The Computational Medicine Podcast

Send us a textDr Anders Sandberg is a senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. He holds a PhD in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University. His work is wide ranging, including the societal and ethical issues surrounding human enhancement and new technology, as well as assessing the capabilities and underlying science of future technologies. His research includes work on cognitive enhancement and technical roadmaps on whole brain emulation, neuroethics, and global catastrophic risks. We discussed the roadmap to whole brain emulation, defining consciousness, the ethical and cultural implications of whole brain emulation, attitudes towards cryonics and death and lots more.You can find Dr Anderes Sanberg at:Twitter: @anderssandbergWebsite: www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/team/anders-sandberg/You can find me at:Twitter: @Dr_AlexDavidsonWebsite: www.alexdavidson.meSupport the show

Send us a textFin Moorhouse is a researcher at Longview Philanthropy. Before that, he was a Research Scholar and assistant to Toby Ord at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute. He co-hosts a podcast called Hear This Idea, about about ideas for solving important problems, and the people working on them ranging form AI safety, Biorisk to global development. He writes about effective altruism, existential risk, and ways to improve the (longterm) future on his writing page. We discussed his work an lessons from his podcast guests, his thoughts on Effective Altruism. Other key insights from podcasting. How it might be worth investing in clean air for our health and AI Safety. He also :Is a fellow on this ‘Roots of Progress’ writing fellowshipContinues to informally work with (and learn from) Toby OrdThinks about some EA project ideas I’d like to help make happenResearched space governance as an EA cause area (and now advise a couple groups which were since established)Worked on a policy brief about a UN Declaration on Future GenerationsHelped set up a contest to support EA criticismYou can find Fin at:Twitter: @finmoorhouseWebsite: https: www.finmoorhouse.comYou can find me at:Twitter: @Dr_AlexDavidsonWebsite: www.alexdavidson.meSupport the show

Send us a textJess Morley is a PhD student at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University. Her work focuses on  understanding the ethical, philosophical and practical ramifications of the increasing use of technology in healthcare. She was The lead tech advisor for data-driven technology at UK Department of Health and Social Care. She was a contributor towards the Goldachre review which looked at the efficient and safe use of health data for research and analysis and how this can benefit patients and the healthcare sector, and was originally commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health and Care in February 2021. It was published on gov.uk in April 2022. We discussed her current work, what are the key factors that make a medical AI paper effective and where healthcare data will be going in the future.You can find Jess Morley at:Twitter: @jessRmorleyWebsite: https: www.healthdatanerd.orgYou can find me at:Twitter: @Dr_AlexDavidsonWebsite: www.alexdavidson.meSupport the show

Send us a textDr James Zou is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Data Science and Computer Science at Stanford University. He works on making machine learning more reliable, human-compatible and statistically rigorous. He received his Ph.D from Harvard in 2014, and was at one time a member of Microsoft Research, a Gates Scholar at Cambridge and a Simons fellow at U.C. Berkeley. He joined Stanford in 2016 and his research is supported by the Sloan Fellowship and the Google and Tencent AI awards.He recently published a very high quality paper looking at using EchoNet, an AI model to help interpret echocardiogram scans that was published in Nature medicine. It showed that AI saved clinician time and had as good scan interpretation as echocardiogram sonographers. One of the key factors that made this paper so effective was the fact that it was randomized , blinded and prospective. Factors that often are not present in medical papers but are crucial to make the evidence of what they show robust. We discussed his work on EchoNet and similar projects, what factors he considers are important in making effective medical AI papers and where he sees these models being deployed in the future.You can find Dr James Zou at:Twitter: @james_y_zouWebsite: https: www.james-zou.comYou can find me at:Twitter: @Dr_AlexDavidsonWebsite: www.alexdavidson.meSupport the show

