Rise of AI in Healthcare

Experts predict that soon, doctors who don’t utilize AI tools for patient records may be seen as negligent.

Steve Brown, the founder of Cure Wise, believes this strongly. Cure Wise is an app that assists patients navigating cancer treatments with AI support. Brown himself is a cancer survivor, crediting an AI “agent” he developed for improving his understanding of his medical situation.

In a recent piece, a physicist and computer scientist educated at Stanford shared his unsettling health experience at age 60. He faced mysterious lower abdominal pain, fatigue, and weight loss. After visiting his doctor, he requested a full set of tests – everything from a body scan to a cardiac assessment. “All necessary tests were approved,” he mentioned.

Doctors, wishing to remain anonymous, advised him to use Gas-X, which felt like an inadequate response given the severity of his symptoms, as noted in a podcast episode titled “The Neuron.”

Not long after, a wildfire destroyed his home, pushing Brown to a new community in Palm Desert, California, where he met new medical professionals.

A brief visit to the emergency room for what he suspected was an intestinal blockage led to fresh eyes examining his case. “Within days, they found what everyone else missed: a malignant tumor related to multiple myeloma was in my bone marrow,” he wrote.

Despite the early detection, the cancer had already caused significant damage to his vital organs, necessitating immediate treatment.

Upon reflecting on his situation, Brown considered how AI might have revealed his condition sooner. This motivated him to create “Haley,” his personal medical AI agent, which he trained with the same data previously available to his doctors, including lab results and medical history.

Haley quickly identified warning signs, such as mild anemia and elevated ferritin levels, which indicated immune issues and bone marrow problems that his previous doctors might have overlooked as acceptable on their own.

Dr. Haley recommended testing that should have been performed previously. “If my doctor had used AI sooner, I could have received a diagnosis a year earlier,” he reflected on a podcast.

Ultimately, the doctors in Palm Desert diagnosed Brown, not the AI. However, he turned back to Haley for guidance on treatment options as the prescribed therapies seemed to lose effectiveness.

His records revealed genetic markers suggesting that his treatment protocol might not be suitable for him. The AI introduced him to more aggressive and unconventional treatment options.

“This information wasn’t included in standard protocols. No one had time to sift through everything, but AI can analyze vast research quickly,” he noted.

After consultations with his medical team, they decided to try a combination of daratumumab and venetoclax – a targeted treatment not fully vetted through clinical trials due to the rarity of his condition.

Now, his cancer markers are back to normal levels.

Brown’s exploration was more comprehensive than merely querying AI for self-diagnosis. Importantly, he never intended for AI to replace his doctors; it merely enhanced his decision-making process.

“AI helped me navigate more effectively, cutting down on the trial and error,” he shared.

Still, he recognizes the anxiety surrounding AI in medicine, which is understandable given its troubling uses elsewhere.

Brown contends that, despite its mixed reputation, AI can empower both patients and doctors. “We now have technology capable of managing the complexity we face,” he stated during the podcast.

“With millions facing cancer, each case represents a unique set of genetic mutations. We often lump them together and refer to them simply as cancer, yet they are distinct diseases.”

His AI agent helped uncover patterns in his test results that his original doctor overlooked, not out of malice but, rather, due to human limitations.

Ultimately, his goal is to aid patients in asking more informed questions of their healthcare providers.

“If you enter that discussion well-informed, you’re likely to achieve better outcomes,” he says. “While everything I take is prescribed by my doctor, AI guided how I approached those conversations.”