What if Elon Musk was in charge of your healthcare?

Last updated on March 2, 2023

It’s not as farfetched as you might think.

I’m willing to bet you would consider it more possible now than if I’d asked you this question six months ago.

What if, in the near-future, AI algorithms in healthcare advance to the point where corporate-owned conglomerations rely on the AI to determine who gets medical treatment — and who doesn’t? All with the goal of making healthcare more “cost-effective.”

Six years ago I started writing a book with this very question in mind. Well, not this very question. Not Elon Musk, per se. But someone like him. A profit-driven CEO, but in healthcare.

My brain wouldn’t let go of the central “story question” that drove the writing of my book, The Algorithm Will See You Now:

The additional conflict I added to the story was:

What if there was a flaw in the algorithm, but to protect their profits, the people who knew about the flaw covered it up?

To write the book, I had to think about the following:

What would convince doctors to go along with it? What would convince patients to go along with it? And what kind of person would be behind it all? Who would put profit over human life?

Over the past several years while I revised (and revised, and revised) the book, the feedback I received over and over from publishing industry professionals was some version of, “great premise, but too unrealistic. I could never sell this.”

Then, in May 2022, when Musk put in his bid for Twitter, I realized it provided a way to help publishers understand how my story was relevant and timely. I pitched it with this teaser:

“Billionaires and their biased algorithms taking over social media are only the start.”

That got my manuscript read, and ultimately, an offer of publication.

So this past week has been feeling all kinds of meta to me, as I’ve watched the new Twitter CEO initiate changes that, in his usual manner of putting profits over people, seem to have broken the Twitter algorithm.

Like many, I ventured over to check out Mastodon. So far, I’ve found the open source, decentralized, non-algorithm-driven space refreshing. Interactions seem more kind and genuine, not everyone out for a “hot take.”

And it’s all been extra meta for me as it echoes one of the themes of my book: Maybe we need less algorithms in our lives.

If you don’t realize how algorithms are being used in almost every space already, check out Cathy O’Neil’s book, Weapons of Math Destruction.

Even here on Medium, the algorithm is problematic.

AI algorithms are already being used in healthcare, although the general public isn’t aware of this yet.

As a physician of over twenty years, I’ve witnessed firsthand how capitalism is not improving healthcare, but rather driving healthcare burnout. The pandemic has only accelerated this.

“Non-profit” tax status does not mean “not-for-profit” business practices.

All it would take is someone like Elon Musk taking over a large healthcare network.

My book asks readers to think about it for themselves:

What if algorithm-driven healthcare becomes more and more the norm? Who would you want in charge of those algorithms?

In other words, it’s not the technology that’s the problem, it’s the people we put in charge of the technology.

The Algorithm Will See You Now will be out 3/2/2023.

And if you want to support me, a preorder helps show the publisher there are people definitely interested in this not-so-farfetched future!

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Also published on Medium

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