This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being. Today’s show leads with an up-close look at a subject near and dear to Dr. Fisher’s heart, literally. “Empathy resides in the emotional heart, and it also has impacts on the physical heart and the physiologic heart, as well,” says Dr. Fisher adding that, “empathy helps steady the heart, lower heart rate, lower stress and, in the exam room, can even lower blood pressure.” As part of the conversation, Fixing Healthcare cohost Dr. Robert Pearl introduced a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association over the summer that got many in medical profession talking. Here’s how Dr. Pearl described it in a recent Forbes article: “Researchers compared doctor and AI responses to nearly 200 medical questions submitted by patients via social media. The answers were read by a team of healthcare professionals who didn’t know whether the author was a doctor or a bot. The team concluded that 80% of the AI-generated responses as more nuanced, accurate and detailed than those shared by physicians. But most surprising was ChatGPT’s bedside manner. While less than 5% of doctor responses were judged to be ‘empathetic’ or ‘very empathetic,’ that figure shot up to 45% for answers provided by AI.” Today’s show explores the importance of empathy and how healthcare professionals—many of whom suffer an erosion of empathy due to high stress and burnout—can better express their emotions with others, including their colleagues and patients. To discover more, press play and check out these helpful links: Presale: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s new book) Doctors Vs. ChatGPT: Which Is More Empathetic? (Forbes) Do you have the emotional intelligence it takes to be a great hospital leader? (Becker’s Hospital Review) How AI, Empathy, & Capitation Can Transform Healthcare (Speaking Of Podcast) Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn) * * * Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple Podcasts or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn. The post FHC #114: An unfiltered look at empathy in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

Listeners of Fixing Healthcare keep writing in and reaching out with questions about two hot-button healthcare topics: the high price of healthcare and the impact generative AI (like ChatGPT) will have on the future of medicine. This episode of Diving Deep begins with a look at “skimping,” which refers to the many ways in which healthcare prices are constrained, but at the expense of American patients. It’s equivalent to consumers purchasing a box of cereal at the regular price only to find 25% fewer flakes inside. Of course, the difference is that skimping on medical care as a means to flatten healthcare inflation proves destructive to our nation’s health. Cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr then focus on the future of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing are poised to give people significantly more power and control—not just over their personal lives and professional tasks, but over their own medical health, as well. What will this mean for the doctor-patient relationship going forward? Pearl explains that, if used correctly, GenAI “offers the opportunity to make the doctor-patient relationship more collaborative and create empowered patients who will improve their health.” Learn more about these two topics in today’s episode of Fixing Healthcare. Click play to learn more or check out the various links below for additional information. HELPFUL LINKS How America Skimps On Healthcare (Forbes) How Generative AI Will Upend The Doctor-Patient Relationship (Forbes) Monthly Musings on American Healthcare (Robert Pearl’s newsletter) * * * Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders. Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn. The post FHC #113: Diving deep into Dr. ChatGPT and healthcare ‘skimping’ appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

Season eight of the Fixing Healthcare podcast continues its focus on the role of leadership in driving change. Our guest today is an expert in this area. Jenny Chatman is Acting Dean at the Haas School of Business and the Paul Cortese Professor of Management at UC Berkeley. She’s a world-renowned researcher, teacher and consultant on leveraging organizational culture to boost team performance. Chatman is also editor-in-chief for the journal “Research in Organizational Behavior” (2019-2022) and co-director of the Berkeley Haas Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation. In this interview, Chatman shares lessons in leadership and cultural change with Fixing Healthcare cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Throughout today’s episode, she discusses: Organizational culture: what it is and isn’t How doctors learn “the unwritten rules” of medical culture How norms form and what control leaders have over them Why handwashing isn’t as normal in medicine as you might think Auditing and assessing norms as part of the culture-change process The power of subcultures within a healthcare organization How new leaders should approach cultural change in medicine What to do if you find yourself in a toxic culture Creating collectivist (vs. individualistic) goals in healthcare More powerful: a common purpose or a common enemy? Why gratitude goes a long way How generative AI (like ChatGPT) will change medical culture Tune in for the full interview and join the conversation on social media. * * * Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders. Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn. The post FHC #112: How the culture of medicine can change appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

