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. 3 days ago

    The Tech Works. The System Doesn't: Portugal Buys AI Physio, the First AI Complaints Land, and the Wild West of Health Apps

    This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George look at what happens when digital health stops being a pilot and starts being a system decision — and why, again and again, the technology isn't the hard part. Portugal Buys AI Physiotherapy for an Entire Country — Portugal's National Health Service has contracted Sword Health to make AI-supported physiotherapy available to all 10 million citizens, free after a prescription, prompting the question: are governments shifting from buying AI software to buying AI-delivered healthcare? AI and Accountability: The First Complaints Land — The UK's first complaints about clinicians' inappropriate use of AI have reached professional regulators, arriving well before the evidence base and accountability frameworks are ready. 95% of Health Apps Have No Verifiable Regulatory Approval — Rudolf Wagner's analysis found that of nearly 96,000 apps qualifying as Software as a Medical Device, 95% had no verifiable CE marking or FDA authorisation, leaving consumers with no easy way to know what they're actually using. Doctors Want Wearable Data, But Can't Use It — A new AMA(US) survey found 97% of physicians would review data from a patient's wearable, but no more than 6% have actually integrated it, blocked by missing standards, workflow fit, reimbursement and liability. Virtual Care Could Transform Residential Aged Care — Australian researchers found virtual care between aged care homes and GPs improves access and reduces unnecessary hospital visits, but is undermined by poor integration, unreliable networks and limited staff training — the technology works, the system around it doesn't. With Thanks to Datacom: Download the Executive Briefing Playbook Link Resources: Sword Health partners with Portugal's National Health Service Link First complaints made over clinician use of AI, HSJ via Patient Safety Learning Hub Link Ensuring the clinical impact of medical artificial intelligence, Andreoletti et al., Lancet Digital HealthLink Analysis of Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) Compliance in App Store Applications, Rudolf Wagner Link Docs unable to harness wearables data, survey finds, Axios Link Virtual care could benefit residential homes – study, Pulse+IT Link Virtual care in residential aged care homes, Journal of Medical Internet ResearchLink Recommendations: Clinicians – be part of the research into clinician use of AI, open globally Link Standards Australia telehealth and virtual care standard Link There's An AI For That (TAAFT) newsletter Link Age-Friendly Futures newsletter, George Gouzounis Link "Welcome to the Land of the Free" — World Cup song by Jason Stills 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

  2. 9 Jul

    How Hugo Campos Built the Healthcare Tools the System Never Gave Him

    This week on Pulse: Amplify, Louise and George sit down with patient advocate and AI Champion, Hugo Campos. Hugo Campos has spent nearly two decades fighting for a simple principle: patients should have access to the data generated by their own bodies. After discovering that his implanted cardiac defibrillator was sending information to clinicians and manufacturers—but not to him—he became one of the world's leading advocates for patient data rights. In this episode, Hugo explains why generative AI changes everything. Rather than waiting for hospitals or vendors to build better tools, patients can now create their own AI-powered applications, analyse their own health data and ask questions that matter to them. We discuss patient-directed AI, the rise of personalised "N-of-1" healthcare, critical AI health literacy, and why the next wave of healthcare innovation may come from patients themselves—not institutions. Connect with Hugo on LinkedIn Resources – open source, freely available by Hugo: https://caihl.org/ (framework of critical ai health literacy) https://openkp.org/ (mcp server for access to provider data) https://myheartdata.org/ (19 years of Hugo’s own echo data) https://hugotronic.com/ (longitudinal data from Hugo’s implantable defibrillator) https://endothelial.org/ (explains endothelial dysfunction, built for Dave) Hugo’s newest app: https://hugoscore.org/ (evaluates patient-facing health apps throught he CAIHL lens) 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

