a doctor 22 hours a day.

ADVICE

Integrate AI Into Workflows

Embed AI carefully into clinical workflows to solve the "last mile" integration problem.
Focus on practical workflow integration rather than just flashy technology.

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How can AI improve our healthcare industry?

In this episode, Dr Emma Yhnell speaks to health informaticist and author Dr Charlotte Blease about the role AI could play in the future of medicine, from making it more accessible to helping lighten the hours of a burnt-out workforce.

Healthcare systems around the world are under mounting pressure. Healthcare professionals are amongst the most overworked, with half of all US doctors being burnt out and 42% of UK doctors feeling unable to cope with their weekly workload. Studies show that burnout is linked to increased rates of error and harm, which in the medical industry could mean the difference between catching a diagnosis in time or risking a patient's life. But Dr Charlotte Blease argues that this need not be the case. It is time to thoughtfully implement the new technologies of our age to revolutionize the healthcare industry. AI can help us to overhaul a system that is reaching capacity and has the potential to change lives, both for doctors and their patients.

Dr Charlotte Blease is a health informaticist with a background in philosophy. She has published more than 150 peer-reviewed journals and books on healthcare and is an Associate Professor at the Participatory eHealth and Health Data Research Group at Uppsala University and Researcher at Digital Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Her latest book is Dr Bot: Why Doctors Can Fail and How AI Could Save Lives.

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