PULSE

PULSE+IT

PULSE, the podcast, produced by Pulse+IT and hosted by digital health legends Louise Schaper and George Margelis, is an enlightening, entertaining look at global digital health trends and current debates with our hosts’ deep takes on all the latest news in digital health.

  1. 17 HR AGO

    AI Everywhere: In Your Pocket, on Your Wrist, in the Clinic, and Inside the Cell

    This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George explore the rapid emergence of AI health assistants from Big Tech, unpack the growing role of consumer wearables as research-grade medical tools, examine how AI scribes are evolving into multimodal and physical devices, and zoom out to a groundbreaking scientific achievement—simulating a living cell.  AI health assistants from Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Perplexity signal a shift from standalone tools to a persistent, orchestrating layer across patient data, raising urgent questions about trust, ownership and the future role of the health system.  A new partnership between Verily and Samsung could turn consumer smartwatches into research-grade data sources, unlocking new possibilities for decentralised trials, digital biomarkers and real-world evidence at scale.  AI scribes are evolving beyond software, with vision-enabled systems dramatically improving accuracy and new purpose-built hardware like Heidi Remote signalling a move toward AI as embedded clinical infrastructure.  And in a remarkable scientific breakthrough, researchers have simulated an entire living cell at the molecular level—opening the door to a future of in silico experimentation and personalised medicine at unprecedented depth. Resources:AI Scribe gets eyes npj Digital Medicine Link Cell Simulation Link EOI for the Chatbot User Guide for Patients Link Visit Pulse+IT.news to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material. People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news. Follow us on LinkedIn Louise | George | Pulse+IT Follow us on BlueSky Louise | George | Pulse+IT Send us your questions pulsepod@pulseit.news Production by Octopod Productions | Ivan Juric

    49 min
  2. 19 MAR

    Startup Lessons from Guy Tsafnat & Decoding Healthcare’s Data Matrix

    Welcome to Pulse: Amplify, where we sit down with the leaders and changemakers shaping the future of health.  Guy Tsafnat joins Pulse to unpack why healthcare is “data rich but evidence poor,” and what it really takes to turn messy clinical data into something usable at scale.  He shares hard-earned lessons from building multiple startups, including why sales is harder than technology, how founders should think about co-founders, and why asking for help matters more than perfect pitch decks.  The conversation explores why healthcare data is fundamentally different to other industries, why most data projects stall before delivering value, and what needs to change to make evidence-based care actually work in practice.  Guy also gives a pragmatic take on AI in healthcare—why “rubbish in, rubbish out” still applies, where ambient AI is showing real promise, and why simply layering AI onto poor data won’t change clinical practice.  Finally, he reflects on the realities of building a global health startup from Australia, including the challenges of selling innovation locally and the advantages of lower development costs and strong R&D support.  Connect with Guy Tsafnat: LinkedIn Visit Pulse+IT.news to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material. People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news. Follow us on LinkedIn Louise | George | Pulse+IT Follow us on BlueSky Louise | George | Pulse+IT Send us your questions pulsepod@pulseit.news Production by Octopod Productions | Ivan Juric

    29 min
  3. 12 MAR

    The ChatGPT Health controversy: what the viral Nature Medicine study missed with David Fraile Navarro

    Welcome to Pulse: Amplify, where we sit down with the leaders and changemakers shaping the future of health.  A recent Nature Medicine study went viral after reporting that ChatGPT Health under-triaged more than half of emergency cases when tested using clinician-written scenarios. The finding raised serious concerns about whether consumer AI tools are safe for medical triage. But researchers from Macquarie University’s Australian Institute of Health Innovation took a closer look at the study design and suspected the results might reflect the evaluation format rather than the AI’s clinical capability. In this episode of Pulse Amplify, Louise and George speak with David Fraile Navarro about their follow-up study testing five frontier AI models across more than a thousand trials. Their research suggests that when AI systems are evaluated using more natural, patient-style interactions rather than exam-style prompts, triage performance improves significantly. The discussion explores why prompt structure, forced answer formats, and restrictions on clarifying questions can dramatically alter model behaviour, and why designing realistic evaluation methods is essential as millions of people begin using AI for health advice. The conversation also examines broader questions: How should AI triage tools be evaluated? What role should clinicians play in AI-mediated care? And what do patients need to know before trusting AI with health decisions? References Ramaswamy A. et al. (2026). ChatGPT Health performance in a structured test of triage recommendations. Nature Medicine. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04297-7 Fraile Navarro D, Magrabi F, Coiera E. (2026). Evaluation format, not model capability, drives triage failure in the assessment of consumer Health AI. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18975048 Connect with David Fraile Navarro: LinkedIn Visit Pulse+IT.news to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material. People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news. Follow us on LinkedIn Louise | George | Pulse+IT Follow us on BlueSky Louise | George | Pulse+IT Send us your questions pulsepod@pulseit.news Production by Octopod Productions | Ivan Juric

