AI May Destroy Teaching But It Is Going to Revolutionize Many Fields

4/30/26 Science:

If you walk into an emergency room (ER) in 10 years, you’ll encounter a new type of caregiver: an artificial intelligence (AI) system designed to get you a diagnosis faster and help your care team make more informed decisions. While you sit in the waiting room, you’ll be hooked up to a blood pressure cuff that’s constantly and autonomously monitored. All the while, an AI agent will be listening in while you and your doctor talk about your symptoms, ready to flag any mistakes your physician makes or suggest next steps.

This vision of AI-assisted emergency health care may soon be reality. In a new study, researchers show that a type of AI known as a large language model (LLM) often outperformed physicians at diagnosing complex and potentially life-threatening conditions, including decreased blood flow to the heart, even in the fast-moving stages of real ER care when information is limited, they report today in Science. In early ER cases, the model identified the correct or a very close diagnosis in about 67% of cases, compared with roughly 50% to 55% for physicians. And the technology is only getting better.

“Evaluating AI in medicine demands both depth and breadth across different clinical tasks and settings,” and these authors were able to incorporate both in this study, says Shreya Johri, a computer scientist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who was uninvolved with the new research. Still, she notes, wide adoption of these AI systems in health care will hinge on knowing the contexts in which they’re most reliable.

Fine with me as long as the LLMs are not filled with antiracism crap which denies that there are genuine physiological differences, at least at the means between races. 

Faster, no exhausted ER doctors at the end of a long shift, less fear of lawsuits. For some specialty medical care, shorter wait times and larger supply.

This is also an earlier version of OpenAI. Everything is getting better and faster.

What a Great Healthcare System!

2/26/26 Globe and Mail (Canadian big newspaper):

1 in 4 Canadians in long-term care were given anti-psychotic drugs without diagnosis, report finds 

Reversing Alzheimer's

10/28/25 SciTechDaily:

"Scientists Reverse Alzheimer’s Disease in Mice With Impressive New Treatment...

"The new treatment approach targets restoring normal blood vessel function instead of focusing on neurons or other brain cells, which has been the common strategy until now.

"A team of scientists co-led by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and West China Hospital Sichuan University (WCHSU), in collaboration with UK researchers, has developed a nanotechnology-based treatment that successfully reverses Alzheimer’s disease in mice. Unlike conventional nanomedicine, which typically uses nanoparticles to deliver drugs, this new strategy relies on nanoparticles that are therapeutic themselves, described as “supramolecular drugs.”"

Apparently, permeability of the blood-brain barrier is a factor in removal of amyloid-β which is part of Alzheimer’s.  They saw dramatic improvements in mice one hour after injection.

This is the sort of research that is worth every penny spent unlike research that tries to catrgorize math as systemic racism.

When Medical Research Produces Results

10/8/25 BBC:

"Ultrasound isn't supposed to be audible to human ears, but Xu was using such a powerful amplifier in her experiments that other researchers she shared the laboratory with began to complain about noise. "Nothing had worked anyway," she says. So she decided to humour her colleagues by increasing the rate of ultrasound pulses, which would bring the sound level outside the range of human hearing.

To her shock, increasing the number of pulses per second was not only less disruptive to those around her, but also more effective on living tissue than the approach she'd tried previously. As she watched, a hole appeared in the pig heart tissue within a minute of ultrasound application. "I thought I was dreaming," says Xu, who is today a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan. 

"Decades later, Xu's serendipitous discovery, known as histotripsy, is one of several approaches using ultrasound that are ushering in a new era of advanced cancer treatment, offering doctors non-invasive methods to rid patients of cancerous tumours using sound rather than surgery.

"Histotripsy was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of liver tumours in October 2023. The following year, a small study funded by HistoSonics, the company formed to commercialise Xu's technology, found that the approach achieved technical success against 95% of liver tumours. While side effects ranging from abdominal pain to internal bleeding are possible, research suggests complications are rare and the method is generally safe."

Any time you can avoid the knife and anesthesia is a win.

How to Lie By Indirection

 10/1/25 AP:

A vote to end the government shutdown hours after it began failed Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund health care subsidies that President Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to provide....

Health care demands: Democrats want the health care subsidies extended now, for Republicans to reverse the Medicaid cuts that were enacted over the summer, and for the White House to promise not to rescind congressional spending. Republicans say there’s still time to negotiate on health care this year, but stopgap funding for the government is the priority. Republican claims that Democrats want to provide free health care to immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally are false.

If you click through the "are false" link you get a 10/1/25 AP news story that almost says that. 

But immigrants in the U.S. illegally are not eligible for any federal health care programs, including insurance provided through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.

Hospitals do receive Medicaid reimbursements — which would be reduced under Trump’s mega-bill — for emergency care that they are obligated to provide to people who meet other Medicaid eligibility requirements, but do not have an eligible immigration status, according to KFF, a nonprofit health policy research polling and news organization. This spending accounted for less than 1% of total Medicaid spending between fiscal years 2017 and 2023.

