Episode 10: A Between the Biotech Waves Conversation with Eric Topol focusing on COVID & AI in healthcare

In this episode we are talking to Prof Eric Topol. Eric is a cardiologist by training, a basic scientist in the areas of personalized genomic medicine at the interface between genetics and digital health and is the author of the leading textbook in interventional cardiology in addition to authoring books on AI in medicine. He is the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, a professor of molecular medicine at the scripps research institute and a snr consultant at the division of cardiovascular diseases at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla CA. Finally, he is editor in chief of Medscape and theheart.org

Since the COVID pandemic hit Eric has been an outspoken advocate of basic research and optimized paths for COVID drug discovery and development. He has written numerous pieces on COVID and our response to the pandemic in addition to calling out and correcting mis and dis information. His most recent piece, an editorial in the LA Times, continues to draw attention to the low vaccination and booster rates here in the US.

Today we discuss the evolution of COVID virus and the most recent BA5 variant. The data continues to be sobering with the increased emergence and dominance of new variants. Eric highlights the importance of the vaccine, boosters and the need to develop a universal vaccine to tackle this pandemic. We also discuss Paxlovid and the rebound that is being observed in around 20% of patients. Finally we touch on the issue regarding disinformation around scientific discoveries in todays world and the need to build systems to actively call this out and quickly correct before it becomes “fact”.

To lighten the mood, or so I thought,  at the end we turn to AI and its role in our health system. Touching on some key considerations around AI consciousness that has been in the news of late.