When 2025 America tuned into HBO’s award-winning collection The Pitt, we confirmed we’re looking for authenticity.
As somebody who works on the intersection of well being and invention and constructed their life across the creation of direct social affect, I see the present for what it’s: a brutally sincere portrayal of the intrinsic tragedy in our well being care system. And a possibility.
The Pitt’s unflinching portrayal of time, expertise, and organizational politics is a catalyst for dialog. Whereas the drama precisely diagnoses the issues with well being care at this time, it misses a important a part of the answer: synthetic intelligence. Not as a panacea, however as a collaborator. It’s The Pitt’s lacking character.
AI isn’t right here to interchange individuals.
In conversations about AI in well being care, the pendulum tends to swing between two excessive positions: it’s both going to save lots of us, or it’s going to interchange us. Each are false.
People don’t scale. Clinicians are already stretched skinny, racing towards clocks for extra sufferers with fewer assets. We’re going through a projected scarcity of as much as 122,000 physicians, together with shortages in 9 out of ten surgical specialties by 2032. Contemplating that 10,000 Child Boomers flip 65 every day and seniors generate 34 p.c of inpatient procedures, we are able to’t presumably scale the doctor workforce quick sufficient to fulfill this demand.
We should redirect what we can’t do alone. To scale, we should innovate.
Innovation is not only about growing cutting-edge applied sciences but additionally about understanding the advanced panorama of well being care and addressing the wants of sufferers and medical professionals equally. It’s a dedication to staying forward of the curve, anticipating societal wants, and collaborating to drive progress. It requires being comfy with the unknown, and never being intimidated by new instruments, however empowered by them.
Preserving experience isn’t a plot.
Surgeons depend on years of coaching, intuition, and sample recognition to make speedy selections in high-stakes environments. Regardless of their experience, they face the continuing problem of recalling intensive medical data whereas performing advanced, bodily and mentally demanding procedures.
With the help of the appropriate know-how, this deep expertise may be captured and reworked into structured, searchable data. Instruments that acquire real-time surgical information, monitor procedural adjustments, and feed insights again into the system may also help construct an evolving data base—one which endures and stays accessible even after particular person clinicians go away the sphere.
Research point out that clever steerage methods can cut back surgical procedure time by 20 to 80 minutes and decrease the probability of expensive revisions. These applied sciences aren’t designed to interchange human experience however to increase it—lowering cognitive load, anticipating potential issues, and permitting healthcare professionals to concentrate on delivering high-quality care.
Co-creation isn’t simply fashion.
The characters in The Pitt are burned out as a result of they’re consistently battling methods that haven’t been designed round their workflows. Instruments, launched with out related enter from the individuals who will use them. That’s how we find yourself with cumbersome EHRs, redundant charting, and medical workflows that create extra work as an alternative of much less.
Development have to be formed by the individuals utilizing it, just like the surgeons within the OR, the nurses on the ground, and the residents charting late at evening. If we construct with them, not only for them, we’ve got a real alternative for significant change.
The choice is extra documentation, screens, and burnout. That is exactly what The Pitt laid naked.
The time is now.
The present’s ultimate message is urgency: We’re operating out of time. However I’d argue we’re additionally operating out of excuses. The know-how exists. The partnerships are rising. What we’d like now could be the collective will to embrace a brand new paradigm: one the place AI doesn’t overshadow experience however elevates it. Let’s ensure that the following season of well being care innovation is one value watching. Write the AI character into the storyline. Now.
Gabe Jones is a well being care govt.
