Catch-22.0: AI Creates Problems It Solves
Healthcare AI isn’t a tech problem—it’s a mirror reflecting how our health system already fails. Uncomfortable truths from Datapalooza 2025. Summary We’re asking the wrong questions about AI in healthcare. Instead of debating whether it’s good or bad, we need to examine the system-eating-its-tail contradictions we’ve created: locking away vital data so AI learns from everything except what matters most, demanding transparency from inherently secretive companies, and fearing tools could make us lazy instead of more capable. Privacy teams protect data, tech companies build tools, regulators write rules—everyone’s doing their part, but no one steps back to see the whole dysfunctional picture. AI in healthcare isn’t a technology problem; it’s a mirror reflecting how our health system already falls short with privacy rules that hinder progress, design processes that exclude patients, and institutions that fear transparency more than mediocrity. The real question is whether we’re brave enough to fix these underlying problems that AI makes impossible to ignore. Click here to view the printable newsletter with images. More readable than a transcript, which can also be found below. Contents Please comment and ask questions: at the comment section at the bottom of the show notes on LinkedIn via email YouTube channel DM on Instagram , TikTok to @healthhats Production Team Kayla Nelson: Web and Social Media Coach, Dissemination, Help Desk Leon van Leeuwen: editing and site management Oscar van Leeuwen: video editing Julia Higgins: Digit marketing therapy Steve Heatherington: Help Desk and podcast production counseling Joey van Leeuwen, Drummer, Composer, and Arranger, provided the music for the intro, outro, proem, and reflection Claude , Perplexity , Auphonic , Descript , Grammarly , DaVinci Podcast episode on YouTube Inspired by and Grateful to: Christine Von Raesfeld, Mike Mittleman, Ame Sanders, Mark Hochgesang, Kathy Cocks, Eric Kettering, Steve Labkoff, Laura Marcial, Amy Price, Eric Pinaud, Emily Hadley. Links and references Academy Health’s Datapalooza 2025 Innovation Unfiltered: Evidence, Value, and the Real-World Journey of Transforming Health Care Tableau a visual analytics platform Practical AI in Healthcare podcast hosted by Steven Labkoff, MD Episode Proem Here’s the thing about AI in healthcare—it’s like that friend who offers to help you move, then shows up with a sports car. The Iron Woman meant well, but it doesn’t quite meet your actual needs. I spent September 5 th at Academy Health’s 2025 Datapalooza conference about AI in healthcare, ‘Innovation Unfiltered: Evidence, Value, and the Real-World Journey of Transforming Health Care. a is Academy Health’s strongest conference for people with lived experience. I’m grateful to Academy Health for providing me with a press pass, which enabled me to attend the conference. I talked to attendees about how they use AI in their work and what keeps them up at night about AI. I recorded some of those conversations and the panels I attended. When I listened to the raw footage, I heard terrible recordings filled with crowd noise and loud table chatter, like dirty water spraying out of a firehose. Aghast, I thought, what is the story here? I was stumped. How can I make sense of this? I had to deliver something. So, here’s how I use AI in my work as a podcaster/vlogger. I used the Auphonic app to clean up the audio and remove noise, and then the Descript app to create transcripts of all the recordings. I went into my Claude podcast Project (a Project is an ongoing thread with everything I’ve done with Claude for my podcast over the past three months). I attached the transcripts and prompted the AI platform to identify themes. OK, that was helpful, but dull. So, I prompted Claude to think like a tech-savvy teen with a sense of humor. Eureka! Now we’re getting somewhere. I edited heavily and then prompted Claude to identify clips of speakers that illustrated the themes. I used the Perplex