From Expensive Landlines to Free Video Calls: What Happened to Phones is Happening to Healthcare

Hello again friends and colleagues,

Back in the mid?’90s, I was doing my residency in internal medicine in Virginia, and my wife was pursuing her law degree in Ohio. Every month, our phone bill’s arrival was a painful experience. My resident salary and her student loans were no match for Verizon’s long-distance rates which added up to hundreds of dollars a month! Fast forward to today: thanks to the communications revolution, we effortlessly connect with family and friends around the world via crystal?clear audio and high?definition video calls that cost us essentially nothing.

This dramatic transformation in communication isn’t just a relic of the past; it offers a foreshadowing of what AI is about to do to healthcare. Just as the internet slashed communication costs and redefined accessibility, the exponential performance improvements and steep price declines of large language models (LLMs) and AI technologies are poised to revolutionize medical care.

A New Era in Healthcare Delivery

Just as the internet revolutionized global communication by making it faster, more accessible, and far less expensive, AI is poised to redefine healthcare delivery by enhancing diagnostics, treatment, and operational efficiency. Our current healthcare system, burdened by inefficiencies and high costs, is on the cusp of transformation through rapid advancements in AI across medicine and the life sciences.

In clinical settings, AI is transforming the way we diagnose and treat diseases. Advanced tools can now analyze medical images—such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans—with exceptional precision, detecting conditions like cancer or diabetic retinopathy at early stages and monitoring complex conditions like sepsis or Alzheimer’s disease. In parallel, AI-powered clinical decision support systems sift through vast amounts of patient data and research to offer evidence-based, personalized treatment recommendations, ushering in a new era of precision medicine.

AI’s impact extends beyond diagnostics. Robotic surgical systems are making procedures less invasive and more precise reducing recovery times and risks. Additionally, the automation of administrative tasks—billing, transcription, and scheduling—allows healthcare providers to concentrate on patient care.

Beyond clinical medicine, AI is revolutionizing the life sciences by dramatically accelerating drug discovery and development, optimizing clinical trials, and enabling truly personalized medicine through detailed genetic and patient-specific analysis. AI is streamlining regulatory processes and enhancing supply chain management, ensuring the efficient delivery of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Ethical concerns, data privacy, and robust regulatory frameworks are needed to ensure AI’s ongoing evolution achieves its promise, a future where healthcare is not only more effective and accessible but also far more affordable. But much like the dramatic shift from expensive phone calls to free global connectivity, I believe AI technology will make healthcare radically better and more affordable for all of us.

A Glimpse into the Future

I can imagine a day 10 to 15 years from now—when my wife and I experience healthcare that mirrors the dramatic transformation we saw in communication over the last 25 years. We step into a modern healthcare facility and instead of filling out paper forms and waiting for hours, we simply check in with a friendly digital assistant that already knows our health history.

Smart wearable devices continuously monitor our vital signs, transmitting data to an AI system that’s constantly analyzing our health around the clock. Before we even meet our doctor, the system has flagged subtle changes, predicted potential issues, and even suggested preventive measures tailored to our unique profiles. When we finally consult with our healthcare provider—whether in person or via a virtual visit—the discussion is informed by a comprehensive, real?time analysis that makes appointments concise, decisions swift, and outcomes more predictable.

The cost of this care? It’s dramatically lower than today’s expenses, achieved by eliminating redundancies, optimizing resource allocation, and preventing problems before they require costly interventions. In many ways, the transformation is as revolutionary as switching from hundreds?of?dollar phone bills to free global video calls.

Hopeful Prediction

Just as the internet erased the barriers of time and money in communication, AI advances are set to do the same for healthcare. In the not?too?distant future, we will likely look back on our current healthcare experiences as a relic of a bygone era, replaced by a system that offers superior quality care at a fraction of the cost—a revolution as dramatic as the one that made staying in touch with loved ones effortless and free. And as I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, AI is progressing about 10 times faster than any previous technology!

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See you next week,

Sam