You can't keep a muscle you don't use
And what's the thing we never want to let go of?
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The Big Idea
You can't keep a muscle you don't use
Ideas
AI companionship and grief
News
CLEAR (airport fame) is securing medical records
Illinois cracks down on AI in mental health
Oracle launches an EHR
Epic drops an atom bomb on the AI scribe industry
Apple brings back the oxygen sensor
The Big Idea
You can't keep a muscle you don't use
A new study published in The Lancet this week found that doctors who let AI spot cancer during colonoscopies lost their own ability to do it.
Of course they did. If you turn your job over to something/someone else we won’t be as good at the job. We know surgeons lose their edge when the cases stop. Sure they remember how, but the sharpness fades quickly.
Early this century there was the argument that pediatric cardiologists should still know how to tightly map congenital heart lesions with a stethoscope alone. The argument was, ‘what happens when the echo machine breaks?’ They lost the argument.
This isn’t just an AI issue. Medicine is always changing. The skills that defined us in the last century aren’t the ones that’ll define us going forward. A doctor's work is being rewritten by the tools that do alot of things better than we ever did.
We should hone the skills that no machine can do. We've got to understand what the technology can do and work to refine and improve it.
🔺 So the real question isn’t how to keep every skill we’ve always had. It’s which ones will matter going forward. The best exercise is to ask: What do we never want to let go despite a tool that can do it for us.
Ideas
"AI Companionship"
OpenAI’s recent rollout of GPT-5 unintentionally “broke” the emotional bonds some users had formed with the older GPT-4o. The grief over a companion lost was so intense that the company swiftly reversed its decision, restoring 4o access to paid subscribers. MIT Technology Review reports ($) that the greatest sense of grief was felt by women between 20-40 years.
🔺 This whole thing sheds light on the growing phenomenon of “AI companionship”. That is people forming emotional attachments to chatbots. As these models become more personalized, they'll likely fulfill emotional needs. And that comes with psychological risks for some as the loss is like a human loss.
News
CLEAR (of airport fame) is securing medical record identities
CLEAR is getting business from health care as organizations like CMS increase demand for digitally keeping identity consistent. StatNews reported ($) on this in April. Health tech consulting company Nordic announced this week that it’s partnering with CLEAR to bring its identity tech to their clients.
🔺 I’ve always said that our toughest problems in healthcare have already been solved in the consumer market. We just need to connect them.
Illinois cracks down on AI in mental health
Illinois has become the third U.S. state (after Utah and Nevada) to restrict the use of AI in mental health services. The law bans licensed therapists from relying on AI for treatment decisions or client communication and prohibits marketing chatbots as therapy substitutes. The move signals a regulatory wave building at the state level.
Oracle launches an EHR
Oracle mixed up the EHR space by announcing an EHR largely powered by voice interaction and AI agents. The idea here is that this is built native to AI, not layered on archaic structures like Epic.
Epic's dropping a big atom bomb on the AI scribe industry
Epic Systems is set this week to announce its own AI-powered ambient scribe, marking its awaited entry into the clinical documentation space. The tool positions Epic alongside early leaders like Abridge, Ambience. Until now, Epic embedded those third-party tools in its EHR; with this move, it joins other EHR makers in developing native offerings. Some prominant experts weighed in on Becker's Health IT.
🔺 Epic’s move highlights the advantage of distribution baked into the core EHR. For most health systems, integration/workflow will outweigh standalone products that may even work better. This has huge implications for the tech industry that should seriously question playing in any space where Epic lurks.
📺 Chrissy Farr is standing up a live webinar on August 22nd to discuss the the Epic announcement. She's hosting Brendan Keeler, Graham Walker, and Alexandre LeBrun for a breakdown. These folks are smart. You can register here. I'll be there in the virtual front row.
Apple brings back the oxygen sensor
Apple is reintroducing blood oxygen monitoring to select Watch models, but with a major redesign to sidestep an import ban. Instead of processing readings on the watch itself, oxygen levels will be measured and calculated on the paired iPhone and displayed only in the Health app. The workaround is enabled by a U.S. Customs ruling.
🔺 This is a case study in how the future of digital health will be as much about legal maneuvering as technological innovation. And intellectual property is as strategic as hardware or software design.
Digital Exhaust
Taco Bell's purple soda is a turd in the MAHA punchbowl.
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