This year, the cost of health insurance for a working family of four exceeded $24,000 for the first time ever. That’s up 7% from last year (the largest rate increase since 2011). But increased spending has not equated to happier patients. New research has uncovered an “unprecedented decline” in patient satisfaction throughout United States. In today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, podcast cohost Dr. Robert Pearl discusses the rise of medical costs alongside the rise in patient displeasure. But the bad news doesn’t stop there. New data suggest that infant morality and maternal mortality are on the rise in America. At the same time, doctors, nurses and medical staff are exiting the profession by the hundreds of thousands. However, listeners looking for good news will find some in today’s show, too.  Here’s a snapshot of the topics covered: AI is making massive inroads in predicting next Covid-19 strains Paxlovid prices are going up: why and by how much? The link between Long Covid and inflammation Average family health premiums topped $24,000 Why are patients less satisfied with hospital care? Telemedicine usage continues to dip following pandemic highs The results of 49 pilot programs since 2011 to reduce medical costs Study: daily exercise vs. anti-depressive medications How social determinants of health affect pre-teens The U.S. infant mortality rate is getting worse: Why? Hundreds of thousands exited healthcare profession in 2020-21 Efficacy updates on the Covid-19, flu vaccines How rural areas are affected by hospital closures Click here for more info: https://www.fixinghealthcarepodcast.com/ * * * Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders. Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn. The post MTT #78: How high will premiums rise? How low will patient satisfaction go? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being. Today’s show leads with an in-depth look at bias. In particular, the kind of cognitive biases studied by Nobel Prize researchers Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler, who identified the many reasons why the human brain makes illogical and irrational choices. The two then talk about how doctors view technologies like ChatGPT through the lens of their own preconceived notions about the world around them. Later in the episode, Dr. Robert Pearl introduces some surprising data on physician burnout. In August, an independent research group, the Commonwealth Fund, published a global report on satisfaction among primary care physicians. According to the data, a paltry 47% of America’s primary care doctors are satisfied with their medical practices overall. Most surprisingly, however, is that the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Canada all claim less-satisfied doctors, despite working in countries that consistently and considerably outperform the United States in clinical outcomes. With all the talk around America’s dysfunctional healthcare system as the main driver of physician burnout, how is it that the U.S. sits squarely in the middle of 10 other developed countries in rankings of professional satisfaction (especially when doctors elsewhere work in government-funded healthcare systems and don’t have to deal with things like prior authorization and computer systems designed around fee-for-service payments)? Today’s show provides some answers and offers new ways the burnout crisis can be remedied. To discover more, press play and check out these helpful links: Presale: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s ucpoming book) Overworked and Undervalued: Unmasking Primary Care Physicians’ Dissatisfaction in 10 High-Income Countries (The Commonwealth Fund) The Healthcare Burnout Symposium featuring Dr. Fisher (Event: November 2-3, 2023) Who has the power to end clinician burnout? (RobertPearlMD.com) Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn) * * * Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple Podcasts or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn. The post FHC #111: Among wealthy nations, U.S. docs rank average for burnout appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

In this episode, Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr discuss the deceptive tactics used by drug companies to justify high prices and the impact on patient care. They also explore the transformative potential of generative AI in healthcare and its ability to democratize medical knowledge. AI tools like ChatGPT are expected to radically change healthcare, empower patients, and redefine the doctor-patient relationship. Find out more in this intriguing episode.

Dan Ariely is an expert in irrational behavior. He has extensively researched it, mulled it over and, more often than not, produced brilliant insights into what it means to be a human. His studies and observations have resulted in three New York Times bestsellers on human psychology. During the Coronavirus pandemic, he was attacked for his efforts to save lives through vaccination and mandatory masking. His newest book, “Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things,” recalls his travails during Covid-19 era and the blowback he received as the “chief consciousness engineer” of the “covid-19 fraud” (in the words of his skeptics). In this interview, Ariely discusses the highlights of his decades-long research into psychology and behavioral economics and their applications toward U.S. medicine with Fixing Healthcare cohosts Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. In this episode, Ariely discusses: Irrationality and “anchoring,” the use of prior decisions to make future ones The pitfalls confronting the consumers and producers of healthcare Why, in health, we need to celebrate the idea of “nothing bad happens” His work helping the Israeli government with its Covid-19 strategy How stress leads to a misbelief in doctors, the government, etc. Whether misbelief can be a positive for patients Much, much more Ariely is an is a leading behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur and the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. Tune in for the full interview and join the conversation on social media. * * * Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders. Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn. The post FHC #109: Dan Ariely on irrationality and misbelief in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