Send us a textDr. Adam Bataineh is co-Founder of Span Health, a health coaching company driven by data to improve longevity. The company's primary goal was to enhance human performance by assisting members in improving their sleep, nutrition, and exercise routines through scientifically based experiments. In 2022, Span Health was acquired by Eight Sleep for an undisclosed sum.What makes Adam particularly intriguing is his role as a pioneer in the field of Medicine. While Longevity is not typically recognized as a specialized area in the UK, Adam has carved out his own unique niche. Enhancing people's longevity and healthspan requires not only a comprehensive understanding of human physiology but also a deep comprehension of behavioral psychology. Adam focuses on motivating individuals to take actions today that their future selves will be grateful for.In other words, instead of merely addressing problems as they arise, doctors like Adam strive to prevent or at least delay those problems from occurring in the first place. During our conversation, we delve into Adam's journey and his approach to establishing Span Health. We also explore his methods for optimizing longevity and touch upon some of the personal experiments he has conducted. I hope you find this discussion enjoyable.You can find Adam at:Twitter: @DrAdamBatWebsite: https://www.numenor.health/You can find me at:Twitter: @Dr_AlexDavidsonWebsite: www.alexdavidson.meSupport the show

Send us a textVivek Natarajan is an AI researcher at Google Health working to accelerate biomedical AI’s translation from code to clinic and scale world-class healthcare to everyone. In this episode we spoke about about his work in helping to build MedPalm 1 and 2. The two best general medical machine Learning models right now are GPT4 and MedPalm 2 built by Google with both scoring >85% on the USMLE and similar other medical exams. Vivek tells us how his team at Googlehealth built MedPalm 1 and 2 and where he sees similar models being deployed in medicine in the near future. You can find Vivek Natarajan at:Twitter: @vivnatWebsite: natviv.meYou can find me at:Twitter: @Dr_AlexDavidsonWebsite: www.alexdavidson.meSupport the show

Send us a textDr Hugh Harvey is managing director at Hardian Health, a healthcare consultancy that provides clinical, research and medical affairs support to AI or healthtech products. After studying medicine at Imperial College London, he trained and worked as a consultant radiologist in the NHS. He then moved to Babylon Health as lead for Regulatory Affairs in Clinical Artificial Intelligence. He also was the editor for Nature Digital. We discussed regulation of AI as a medical device, where he sees AI being deployed in medicine effectively in the next few years and the main pitfalls for companies and public bodies trying to deploy AI in medicine.  This was a great conversion and really got to the core of what to expect from these new technologies. AI is going to revolutionise medicine but safeguarding it’s deployment to ensure it is done safely is as important as developing the technology. Dr Hugh Harvey Twitter: @DrHughHarveyYou can find me:Twitter: @Dr_AlexDavidsonWebsite: www.alexdavidson.meSupport the show

Send us a textDr Phillip Pratt is cofounder of Medical iSight, a company that brings augmented reality into the operating theatre. He has a PhD in Neural Systems Engineering from Imperial College London and after a career as a quantitative analyst he was appointed as a research Fellow at the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery.We discussed the technology behind this tool and future implementations it may have to improve surgery in the future.You can find  Dr Philip Pratt at:Twitter: @philipjprattMedical iSight: https://www.medicalisight.com/You can find me at:Twitter: @Dr_AlexDavidsonWebsite: www.alexdavidson.me0:26Outline your career so far3:28Outline the goals of Medical iSight7:28What computational technologies does Medical iSight use?10:15Which types of surgery is Medical iSight used in?16:36How does the collaboration between medical and computational experts work?19:33What software is used for Medical iSight22:28How long was the time between idea and product deployment?28:04What is the validation and regulatory approcal process?32:38Where do you see Medical iSight being used in the future that it isn't currently?36:38Do you have any books that you would reccomend?Support the show

Send us a textDr Patrick Walters is chief data officer at Relay Therapeutics, a company that uses computational techniques to transform the drug discovery process.  Since being founded in 2016, the company IPOs in 2020, and is currently valued at $2 billion. And we discussed the computational models that relay uses in the work and how they pair these with wet lab experiments to improve the speed and accuracy of drug discovery. Dr Patrick Walters Twiter: @wpwaltersRelay Therapeutics Twitter: @Relay_Tx You can find me:Twitter: @Dr_AlexDavidsonWebsite: www.alexdavidson.meSupport the show

Send us a textProfessor Pearse Keane works at the forefront of the use of machine learning in ophthalmology. He is a consultant Ophthalmologist at the Moorefield’s Eye Hospital in London, the world’s oldest eye hospital. He also is a professor of medical artificial intelligence at University College London. His research team consistently publishes their work in top impact factor journals and has previously collaborated with Deepmind on the analysis of retinal scans.We discuss his career path, the nuisances and challenges of applying machine learning in medicine and where he sees this field going in the future. You can find me on Twitter @Dr_AlexDavidson or at www.alexdavidson.me Support the show