Hsieh Forbes Column: The War On Meat

My final Forbes column of the year is now out: "In The War On Meat, Count Me In The Resistance".

I discuss the latest idea of a "tax on meat", and why that's bad from both a medical and public policy perspective.

To (mis)quote Firefly, "I don't care. I'm still free. You can't take my bacon from me."

Happy New Year, everyone! 

Hsieh Forbes Column: Will Computers Be Reading Your Chest X-Ray?

My latest Forbes column is now out: "Will Computers Be Reading Your Chest X-Ray?"

A team of researchers from Stanford University department of Computer Science and Stanford Medical School have now created an AI system capable of diagnosing pneumonia on chest x-rays more accurately than skilled human radiologists.

The future is coming quickly.

[Image below from the original article: "Our model, CheXNet, is a 121-layer convolutional neural network that inputs a chest X-ray image and outputs the probability of pneumonia along with a heatmap localizing the areas of the image most indicative of pneumonia."] 

Hsieh Forbes Column: "Help Patients By Allowing More Telemedicine"

My latest Forbes piece is now out: "Help Patients By Allowing More Telemedicine".

I discuss the growing use of telemedicine to allow doctors to connect to patients remotely, and how we can reduce regulatory barriers to wider adoption.  This is a great use of 21st-century technology that can help patients.

Hsieh Forbes Column: "Pagers, AI, And Google"

My latest Forbes piece is now out, "Pagers, AI, And Google: 3 Tales Of Technology And Medicine".

I discuss some unexpected wrinkles with old tech, new tech, and current tech in health care.

I remember back in the 1990s, when everyone cool had one of these.

Hsieh Forbes Column: Changing Consent Rules For Organ Donation?

My latest Forbes piece is now up: "Should The Government Require Your Consent To Be An Organ Donor?"

I discuss some controversial proposed changes to loosen the consent process for organ donation, including the pros and cons.  There are a lot of passionate advocates on both sides of this debate, and I tried my best to treat each position as fairly as possible (even though I do favor one side).

Hsieh Forbes Column: Charlie Gard Case, Summarized In 30 Words

My latest in Forbes: "Charlie Gard Case, Summarized In 30 Words". Plus a glimmer of hope for the family.

Hsieh Forbes Column: Three Novel Health Care Innovations

My latest Forbes column is now out: "Three Novel Health Care Innovations".

Drones! Photosynthesis! AI!

Read more details at "Three Novel Health Care Innovations".

From one linked article:

"This medical drone can deliver an automated external defibrillator to a patient who has suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. In tests, the drone arrived more than 16 minutes faster than an ambulance had."

Hsieh Forbes Column: 3 Big Questions About AI-Guided Medicine

My latest Forbes piece is out, continuing last month's theme on artificial intelligence in medicine. It's entitled, "3 Big Questions About AI-Guided Medicine".

In particular, the three questions are:

1. Who will control (and have access to) individual patient data?

2. Will we know how the AIs arrive at their diagnoses and recommendations?

3. What will the AIs optimize for?

For more details on each, see the full text of "3 Big Questions About AI-Guided Medicine".

Hsieh Forbes Column: "AI In Medicine: Rise Of The Machines"

My new Forbes column is now out: "AI In Medicine: Rise Of The Machines".

If current trends continue, medical care change over the next 20 years just as much as internet has changed life between 1997 and today.

Hsieh Forbes Column: Doctors Should Not Record Immigration Status Nor Gun Ownership

My latest Forbes column is now out: "Doctors Should Not Record Immigration Status Nor Gun Ownership In Patient Charts".

Patients routinely disclose sensitive personal data to their physicians. Doctors can and should be mindful of information that might someday be used against their patients by unscrupulous government authorities.

In particular, with increasing use of electronic medical records that can be data-mined by those with access, physicians can help protect the doctor-patient relationship by leaving some information out of the records.

Related earlier piece, “Why Doctors Should Not Ask Their Patients About Guns.”

Hsieh Forbes Column: People Confound Experts: Three Paradoxes Of Health And Human Behavior

My latest Forbes column is now out, "People Confound Experts: Three Paradoxes Of Health And Human Behavior".

I discuss three counter-intuitive or paradoxical results from recent health policy research, in which patients don't respond in the way that experts might have predicted.

For example: If you have a serious heart problem, you might do better if the top cardiologists are out of town.

For more details, see the full piece, "People Confound Experts: Three Paradoxes Of Health And Human Behavior"!

Hsieh Forbes Column: Health Freedom For Everyone, Not Just Women

My latest Forbes column is now out, "Health Freedom For Everyone, Not Just Women".

My basic theme is that free-market reforms (not government-run health care) will best protect our medical freedoms.

From the article:

I support abortion rights and reproductive freedom rights. I love that many participants in the marches don’t want the government dictating which medical procedures women may or may not receive.

I also hope that people recognize that government-run health care will inevitably mean government controlling which medical procedures patients may or may not receive. Whenever “somebody else” pays for your health care, inevitably “somebody else” will decide what health care you do (or do not) receive.

For more details, see the full text of "Health Freedom For Everyone, Not Just Women".

The Evolution Of Radiology

Dr. James Chang: "The evolution of radiology".

Yup, this seems about right! (Click on image to see full size version.)