Last year, around this time, the CDC alerted physicians about the triple threat of Covid-19, seasonal influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). The result was one of the worst flu seasons in more than a decade. In today’s episode of Medicine: The Truth, podcast cohost Dr. Robert Pearl discusses the return of the “triple-demic” this winter and what listeners should do about it. According to forecasts, researchers expect a total of 1.15 million hospitalizations from these three viruses. How do those numbers stack up against last year? And will the newest vaccines prove more or less efficacious? Also featured on today’s program: Data on the new vaccine and its efficacy against the newer variants The surprising reason Americans won’t get the new shot Why the CDC is recommending this antibiotic after unprotected sex The reason healthcare costs will rise 6.5% in 2024 How health benefits affect entrepreneurship, employee wages and prices An unexpected development in government negotiations of drug prices The return of the free Covid-19 testing kit program Results of a genetically engineered pig heart transplant Why innovative medical researchers struggle to get due recognition KP’s massive labor strike and the reasons behind it A new entrant among the retail giants trying to disrupt healthcare Click here for more info: https://www.fixinghealthcarepodcast.com/ * * * Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders. Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn. The post MTT #77: Is the ‘tripledemic’ returning? Will new vaccines help? appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

This “Unfiltered” episode of Fixing Healthcare welcomes back Dr. Jonathan Fisher, a respected cardiologist and renowned advocate for physician well-being. On today’s show, Dr. Fisher serves up a question for Dr. Robert Pearl. He recalls the classic Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, a medical school textbook that now comprises more than 3,000 pages of vital information. And yet, despite the book’s exhaustive and comprehensive nature, Dr. Fisher remembers one thing that was notably absent from its pages: “Something was missing in that book that has come back to bite me on more than one occasion in my clinic, relating to patient care and also working with my colleagues. It has to do with the role of trust in healthcare.” Fisher recalls, in his early years of practice, assuming that patients would come to his office, heed his medical wisdom, dutifully follow his recommendations and return later for a follow-up visit having benefited greatly. But he quickly learned that this paternalistic approach to medical treatment had fallen out of favor some time ago. Now that today’s patients aren’t so quick to defer to the physician’s expertise, what is the state of trust in healthcare and how can physicians earn more of it from increasingly skeptical patients? Today’s show explores the role of trust and distrust in medicine. The doctors, alongside cohost Jeremy Corr, dive into the relationship between patients and doctors, physicians and their colleagues and clinicians and those in leadership roles. To discover more, press play and check out these helpful links: Presale: ‘Just One Heart’ (Jonathan Fisher’s new book) Healing Healthcare: Repairing The Last 5 Years Of Damage (LinkedIn) To End Burnout, Doctors Must Change the Culture of Medicine (Medscape) Transforming Leadership & Well-Being From The Heart (About My Brain) Breaking The Rules Of Healthcare (LinkedIn) * * * Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple Podcasts or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn. The post FHC #108: An unfiltered look at distrust between patients and doctors appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.

It’s no secret that doctors hold themselves to incredibly high standards, driven by a dedication to patients and a desire to save lives. It’s also understood that, in medicine, self-imposed high standards are fully reinforced by colleagues, administrators and an endless chain of performance metrics. However, less commonly understood (and almost never discussed) is how the pursuit of 24/7 perfection creates an environment where people are afraid to admit their wrongdoings, failures and limitations. The fear of making mistakes or acknowledging uncertainties frequently deters healthcare professionals from voicing concerns or proposing innovative solutions. This kind of psychological safety vacuum has adverse consequences, says Amy C. Edmonson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School and a nationally recognized expert in leadership. She is the author of the new book “Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well.” In this episode of Fixing Healthcare, Edmondson discusses: The two situations in medicine where it’s both okay and desirable to fail. How inclusive leaders can make medicine a journey of continuous learning. The need to create environments of psychological safety. The failure of the medical education system to create a ‘teaming’ mindset. The benefits of hierarchy in medicine and the conditions necessary for it to succeed. Much, much more. Tune in for the full interview and join the conversation on social media. * * * Dr. Robert Pearl is the author of a book about medicine’s invisible yet highly influential physician culture. Check out “Uncaring: How Physician Culture Is Killing Doctors & Patients.” All profits from the book go to Doctors Without Borders. Fixing Healthcare is a co-production of Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr. Subscribe to the show via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you find podcasts. Join the conversation or suggest a guest by following the show on Twitter and LinkedIn. The post FHC #107: Amy C. Edmonson on ‘failing well’ in medicine appeared first on Fixing Healthcare.