Tech Rx 💊
From repurposed drugs to cheeky chatbots!
Handoff #1 | Reading time: 5 minutes
Good morning,
Welcome to the very first AI Handoff! Your shortcut to staying ahead of AI in healthcare without drowning in buzzwords.
Every great shift starts with a solid handoff, and this one comes with a tech twist. AI is clocking in, ready to shake up healthcare, no badge or scrubs needed. Let’s get into it.
In today's handoff:
AI finds a life-saving treatment for a rare disease
AI is mapping the human body for faster cancer detection
Chatbots are stepping into the role of digital dietitians
The UK’s AI roadmap is shaping healthcare’s future
Plus, an AI twist you didn’t see coming
🩺 Quick Assessment
The one story every healthcare pro needs to know this week.
🔬 AI Finds a Life-Saving Treatment for a Rare Disease
Imagine being on the brink of hospice care and then bam!! a lifeline appears. That’s exactly what happened for a patient with idiopathic multicentric Castleman’s disease (iMCD). A rare, deadly condition with few treatment options.
How AI Helped?
Researchers at Perelman School of Medicine built an AI tool that sifted through 4,000 medications and found a match: adalimumab, a drug usually used for arthritis.
The Science
AI discovered that TNF (tumour necrosis factor) plays a key role in severe iMCD cases, meaning adalimumab could work. And it did.
The Outcome
The patient, who was nearing hospice care, is now two years into remission, a real-world win for AI-driven drug discovery.
Why It Matters?
Instead of waiting years for new drugs, AI is helping us use what we already have to save lives.
🚨 Critical Updates
Fresh, impactful news on AI’s real-world applications in healthcare.
🗺️ Mapping the Future: AI & Early Cancer Detection
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have built AbdomenAtlas, a massive dataset with 45,000 CT scans from 145 hospitals, making it the largest abdominal organ map ever created.
So What? Faster, AI-powered scan analysis could mean earlier cancer detection, better accuracy, and less burden on radiologists.
🍽️ Chatbots on the Menu: AI’s Foray into Nutrition
A study tested ChatGPT-4, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot to create weight-loss meal plans. The result? Decent diet quality, but shaky calorie counts.
So What? Personalised nutrition advice is closer than ever, but AI still needs a pinch of fine-tuning before it takes over your meal planning.
⏳ Can AI Help You Live to 150?
At Davos 2025, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei claimed that AI could unlock 100 years’ worth of biological progress in just a decade, promising to double human lifespan.
So What? We’re not there yet, but AI’s role in disease prevention and longevity research is accelerating fast.
📋 Follow-Up Notes
Demystifying tricky AI concepts with simple, relatable explanations.
💡 Explainability in AI
The Breakdown
AI models make decisions, but how they reach them is often a black box, a mystery even to their own developers. Explainability is about making AI’s thought process transparent and understandable.
The Analogy
Imagine you’re following a mystery recipe with no ingredient list, just a finished dish at the end. Explainability is the difference between trusting a mystery chef or actually seeing the step-by-step cooking process.
Why It Matters
Healthcare professionals can’t use AI they don’t trust. More explainable AI = safer, smarter clinical decisions.
🔍 Incidental Findings
The AI twist you didn’t see coming.
🧠 AI Learns Empathy? Sort of.
Researchers tested AI chatbots to see how well they respond to patient emotions, and surprisingly, some mimicked empathy better than expected.
Why It’s Wild?
Chatbots can be programmed to sound caring, but they don’t feel anything. Yet, in patient interactions, tone matters, and AI’s getting better at faking it.
The Takeaway
In the future, AI could help screen mental health concerns or assist overburdened clinicians with patient interactions. But real human connection? Still irreplaceable.
📝 Rounds Recap
A quick roundup of key headlines you might’ve missed but should know.
Discharge Summary Showdown: ChatGPT-4 went head-to-head with psychiatric residents in crafting discharge summaries, proving that while AI impresses, the human touch still steals the spotlight.
AI for IMPACTS Framework: A new approach to measuring AI’s real-world impact in hospitals, because accuracy alone doesn’t cut it.
The UK’s AI Roadmap: The government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan is making sure the UK stays ahead in AI-powered healthcare.
Hackathon Highlights: AI-powered ERP migrations are now a thing, thanks to innovative teams at JiVS Hackathon in Davos.
🤝 Final Handoff
Whether AI is reimagining existing treatments or streamlining diagnostic workflows, each innovation is a reminder that technology, at its best, is a partner in care, amplifying the human touch.
That’s your AI Handoff for the week! Stay sharp, stay curious, and I’ll see you in the next round.