AI is causing some doctors to rethink what it means to be a physician. What is their purpose in the age of chatbots that can spit out accurate answers to medical questions 24 hours a day and do not take vacations. Will AI boost the productivity of doctors the way tractors boost the productivity of farmers? Or will it put skilled knowledge workers out of a job like the assembly line did to cobblers and tailors?
Category: Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare
Wednesday Links – 11 February 2026
- Food stamp fraud.
- “In what some experts deem one of the largest examples of Medicare waste in history, Medicare spending on wound care products known as “skin substitutes” skyrocketed from $256 million in 2019 to over $10 billion in 2024.”
- The city enjoying a Super Bowl parade:
- More than 35% of office and retail space downtown sits vacant, with even some prime waterfront properties sitting empty.
- The region lost 12,900 jobs last year, the first annual decline since the recession of 2009.
- It also has the highest inflation rate of any major metro region in the country with consumer prices soaring 29% from 2021 through 2025.
The quarterback for the Seahawks, Sam Darnold, faces a California tax bill exceeding $200,000, which more than cancels out the $188,000 payment he (and every other member of the Seahawks) will receive from the NFL for being the winner.
Wednesday Links – 4 February 2026
- Issue causing a sharp divide among Catholics: how to take communion.
- “Thomas joins a growing number of people who say their casual A.I. use turned excessive and addictive, and led them to a state of psychosis that almost cost them their lives.”
- 53 percent of traditional Medicare beneficiaries receive care through an accountable care organization.
- Hard to believe: Democrats are objecting to TrumpRx.
- Male birth control is on the horizon. (Statnews)
- More than one-quarter of physicians enrolled In Medicaid delivered no care to beneficiaries.
- KFF poll: other than cost, authorizations rank as public’s biggest burden when getting health care.
State Regulated Practice of Medicine Inhibits Innovative Practice Models
Anything that can cut through the bureaucracy and turf wars to nudge medical care into the Information Age would benefit consumers and boost access to care.