Over the past few episodes in this Freakonomics Radio Guide to Getting Better, we've looked at a variety of things that may produce a longer and healthier life.

Nutritional supplements, faster drug approvals, figuring out the secrets of the gut microbiome.

And today, in the final episode of this series, we'll look at something that intersects with secrets of the gut microbiome. And today, in the final episode of this series,

we'll look at something that intersects with all of those things and maybe a trillion more.

Today's topic, how artificial intelligence will change health care. And why is the health

care system in need of change? If you look closely, you'll see a bizarre split. The advances

in medicine and medical technology over the past century have been mind-blowing, but the way

these advances are delivered to actual patients can be also mind-blowing, but in a bad way.

I have the ability to put a patient on heart-lung bypass

where their organs are literally failing and we're able to keep them alive. It's truly some of the

most ambitious technology humanity has ever created. And yet, the way that I find out that someone had

a heart attack is still through a pager, and then

I have to go and say, hey, who here is having the heart attack? The healthcare system has so much

technology slop that it can be hard to see just how good the actual medical technology is,

but that may be about to end. If you think about it, this is the biggest experiment in the history of medicine.

And the experiment is already underway.

The moments where I feel like I'm really doing science is when I genuinely do not know the

answer to the question, but I know it's important to answer.

Today, on Freakonomics Radio, AI and a giant leap into the future of health care.

This is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything, with your host, Stephen Dubner.

We could probably make 10 episodes looking at AI in healthcare, but if we want to do it in a single episode, which we do, it's helpful to speak to someone who is able to frame the biggest questions well, someone like this.

I'm Dr. Robert Wachter, although he says we should call him Bob.

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