Well Beyond Medicine: The Nemours Children's Health Podcast · Nemours Children's Health

Ep. 171: From ER to Op-Ed: A Conversation with Dr. Leana Wen

·21 min·1 clip

Dr. Wen says clinicians, not federal agencies, may be the key to rebuilding trust in public health.

1. Well Beyond Medicine: The Nemours Children's Health Podcast speaks with Dr. Leana Wen about AI, public health, and family life at Health 2025 in Las Vegas. 2. Carol Vassar interviews Dr. Leana Wen, a Washington Post op-ed columnist and emergency physician, whose reporting and clinical work shape the discussion. 3. The episode asks whether AI can fix healthcare's stubborn failures without worsening cost, bias, or trust. 4. Wen defines the “triple aim” as accessible care for all, reasonable cost, and high quality. 5. She says AI may improve diagnostics, make care safer, and reduce medical error. 6. She gives the example of community health workers with minimal training using ultrasound to help pregnant women. 7. Wen says smartphones and AI may help democratize health information for people who currently have no access. 8. She says she has not seen convincing data that AI will reduce healthcare costs in the long run. 9. On inequity, Wen says AI is only as good as the data that go in. 10. She warns that healthcare may move toward a two-tiered system with physician-assisted AI, non-physician AI, and plain AI use. 11. Wen says patients who put medical records into chatbots should remove names, birth dates, and addresses. 12. She says chatbots respond better when users include medications, dosages, symptoms, and diagnoses. 13. Wen says motherhood changed her perspective on being a physician and a leader. 14. She describes learning about paid family leave, childcare costs, and places to pump or breastfeed while working. 15. She says her own family logistics at a conference show why reliable childcare and paid leave matter. 16. Wen connects her book When Doctors Don't Listen to her mother's metastatic breast cancer diagnosis after months of misdiagnoses. 17. She says misinformation, polarization, and public health mistrust make listening and empathy essential in medicine. 18. Wen says vaccines are a victim of their own success, because many families have never seen polio or measles. 19. She describes the interview as conversational and reflective, with Carol Vassar asking about technology, parenting, trust, and clinical practice. 20. Listeners interested in pediatric health policy, AI in medicine, and public trust would get the most from this episode. 21. Listeners seeking a fast, light celebrity-style interview may skip it.

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