How tech will (and won't) replace your doctor | Zack Abbott and Dhruv Khullar
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What is the central question about technology’s role in future medicine?
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. We're back with the next episode of our original series, TED Intersections, which features unscripted conversations between experts navigating the ideas shaping our world. There's more health advice out there than ever before, and no easy way to tell what's actually worth your time. From biotech Breakthroughs to smarter cancer screening, doctor and writer Dreve Coolar and microbiologist Zack Abbott sit down to examine what happens when science can change who we are, including the potential of re-engineering the human body, and what medicine might look like in twenty years.
We're also losing the ability to feel our bodies, to understand subjectively what it means to be in good health. And do I have energy today? Am I feeling unsettled? What does it mean to thrive? And so I think that instead of layering on more metrics which have a place, the most important metric is really this qualitative sense of do I feel healthy today?
Dreve and Zach get into gene editing, AI in the doctor's office, why our grocery store tomatoes taste like water, and the strange, powerful world living inside our guts.
We are really a walking ecosystem. And what's even more interesting is that unlike our human cells, this bacterial community is constantly changing. It's very plastic and dynamic. And so it's not surprising that it has this huge impact on every aspect of our health.
Throughout the conversation, they keep circling the same idea that when science can change who we are, the hardest questions aren't about what we can do to stay healthy, but what we should do. This episode was made possible with the support of Z Biotics. That's coming up right after a short break.
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And now our TED Conversation of the Day.
It is really hard to kind of get credible information out there that's also compelling when you're competing in in a world where where there's so much it's so easy to generate content that is compelling that it is not accurate.
Yeah. I mean there's so many ways to be wrong and there's only a few ways to be right. Right. And and so, you know, just uh if you do the math, it's like if you say something it it's probably gonna be wrong. Um unless you're take a lot of steps to figure out if it's actually true, uh true or not.
Uh all right, nobody go first? Let's do it. All right, let's get into it. What is a health metric you wish people will focus on more?
Is it too cheeky to say no metric? So I think that we are inundated with health metrics. Some of that is to the good. I'm a doctor. A lot of what I'm focused on is metrics and quantification and how do we get people's cholesterol level to the right number. But I think we're also losing the ability to feel our bodies, to understand subjectively what it means to be in good health. And do I have have energy today? Am I feeling unsettled? What does it mean to thrive? And so I think that instead of layering on more metrics which have a place, the most important metric is really this qualitative sense of do I feel healthy today?
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the central question about technology’s role in future medicine?
0:03–5:12
2
Why do doctors worry we’re losing the ability to “feel” our own health?
5:12–14:40
3
Which health metrics should we prioritize over endless data points?
14:40–21:34
4
How might gene‑editing and CRISPR reshape disease treatment in the next 20 years?
21:34–25:20
5
What are the realistic limits of AI and automation in routine medical care?
25:20–28:38
6
Why is the gut microbiome described as a “walking ecosystem” and why does it matter?
28:38–31:02
7
How can diverse dietary fiber support a healthier microbiome?
31:02–31:48
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from TED Talks Daily
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