    27 min
  4. 5 MAR

    The Eucalyptus Exit, an AI Hackathon Cardiologist, and Why Good Tech Still Fails

    This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George break down… One of the biggest exits in Australian digital health history sees Sydney-founded telehealth company Eucalyptus acquired by U.S. platform Hims & Hers in a deal worth up to $1.6 billion, raising questions about the rise of global consumer health infrastructure and what it means for the future of care delivery.  A cardiologist in Brussels places third in Anthropic’s global Claude AI hackathon after building a patient follow-up tool in just seven days, highlighting how domain expertise combined with generative AI tools could dramatically accelerate healthcare innovation.  A massive NHS trial of an AI-enabled “tricorder-style” stethoscope shows the technology can dramatically improve detection of heart failure and atrial fibrillation — but poor workflow integration meant many clinicians simply stopped using it.  Finally, a curious new study finds emojis appearing in electronic health records, prompting a light-hearted but serious discussion about clinical documentation standards, data quality and what happens when modern communication habits collide with medical records. We are on tour! Charlotte Blease of #DrBot book fame and Louise are hitting the road together. The Sydney event was fantastic, it’s not too late to catch the Melbourne book launch. Melbourne: Tuesday 10th March 6.30pm, Mary Martin Bookshop, Southbank. Get tickets here Visit Pulse+IT.news to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material. People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news. Follow us on LinkedIn Louise | George | Pulse+IT Follow us on BlueSky Louise | George | Pulse+IT Send us your questions pulsepod@pulseit.news Production by Octopod Productions | Ivan Juric

    35 min
  5. 26 FEB

    Jordi Piera Jimenez on Interoperability Theatre and Building Digital Health on Stone, Not Sand

    Welcome to Pulse: Amplify, where we sit down with the leaders and changemakers shaping the future of health.  Jordi Piera Jiménez joins Pulse to unpack the foundations of digital health. Fresh from stepping down as Director of Digital Health Strategy at the Catalan Health Service, Jordi reflects on what most health systems are still getting wrong: interoperability that’s more theatre than reality, AI built on poorly structured clinical data, and the dangerous confusion of digital transformation with IT procurement. We explore why public health systems should own their digital infrastructure, how procurement can be a powerful lever for change, and why clinicians must be better supported to understand that documentation is the core of modern healthcare. Jordi shares a bold vision for the next decade: true digital public infrastructure, genuine patient agency over data, and platform economies that drive innovation without vendor lock-in. A thoughtful, systems-level conversation about infrastructure, governance, ethics — and getting the foundations right. Connect with Jordi: LinkedIn Visit Pulse+IT.news to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material. People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news. Follow us on LinkedIn Louise | George | Pulse+IT Follow us on BlueSky Louise | George | Pulse+IT Send us your questions pulsepod@pulseit.news Production by Octopod Productions | Ivan Juric

    35 min
  6. 19 FEB

    Two AI Healthcare Futures? Australia Builds Medicine Infrastructure and China Scales GenAI to Billions

    This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George tackle big shifts in medicines safety and the accelerating global AI race in healthcare. Australia moves toward a National Medicines Record The Federal Government announces reforms requiring medicines prescribed via online platforms to be uploaded to My Health Record — including clinical context. With medication-related harm accounting for around 250,000 hospital admissions annually, is this the safety infrastructure Australia has needed for decades? AI predicts 130 diseases from one night of sleep A new Nature Medicine study claims a sleep foundation model trained on 585,000 hours of data can predict future risk of more than 130 diseases. Breakthrough preventative medicine — or promising science with important caveats. China’s AI healthcare surge China’s Ant Group health chatbot reaches 30 million monthly users, embedded inside Alipay’s super-app ecosystem. Meanwhile, China announces a $2–3 billion national AI healthcare strategy targeting population-scale deployment by 2030. Are we witnessing two divergent AI healthcare futures — cautious and regulated versus centralised and scaled? We are on tour! Charlotte Blease of #DrBot book fame and Louise are hitting the road together. Come see them in person and get your booked signed by Charlotte! Sydney: Tuesday 3rd March 6pm, Gleebooks, Glebe. Get tickets here Melbourne: Tuesday 10th March 6.30pm, Mary Martin Bookshop, Southbank. Get tickets here Resources Dr Sara Riggare’s Checklist and Resources for Meaningful Engagement of Patients Link Visit Pulse+IT.news to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material. People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news. Follow us on LinkedIn Louise | George | Pulse+IT Follow us on BlueSky Louise | George | Pulse+IT Send us your questions pulsepod@pulseit.news Production by Octopod Productions | Ivan Juric

    38 min

About

PULSE, the podcast, produced by Pulse+IT and hosted by digital health legends Louise Schaper and George Margelis, is an enlightening, entertaining look at global digital health trends and current debates with our hosts’ deep takes on all the latest news in digital health.

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