<span itemprop="author">Robert Pearl, MD

Author's posts

Medicare’s cobra effect: How a well-intentioned policy spiraled into a health care crisis

In the sweltering heat of 19th-century colonial Delhi, legend has it that cobras were taking over the streets. To eliminate the dangerous snakes, British officials offered a bounty for every dead cobra brought to government offices. Soon, locals began …

AI in American medicine [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! We sit down with physician executive Robert Pearl to explore the revolutionary concepts presented in his latest book, ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors …

Empowering patients: Navigating medical information with AI

An excerpt from ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine. Imagine a ship at sea, its engine idle. The boat drifts dangerously close to the shoals, a mere hundred yards from land. The captain, feari…

How generative AI will upend the doctor-patient relationship

After decades of “doctor knows best,” the traditional physician-patient relationship is on the verge of a monumental shift. Generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Microsoft’s Bing are poised to give …

Health care wins, losses, and lessons

Albert Einstein determined that time is relative. And when it comes to health care, five years can be both a long and a short amount of time. In August 2018, I launched the Fixing Healthcare podcast. At the time, the medium felt like the perfect audito…

“System-ness”: the key to successful health care transformation

Value-based health care, the holy grail of American medicine, has three parts: excellent clinical quality, convenient access, and affordability for all. And as with the holy grail of medieval legend, the quest for value-based care has been filled with …

Kaiser-Geisinger vs. Amazon, Walmart, CVS: Who will reign supreme?

For decades, research studies and news stories have concluded the American system is ineffective, too expensive and falling further behind its international peers in important measures of performance: life expectancy, chronic-disease management and inc…

The revolutionary Kaiser-Geisinger deal: How health care giants are reshaping the industry and empowering patients

Health care’s most recent billion-dollar deal took the industry by surprise, leaving medical experts and hospital leaders grappling to comprehend its implications. In case you missed it, California-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospital…

Why retail giants will revolutionize American health care

In health care, as in life, people devote a lot of time and attention to the way things should be. They’d be better off focusing on what actually could be. As an example, 57% to 70% of American voters believe our nation “should” adopt…

ChatGPT: How generative AI is revolutionizing health care

Over the past decade, I’ve kept a close eye on the emergence of artificial intelligence in health care. One truth remained constant: Despite all the hype, AI-focused startups and established tech companies alike have failed to move the needle on …