  3. 2 Jul

    Shadow AI: When Doctors, Patients and Robots Move Faster Than the System

    This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise reports in from a heatwave in the French Alps while George braces for a Sydney winter — before the pair work through five stories on a single throughline: AI adoption by clinicians and patients is racing ahead of the institutions meant to govern it. They discuss why more than half of UK GPs are now using generative AI in clinical practice, how an AI system analysing a routine ECG helped save a patient's life, the emergence of agentic AI capable of managing clinical workflows, a robotic platform accelerating cancer drug discovery, and an Australian-developed wearable "stethoscope sticker" designed to continuously monitor heart and lung sounds. Resources: Half of UK GPs Now Use AI Blease et al Link AI Flagged a Failing Heart Hartman et al Nature Link Agentic AI Comes to Medicine Topol, Ground Truths Link AIME, Lievin et al Nature Link MIRA, Ferber et al Nature Link UpDoc FDA-clearance announcement — PRNewswire Link Shrestha, Innolitics Link Persistern Cells, Sun et al., ScienceAdvances Link The "Stethoscope Sticker" Dang et al., 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

  4. 25 Jun

    Is the NHS Ready for the AI-Powered Patient? with Pritesh Mistry

    This week on Pulse: Amplify, Louise and George sit down with Pritesh Mistry, Fellow for Digital Technologies at The King's Fund, to dig into his provocative analysis Is the NHS Ready for the AI-Powered Patient? Pritesh argues the NHS is no longer the centre of a person's health experience, but one participant in a much larger ecosystem - and he unpacks the three forces driving that shift: direct-to-consumer innovation, generational change, and a growing role for employers.  Pritesh asks if ‘NHS exceptionalism’, the belief that any care delivered outside the NHS must be re-validated within it, is responsible in an era of resource constraint. Pritesh, Louise and George explore what it really takes to share authority and clinical risk with better-informed patients, the sycophancy problem with consumer AI, and whether these tools will widen or narrow inequalities. Pritesh makes the case for building "AI readiness" as a core public capability rather than hardwiring rigid plans. Connect with Pritesh on LinkedIn Resources: Pritesh Mistry, Is the NHS Ready for the AI-Powered Patient?, The King's Fund (26 May 2026) Link Keep Britain Working Review: Final Report, GOV.UK Link Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, GOV.UK 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

  5. 18 Jun

    The Robots Took the Internet: Now They're Coming for Medicine

    This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George race through a very AI-heavy fortnight — from antibiotics and the menstrual cycle to whether "medical AI" is even a category worth defending. AI and Science. A Nature feature on AI accelerating antibiotic discovery (millions of molecules screened in silico, though only a tiny fraction can actually be synthesised), paired with a UK Biobank study mapping 198 proteins that fluctuate across the menstrual cycle — reframing it as a whole-body biological rhythm, not just a reproductive one. Do We Even Need Medical AI? A NYU study finds frontier general models outperforming purpose-built clinical tools like OpenEvidence and UpToDate — with an important caveat that no patient outcomes were measured. Paired with Apollo, Harvard's foundation model trained on 25 billion clinical events to forecast individual patient trajectories. What If AI Makes Healthcare More Expensive? David Brailer argues in Health Affairs that AI won't lower US health costs because it amplifies the incentives already baked into the payment system — accelerating both better care and billing extraction. The AI Equity Divide. A WHO-led initiative (GI-AI4H) and its RISE framework tackle the risk that AI widens global health inequities when governance lags behind deployment. Governing AI — Local and Professional. Victoria's Department of Health sets top-down standards for AI across public health services, while the American Medical Association champions "augmented intelligence" with clinicians at the centre — two very different models of governance. Plus: the robots now account for 57% of internet traffic, and a shout-out to Daniel McCabe's impact on Australian digital health. Resources: AI is taking on antibiotic resistance Link  Plasma proteomic signature of the menstrual cycle Link Generalist vs clinical LLMs (OpenEvidence, UpToDate) — NYU study (Vishwanath, Oermann et al.) Link  APOLLO healthcare foundation model Link Why AI Will Accelerate Health Care Inflation — David Brailer, Health Affairs Link Global Initiative on AI for Health (GI-AI4H) and the RISE framework — npj Health Systems Link AI guidance for Victorian Public Health Services — Pulse+IT Link Augmented Intelligence in Medicine — American Medical Association Link Ida Tin — global challenge on continuous hormone monitoring 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

