Bob Wachter

Over the past few episodes in this Freakonomics Radio guide to getting better, we've looked at a variety of things that may produce a longer and healthier life.

Nutritional supplements, faster drug approvals, figuring out the secrets of the gut microbiome.

And today, in the final episode of this series, we'll look at something that intersects with all of those things and maybe a trillion more.

Today's topic, how artificial intelligence will change healthcare.

And why is the healthcare system in need of change?

If you look closely, you'll see a bizarre split.

The advances in medicine and medical technology over the past century have been mind-blowing.

But the way these advances are delivered to actual patients can be also mind-blowing, but in a bad way.

The healthcare system has so much technology slop that it can be hard to see just how good the actual medical technology is.

But that may be about to end.

If you think about it, this is the biggest experiment in the history of medicine.

And the experiment is already underway.

Today on Freakonomics Radio, AI and a giant leap into the future of healthcare.

We could probably make 10 episodes looking at AI in healthcare, but if we want to do it in a single episode, which we do, it's helpful to speak to someone who is able to frame the biggest questions well.

Someone like this.

I'm Dr. Robert Wachter.

Although he says we should call him Bob.

and I'm professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

And what does that job entail?

What that is is running a large department of about 1,000 doctors, everything from geriatricians and primary care doctors to cardiologists and oncologists, and we do research, education, and take care of lots and lots of patients.