What can - and should - our health system learn from tech entrepreneurs? This is a daily health systems transformation podcast with AI hosts, created, managed, and edited by Dr. Chad Swanson. chadswanson.com

BYU is starting a new medical school soon. And many more new schools have popped up in recent years. Could these schools catalyze a historical transformation of our entire society toward health and well-being? Johns Hopkins played a significant role in transforming medical practice, hospitals, healthcare education, and more in the 1890s. In this AI-hosted pod cast, we discuss lessons for today.

Here are the eight actionable steps discussed in the podcast episode:

1. Universal Health Coverage: Simplify and provide basic healthcare access to everyone, modeled on successful systems in other countries, to reduce inefficiency and inequity.
2. Reform Healthcare Worker Compensation: Transition from incentivizing volume (more tests, procedures) to rewarding better health outcomes and preventative care.
3. Competency-Based Licensing: Shift licensing and certification processes to recognize experience and proven skills rather than relying on outdated, rigid educational pathways.
4. Health Systems Transformation Education: Introduce training in systems thinking, public health, and policy for future healthcare professionals to prepare them for leading systemic changes.
5. Community Partnerships: Integrate local organizations, nonprofits, and churches into the healthcare ecosystem to bridge gaps between formal systems and real-world community needs.
6. Transformational Leadership: Identify and elevate innovative, unconventional leaders who challenge the status quo and push for systemic change.
7. Hubs of System Stewards: Establish interdisciplinary hubs within organizations to focus on systems-level strategies and connect the dots across healthcare operations.
8. A Bold Health Innovation Fund: Create a $400 billion fund to invest in transformative ideas and scalable solutions, fostering competition and innovation to reshape health systems.

In this episode, AI hosts Sofia and David explore the deep systemic flaws driving our health system, focusing on how short-termism, individualism, profits, and elitism undermine health, equity, and efficiency. They discuss how the system prioritizes immediate results over long-term investments, individual responsibility over collective well-being, and profit motives over patient outcomes, often at the expense of marginalized communities. Through powerful examples, like a neurosurgeon’s viral resignation and the undervaluation of community health workers, they highlight the human cost of these misplaced priorities. Ultimately, they call for a transformative shift in values to create a health system centered on accessibility, equity, and collective well-being.

Utilizing AI for this podcast has it's trade-offs for sure. At least one of my listeners doesn't enjoy it. I'm not sure what to think. I provide my rationale in this podcast. I also respond to your comments about insurance and greed in healthcare, and politics. I'm hoping to contribute to positive change through this daily podcast on transformational change in our health system, and I hope that you'll keep the feedback coming.

In this episode of "It’s Time," Sofia and David recap three transformative ideas shaping healthcare: prioritizing universal health at the lowest cost, empowering "system stewards" to navigate complex adaptive systems, and leveraging connections to drive meaningful change. They explore Dr. Chad Swanson's journey from emergency medicine to global health advocacy, his embrace of systems thinking, and his mission to transform our health system. The episode takes a twist with the AI-generated hosts revealing their origin, while Dr. Swanson shares his vision for a collaborative, community-driven podcast that invites listeners to reimagine the future of our health system.

In this episode, we explore the concept of leverage points in complex systems and how small changes can create ripple effects to drive meaningful transformation. From the game-changing passage of Medicare and Medicaid to the grassroots fight for HIV/AIDS treatment and the journey toward mandatory seat belt laws, we examine the key figures, barriers, and pivotal moments that shaped these movements. Join us as we unpack Donella Meadows’ hierarchy of leverage points and explore how individuals and communities can create lasting impact by identifying where to push for change.

I created this episode by entering the follwing prompt into ChatGPT 4o: "describe in detail how 3 major events in the history of health care and public health demonstrate the concept of leverage points as described by Donella Meadows: the passage of Medicare and Medicaid; mandatory seat belts; and grass-roots advocacy for HIV/AIDS treatment" I then redrafted several times, before entering that information into jellypod.ai, and edited.

A complex, adaptive systems (CAS) approach to the U.S. health system brings together five key ideas: shared vision, emergence, feedback loops, nonlinearity, and adaptation. By adopting a more holistic, systems-thinking perspective across policies, research, education, clinical practice, and public health, we could treat health as a dynamic outcome shaped by interconnected social, economic, and environmental factors, not just isolated medical treatments. This shift could create a health system that's more resilient, equitable, and adaptable, leading to better outcomes in ways we can hardly envision today.

To generate this text, I entered this prompt into Chat GPT4o mini: "prepare an approximately 1000 word essay describing a complex, adaptive systems approach to the US health system (not only health care, but all of the determinates of health). Consider 5-7 key complex systems concepts such as shared vision and emergence. Provide specific applications of those concepts with data, including the opioid epidemic, COVID, insurance (recent homicide of United's CEO), and mental health." Then I edited, and entered that text into jellypod.ai, and edited again.