Health care is broken, can AI make it better?
What I've been up to over the past couple months.
First, apologies for the long delay between posts. I had hoped to write this newsletter more often but I have to admit that I’m the type of person that when I’m doing something, I go all in and find it hard to focus on many different things. That said, I started this newsletter to share some of the things I would be working on, so that’s exactly what I want to do here.
Since I left my last job, I’ve been exploring what is next. At the time I left, I didn’t know exactly what this was going to be but I saw what was going on with AI and knew I had to at least start playing around with it full-time as I could clearly see it was the future. You can read some of my past posts that dive deeper into some of the experiments I have been trying out.
Outside of these experiments, reading, and learning, I started thinking about big problems that existed that might be able to be approached in a new way, now that generative AI was so capable. One of these problems that I kept coming back to was the problem of healthcare in the United States.
Health care is broken
If you’re an adult living in the United States, you are very likely to know the pain of having to deal with the health care system. Whether it’s just the annoyance of booking an appointment with a doctor’s office (and then sitting in the waiting room for 30 mins), or the frustrations of having to navigate the mess that is health insurance, almost everyone in this country suffers from having to deal with the healthcare system. And before you say it’s only a US problem and universal health insurance solves everything, know that all systems have their problems. In short, health care is broken.
My story is no different. Like millions of others, I have not had a great experience with the health care system. Early in my adult life, I was promised personalized primary care, only to understand the reality was far from it. Instead of having a doctor that knew me well and could make personalized recommendations, I saw different doctors every year, for a grand total of about 15 minutes. Everything else was being modernized it felt like except for my experience with health care1.
And things have really only gotten worse from there. As I and my loved ones have gotten older, my interactions with the health care system have increased, showing even more flaws. I’ve experienced everything from mis-diagnoses to medical mistakes. Thankfully, it’s never cost a loved one a life, but it’s been closer then is comfortable. And I know I’m not alone in this experience. That’s what’s really scary.
The one way, however, my story likely deviates from yours is my in-laws. Both of my in-laws are doctors and have worked in the medical industry for decades. This has been an enormous cheat code for myself and my family. Whenever someone has a medical issue or question, we’re able to go directly to my in-laws who are always willing to chat and know who to ask and how to see the right people if they don’t have an answer. I know this is a privilege that I have that few others do and that almost makes me feel guilty about it.
But I believe we now have the technology to give my in-laws to everyone. No, not actually give their phone numbers to everyone :) but instead to replicate what they provide as a service to myself and my loved ones to everyone.
The generative AI that is now available allows us to do this and more. Not only are the latest models just as capable as the best doctors in a host of different measurements, but they also offer advantages that no other doctor could possibly compete with: 24/7/365 availability and patience. If you could just easily connect all of your health data and devices to them, you could completely change how health care is done.
Sentinel Health
So that’s exactly what I’m setting out to do with Sentinel Health. The mission of Sentinel is to give everyone the ability to get the best health care possible for as low of a cost as possible.
I believe that generative AI is one of the most democratizing forces in our lifetime. It gives every single individual the ability to work with an intelligence assistant that is already expert level in many different fields. And we know that with technology, things will only get better and cheaper over time. This is the worst and most expensive that AI will ever be again. Sentinel Health is a bet that this trend not only continues but accelerates.
And before you think that it’s too risky to give AI all of your health data and rely on it for everything health related2, note that we’re placing a tremendous amount of energy and priority in making sure everything is secure and private. Not only that but we also do feel that doctors play a pivotal role in this future, it just looks a little different than it does today. Instead of a doctor, like a primary care physician, being the point person in your health care journey, we envision you will become the point person (with assistance from your AI of course) and will be able to tag in doctors whenever needed or whenever it makes sense to. You’re still going to have to see doctors, but now with something like Sentinel, you can see the right ones and be well-informed when you do see them.
Think of this new model similar to how primary care physicians are supposed to work today. But instead of only seeing you once a year for 15 minutes or so, your health care assistant will be available to you 24/7/365 and know everything about your medical history, your activity level, and any recent symptoms. It will also be endlessly patient and looking out for ways you can become a healthier version of yourself. It can also assist you in navigating the health care industry. When you meet with a doctor, you can ask it for questions that might be relevant to your situation. You’ll never have to go uninformed into a meeting with a doctor again.
As I mentioned, this is all still early days of course but I believe this future is very possible. We’ve already begun to build out an initial prototype of the service and it’s pretty incredible what it can do. If you’re interested in giving it a try and provide us feedback, please sign up for our waitlist here.
Also, if you’re interested in helping see this future come about, please reach out to me at alex@sentinelhealth.co.
And before you tell me “but what about telehealth and electronic health records!”, these are just semi-digitized versions of the old care model. You still have to book telemedicine appointments and see a doctor on their schedule, but at least it’s from the comfort of your own home.
As for electronic health records, as great as that might be for hospitals (and if you ask doctors, it sounds more of a benefit for the company providing the software, rather than as a benefit to the doctors), I haven’t seen much of a benefit in them as a patient. I still answer the same questions every time I see a doctor and anytime I go to a new doctor, they have none of my historical records. So while Epic might make a butt-load of money off of them, not sure it’s actually benefitting anyone else.
Of course, you basically already do this today, yet get little benefit from it (see above footnote).