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Code & Cure

Vasanth Sarathy & Laura Hagopian

16 episodes

6 days ago

Artificial intelligence promises faster notes, smoother workflows, and smarter clinical decisions. But behind every seamless interaction lies an invisible cost—electricity, water, and carbon emissions that rarely enter the healthcare conversation. In this episode, we trace what happens after you hit “enter” on a clinical prompt. From power-hungry GPUs to evaporative cooling systems in data centers, we uncover the hidden infrastructure fueling AI and how metrics like PUE translate convenience ...

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Health & Fitness

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Artificial intelligence promises faster notes, smoother workflows, and smarter clinical decisions. But behind every seamless interaction lies an invisible cost—electricity, water, and carbon emissions that rarely enter the healthcare conversation. In this episode, we trace what happens after you hit “enter” on a clinical prompt. From power-hungry GPUs to evaporative cooling systems in data centers, we uncover the hidden infrastructure fueling AI and how metrics like PUE translate convenience ...

Show more...

Health & Fitness

Episodes (16/16)

Code & Cure

#16 - Water, Watts, and Wellness: What’s the Real Cost of Medical AI?

Artificial intelligence promises faster notes, smoother workflows, and smarter clinical decisions. But behind every seamless interaction lies an invisible cost—electricity, water, and carbon emissions that rarely enter the healthcare conversation. In this episode, we trace what happens after you hit “enter” on a clinical prompt. From power-hungry GPUs to evaporative cooling systems in data centers, we uncover the hidden infrastructure fueling AI and how metrics like PUE translate convenience ...

6 days ago

26 minutes

Code & Cure

#15 - When Algorithms Know Your End-Of-Life Wishes Better Than Loved Ones

What if the person who knows you best isn’t the best person to speak for you when it matters most? We explore a study that tested just that—comparing the CPR preferences predicted by loved ones with those predicted by machine learning. The result? Algorithms got it right more often. That surprising outcome raises tough, important questions: Why do partners misjudge? And could AI really support life-and-death decisions when seconds count? We unpack the study’s approach in everyday terms: who...

1 week ago

23 minutes

Code & Cure

#14 - Medicare’s WISER Pilot: AI, Prior Auth, and the Cost of Care

What happens when an algorithm—not a doctor or a claims reviewer—denies your surgery? A single decision like that can trigger a much bigger conversation about how AI is reshaping access to care. In this episode, we dive into Medicare’s WISER pilot and the complex world of prior authorization. What’s the goal? Reduce waste and streamline approvals. But where does it go wrong—and how can we fix it? With insights from AI researcher Vasan Sarati and emergency physician Laura Hagopian, we unpack h...

2 weeks ago

27 minutes

Code & Cure

#13 - Can Machines Choose Our Diagnoses?

What if AI could turn chaotic clinical notes into clean, billable codes—without sacrificing accuracy or trust? Every shift, emergency physicians face the same grind: time-crunched documentation, symptom-first note-taking, and the constant lure of the “unspecified” box just to move on. But what if a system could read between the lines—and suggest precise, payer-accepted codes grounded in real guidelines? In this episode, we explore how retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is reshaping medical ...

3 weeks ago

29 minutes

Code & Cure

#12 - Oracle Or Algorithm?

What if we could glimpse our future health—not through guesswork, but through data-driven forecasts? A new AI model, codenamed “Delphi,” is redefining what it means to predict disease by learning from massive, population-scale medical histories. Built on transformer architecture, Delphi estimates the risk and timing of over a thousand possible diagnoses—offering a personalized view of what may lie ahead. We start with familiar ground—cardiovascular risk scores—and explore how predictions only...

1 month ago

27 minutes

Code & Cure

#11 - The Smile Test: How AI Detects Parkinson's Disease

Can a smile reveal the early signs of Parkinson’s disease? New research suggests it can—and AI is making that detection possible. Scientists are training machine learning systems to spot subtle facial changes associated with Parkinson’s, particularly in how we smile. These early signs, often missed by the human eye, could hold the key to faster, more accessible diagnosis. Parkinson’s typically presents with tremors, muscle rigidity, and slowed movement. But it also affects facial muscles, lea...

1 month ago

27 minutes

Code & Cure

#10 - Skill Erosion in the Age of Medical AI

Could AI be making doctors worse at their jobs? As artificial intelligence becomes a trusted tool in modern medicine, a surprising question emerges: could relying on these systems actually erode human expertise? We explore a compelling study from The Lancet that found a 6% drop in detection rates for endoscopists who initially used AI to identify precancerous polyps—then lost that edge once the AI was removed. This episode unpacks how AI isn’t just a helpful assistant—it may be reshaping how ...