  6. 11 Jun

    The Data Behind Europe's Quiet Digital Health Powerhouse, with Inma Rodríguez ACCIÓ

    What can the rest of the world learn from one of Europe's most impressive digital health ecosystems? This week on Pulse: Amplify, Louise and George sit down with Inma Rodríguez, Market Intelligence Manager at ACCIÓ (Catalonia Trade & Investment), who led the Digital Health in Catalonia Report 2026 — a rare regional analysis that benchmarks Catalonia against the US, Asia and the rest of Europe. Inma unpacks where Europe really sits in the global market (and whether it's keeping pace or falling behind), why digital health growth is settling into a more mature ~5% a year, and whether Europe's focus on regulation, interoperability and data governance is a brake or a long-term advantage.  She explains how Catalonia became the 4th region in the world for foreign health-innovation investment, the role anchor investors like AstraZeneca play, and why 65% of the region's digital health companies are building with AI.  The conversation also turns to the honest gap revealed in Catalonia's hospital survey — strong ambition, moderate maturity — and the cultural, budget and patient-habit barriers slowing real-world implementation. Inma closes with the seven trends shaping 2026, why AI, personalised medicine and health data spaces top her list, and the 2030 headline she most wants to see. A data-rich conversation for anyone who wants evidence, not hype, about where digital health is heading. Stryker Vocera's Initial Delays Diagnosis Quiz Link Check out the ACCIO Report here Connect with Inma on 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

  7. 4 Jun

    AI, Patients, Prediction and the Foothills of the Singularity

    In this Hot Topics episode, Louise joins from London after an unexpected encounter with the UK healthcare system, while George reports back from the Digital Health Festival. The pair discuss New Zealand's $450 million digital health and cyber investment, a major new King's College London study showing one in seven people are already using AI instead of seeing a doctor, Demis Hassabis' bold prediction that we're entering the "foothills of the singularity", and two emerging AI approaches aimed at predicting serious disease before symptoms appear. Plus, a shout-out to Australian health tech company ThinkMD.ai for winning international recognition at the World Health Assembly. Topics covered: New Zealand's renewed investment in digital health and cyber security Why patients are increasingly turning to AI before healthcare professionals Public trust, regulation and the future of clinical AI Google's vision for AI-driven scientific discovery Predicting liver disease years earlier using historical pathology data Longevity science and AI-powered disease prediction What healthcare needs to do to keep pace with accelerating technological changeResources: Stryker Vocera's Initial Delays Diagnosis Quiz Link Digital Health Workforce Census (opens 1 May, ANZ) Link Hospital Sant Pau, Barcelona Link The Use of AI in UK Healthcare Report, King’s College London Link WHO endorses precision medicine resolution Link Congrats to ThinkMD.ai and Dr Jackie Rabec – Pulse+IT 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

  8. 28 May

    Your Fear of AI Is Prehistoric - with Dr Nick van Terheyden

    Welcome to Pulse: Amplify, where we sit down with the leaders and changemakers shaping the future of health.  Dr Nick (van Terheyden) brings his trademark frankness to Pulse, unpacking AI panic, broken healthcare business models, clinician workflow, digital transformation myths, and the technologies people are still underestimating. A fast-moving discussion spanning evidence, empathy, innovation, and the future of care. Nick’s recent article ‘Your fear of AI isn’t rational, it’s prehistoric Link Connect with Dr Nick on LinkedIn Stryker Vocera's Initial Delays Diagnosis Quiz 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

See All (78)

Trailer

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.

Information

  • Creator
    PULSE+IT
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    78
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ©PULSE+IT
  • Show Website
    PULSE

You Might Also Like