Digital Exhaust #194

Liz Holmes' home, iron lung sightings, and breast milk lattes

It’s another edition of Digital Exhaust, my weekly digest of interesting stuff from the web and beyond. Thanks for subscribing. And if you’re not one of us, subscribe just below. Enjoy the list.

How AI will change the workplace

Excellent Wall Street Journal article on AI and the future of work. They interviewed a bunch of luminaries on particular parts of the workplace, and the insight is great. Novel stuff from people actually in a position to see. No mention of healthcare, however. But a lot of what’s here can be extrapolated. Hopefully the link works.

JAMA study confirms that EHRs can can be anti-human

New JAMA study finds that EHRs support task-oriented stuff, but shift attention away from the human needs of health professionals.

Looks like we need to decide what kind of health team interactions we do not want mediated by an EHR or digital tool.Reminds me of a dilemma I faced with one of my clinic nurses when we first had EHRs: She didn’t want to talk, only message.

The AI canon

Andreessen has curated a killer list of resources to get smarter about modern AI. They call it the “AI Canon” because these papers, blog posts, courses, and guides have had a huge impact on the field over the past few years. It opens with introductory stuff and then goes deeper. The deep stuff is deep.

+ In related AI support stuff, I stumbled on this great prompt primer from Brian X. Chen in the New York Times. I also found this 3 step prompt cheat sheet that’s really helpful:

There’s no place like Holmes

Liz Holmes’ new home

Liz Holmes begins her 11 year sentence on Tuesday in Bryan, Texas. Copies of Bad Blood are apparently circulating among inmates. And some have reported, “I want to be her friend.” 😳

Keeping your finger on the pulse of the best HR monitors

Wired weighs in on the best heart rate monitors for exercise.

Humanity’s first recorded kiss

Unpacking the early history of human kissing in The Smithsonian. Strangely fascinating.

Surgeon General declares social media dangerous for kids

The Surgeon General issued a public warning about the mostly known risks of social media to young people. His solution: enforce age limits. Wired published an excellent commentary on the problems with the recommendations. “..the truth is that magic technology to confirm everyone’s age will remain a fantasy, and the price of curtailing digital anonymity is an all-too-potent threat.”

+ A powerful and short essay on how to approach the challenge of ChatGPT in higher education. This Wheaton professor makes the case that ‘rules from the top’ will ultimately fail.

ChatGPT for iPhone

OpenAI launched ChatGPT for the iPhone. I use it. Very clean and nice.

And it topped 500,000 downloads in 6 days.

The rabbit done died

Interesting short history of home pregnancy tests. “..access to a test at home gave women choices and wrested control from the medical establishment of information about their own bodies.”

“How does that make you feel?”

The National Eating Disorder Association will dismantle its telephone helpline effective June 1. Instead of human volunteers and staff, the nonprofit plans to offer distressed callers help from an AI-powered chatbot named “Tessa.”

Note: the staff had moved to unionize several days before Tessa’s announcement. Maybe this is the first hard case of healthcare workers being completely displaced by chatbots?

The story of the iron lung

A little more history. Excerpt from The Autumn Ghost, a new book around the history of the iron lung. Nice summary of how the lung revolutionized polio care. I used the iron lung in some of our neuromuscular disease patients at Texas Children’s through the ’90s. I’m probably one of the last standing physicians who knew the order parameters for this amazing piece of equipment.

For fun, this truck pulled up next to me in the Texas Medical Center in 2010!! I had to get a picture….not sure where they were taking it. This is one of the exact units we used.

Rising facial ideal

The internet has led to the rise of a 'hyper-modern' pan-Asian beauty ideal — an emerging ideology of global racial formation that favors the mashup of multiple cultures.

Personally, I’m gonna need a more powerful filter.

Desperately overthinking the walk

This is peak New York Times Wirecutter: The Best Gear for Going on a Walk.

Breast milk lattes

I support breastfeeding. But not this. A cafe in the Russian city of Perm has been getting a lot of attention after announcing plans to introduce a controversial breast milk-infused latte on its menu.

AI research ethics

Nature Medicine editorial argues that patients should be informed when AI systems are used in clinical trials.

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Thanks again for being here. As always, thanks for subscribing and please pass this along to anyone who might like it. Happy Memorial Day to my U.S. readers. Below is a shot from my run yesterday. I feel privileged to live in a community that recognizes this solemn weekend — flags everywhere….