1 month ago

25 minutes

Code & Cure

#9 - Ambient Documentation Tech: Reducing Burnout or Creating New Problems?

AI is writing medical notes, but can doctors trust what it creates? Burnout is quietly eroding the medical workforce—and documentation overload is a major culprit. Physicians now spend nearly half their workday writing notes instead of treating patients, pushing many to the brink of exhaustion. Could artificial intelligence offer a lifeline? In this episode, we explore ambient documentation technology (ADT)—AI tools that automatically generate clinical notes by listening to patient-doctor con...

1 month ago

28 minutes

Code & Cure

#8 - No Cuff, No Problem? The Future of Blood Pressure Monitoring

What if checking your blood pressure was as easy as glancing at your watch? High blood pressure quietly affects nearly half of all Americans—yet it's one of the most preventable causes of strokes, heart attacks, and other serious health problems. The catch? Traditional monitoring methods are clunky, inconvenient, and rarely used outside the clinic. In this episode, we explore how next-gen technologies are transforming blood pressure tracking. From smartwatches and rings to toilet seats and ev...

2 months ago

24 minutes

Code & Cure

#7 - Predicting No-Shows: The Surprising Science Behind Missed Appointments

Why do so many doctor’s appointments end in empty waiting rooms? Nearly one in four scheduled visits turn into no-shows, disrupting care, wasting resources, and straining already overburdened systems. But a new study shows we might be able to see these gaps coming—and stop them. By analyzing over a million healthcare visits, researchers used machine learning to uncover surprising predictors of missed appointments. The top signal? How far in advance the appointment was booked. Appointments sch...

2 months ago

32 minutes

Code & Cure

#6 - AI Chatbots Gone Wrong

What if a chatbot designed to support recovery instead encouraged the very behaviors it was meant to prevent? In this episode, we unravel the cautionary saga of Tessa, a digital companion built by the National Eating Disorder Association to scale mental health support during the COVID-19 surge—only to take a troubling turn when powered by generative AI. At first, Tessa was a straightforward rules-based helper, offering pre-vetted encouragement and resources. But after an AI upgrade, users beg...

2 months ago

27 minutes

Code & Cure

#5 - Doctor's Notes: When AI Writes Your Medical History

What if an AI could write your medical chart—and what happens when it gets it wrong? Doctors have long lamented the paperwork that comes with every patient encounter. “Charting was the bane of my existence,” admits Dr. Laura Hagopian, an emergency physician who’s spent countless hours piecing together fragmented notes and outdated records. Could artificial intelligence finally lift this administrative weight? Recent advances in large language models promise to generate discharge summaries as ...

2 months ago

33 minutes

Code & Cure

#4 - From Florence Nightingale to AI: Revolutionizing Outbreak Surveillance

What if a 19th-century nurse laid the foundation for 21st-century disease surveillance? Florence Nightingale, widely known for her compassion, was also a pioneering statistician who used data to reveal a hidden crisis: more soldiers in the Crimean War were dying from infections than from battle wounds. Her insights led to life-saving reforms—and sparked a revolution in how we understand public health. Today, that same spirit of data-driven action lives on through artificial intelligence. In t...

3 months ago

28 minutes

Code & Cure

#3 - Beautiful Mistakes: The Serendipity of Drug Repurposing

What if the next breakthrough treatment for a rare disease was already sitting on the pharmacy shelf? Drug repurposing, the science of finding new uses for existing medications, is transforming how we discover treatments, blending serendipity with strategy. It began with surprises like Viagra, a heart drug turned blockbuster, but today it's driven by advanced data tools that accelerate discovery and reduce risk. We explore how knowledge graphs (vast maps of biomedical relationships between dr...

3 months ago

27 minutes

Code & Cure

#2 - Digital Snake Oil: How AI Makes Health Disinformation Dangerously Persuasive

What if a convincing medical article you read online—citing peer-reviewed journals and quoting real-sounding experts—was entirely fabricated by AI? In this episode, we dive into the unsettling world of AI-generated health disinformation. Researchers recently built custom GPT-based chatbots trained to spread myths. The result? Persuasive narratives full of fabricated studies, misleading statistics, and plausible-sounding jargon—powerful enough to sway even savvy readers. We break down how thes...

3 months ago

35 minutes

Code & Cure

#1 - Eye Spy with My AI: Tackling Diabetic Retinopathy

What if a simple photograph of your eye could prevent blindness? Diabetic retinopathy silently steals vision from millions worldwide, yet it's treatable when caught early. The challenge? Too few specialists, limited access to care, and not enough awareness about this serious complication of diabetes. We dive deep into how artificial intelligence is transforming this landscape by analyzing retinal photos with remarkable accuracy. Through neural networks trained on thousands of eye images, thes...

3 months ago

28 minutes