So, not direct aid but hospitals treat illegals knowing they will get reimbursed.  The requirement that all hospitals that have ever received national government assistance must provide emergency medical care is a humane requirement.  At the same time, knowing that you will receive such care has to act as an encouragement to stay here.  That the amount of spending is small really means somewhere below $8.8 billion.  In the larger scheme of things this is not huge.  But we are running a huge deficit.  Americans are fairly sympathetic to those in need.  That includes those in need who have a right to be here.

Big Pharma and Puberty Blockers

9/14/25 The Forgotten Side of Medicine tells how a drug originally authorized by FDA to alleviate the extreme suffering of terminal prostate cancer (where its severe side-effects were tiny compared to what was coming) was repositioned as a chemical castration for pedophiles then as a puberty blocker for transconfused kids.

"This proliferation was due to manufacturers pricing the drugs to generate enormous profits for themselves and doctors (in many cases constituting most of urology practices’ revenues)—likely why most urologists, when surveyed, admitted prescribing Lupron despite not believing it worked.

'•These drugs rapidly age the body, causing permanent and crippling side effects, including severe bone loss, pain, soft tissue damage, severe pain hormonal disruption, sexual dysfunction, psychiatric issues, cognitive impairment, cancer risks, and cardiovascular and gastrointestinal disorders."

I am generally skeptical of any claim involving Big Pharma because it usually appeals to conspiracy buffs who insist there's a cheap, one pill cure for cancer.  (If there was, do you think United Healthcare would not have broken this loose to save billions of dollars a year?)

After watching a doctor speak at a Tennessee hospital about how trans/treatment was a big moneymaker, i can believe all sorts of evil in the medical industry.   My own experience has been overwhelming positive.

100 MPG Carburetors; Cures for Cancer

A,traditional conspiracy theory when I was young was that 100 mpg carburetors were being suppressed by oil companies.  The obvious question then was, "Why would car companies not sell cars with such efficient systems?"  While oil companies would have reason to suppress inventions that would reduce sales,  car companies would have reason to sell them, just to gain a competitive advantage over other car companies.   While oil companies enjoyed great financial power, so did car companies. 

Today,  the conspiracy theory is that Big Pharma suppresses cures for cancer.   Like oil companies,  their incentive is clear.   Health insurance companies have a similar incentive to the car companies.  Imagine an insurer who could purchase  $1 a pill cancer cures.  Even at $1000, this would be an enormous financial gain.  Think also of the advantages in gaining customers. 

Conspiracy theories are very popular, but these are the dumbest  

British Columbia Hiring American Healthcare Workers

5/12/25 Vancouver Sun:

"A total of 1,200 American-trained workers have expressed interest in working in B.C., including 573 physicians, 413 nurses, 133 nurse practitioners and 39 allied health professionals."

The reason they want to move north according to Premier Eby:

The premier said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s loss is B.C.’s gain and that he expects even more health-care workers to want to leave the U.S. as the White House continues to attack reproductive rights, vaccines and the ability to get care no matter how little is in a patient’s bank account.

Okay. I can believe leftwing Healthcare workers might decide to move away from Orange Man Bad.  But the recruiting strategy makes little sense:

The province also announced Monday that it will be starting an advertising campaign in June targeting health-care workers in Washington, Oregon and some cities in California, where the ministry says it has had the greatest interest in moving to B.C.

Idaho wrote a poor abortion law that caused many ob-gyns to leave.  I can see advertising in states where governments limited abortion.  But three states where abortion rights enjoy enormous protections?  So far, RFK, Jr. has made a name for himself by endorsing the MMR vaccine. At worst, he has started an investigation of the claims about vaccines and autism.  A study of existing work might be a useful way to calm those who are not fanatics.

Yes, patients with little in their bank account but who can wait and wait and wait for care.  From "How long are Canadians waiting to access specialty care?" Canadian Family Physician

. 2020 Jun;66(6):434–444.

Long wait times have become a defining characteristic of the Canadian health care system. In 2016, the Commonwealth Fund ranked Canada last among 11 countries surveyed on wait times for specialist care.¹ Roughly one-fifth of Canadians report being negatively affected by wait times, citing experiences of stress, anxiety, pain, lost income, delays in diagnosis and treatment, duplications of tests, and deterioration in their conditions.^2–4 In general, patients consider 3 months to be the maximum acceptable wait time for a specialist appointment.^5–8

Why I Do Not Trust Reuters

5/14/25 Reuters:

"LONDON, May 14 (Reuters) - European governments are examining whether U.S. President Donald Trump can force them to pay more for prescription medicines, after he issued an executive order to lower U.S. drug prices, roiling the global pharmaceutical industry.'

The executive order does not force them to pay more, it forces American drug makers to charge Americans less.

Savor This Number

5/13/25 The Hill has a discussion of GOP conflict with Trump's Rx "Most Favored Nation" executive order.  It is actually reasonably fair.   It includes this amazing tidbit: "The pharmaceutical industry spent $387 billion on lobbying in 2024."

Think about that.  How much could drug costs drop if Big Pharma was not spending $387 billion a year on lobbying?  Now, lobbying is sometimes defensive in nature so I cannot get too self-righteous about this, but it is hard to imagine that none of this spent protecting high prices.

UPDATE: I misread it.  $300 MILLION.  Downright reasonable.