UCSF's Dr. Bob Wachter on AI's Healthcare Transformation

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Bob Wachter was one of the nation’s trusted voices, helping us better understand the disease that upended our world and healthcare system. Now he’s focused on what he sees as the next great disruption in medicine: Generative AI. Though we need to address its flaws and limitations, Dr. Wachter says AI is essential to a healthcare system buckling under the weight of clinician burnout, staff shortages and astronomical costs. We talk with Dr. Wachter about his new book, “A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future.” Guests: Dr. Robert "Bob" Wachter, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Now, are all the traitors present?
0:02.5	Let's get started, shall we?
0:04.5	From rags to riches.
0:05.8	I'm so sick of this.
0:07.0	Working like a dog and being treated worse.
0:09.1	Yorkshire to New York.
0:10.7	Poor climbers, you and me.
0:12.4	A life dedicated to revenge.
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0:44.5	The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence has sparked both excitement and
0:49.0	trepidation, but in some sectors, it's hardly a hypothetical anymore.
0:53.4	According to OpenAI, more than 40 million people ask ChatGPT a health care-related message every day.
1:00.5	And doctors and health care systems are already using AI to help transcribe notes,
	...

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