Healthcare is Stupid

Rahul Parikh & Jonathan Mates
  • 4.9 (11)
  • Medicine
  • Updated Biweekly

Physicians Rahul Parikh and Jonathan Mates explore the absurdities of modern American healthcare—what it’s like, how we got here, and what practical steps might move it in a better direction.

Episodes

  1. Should AI Replace Your Doctor?

    4d ago

    Should AI Replace Your Doctor?

    “Will AI replace doctors?” makes for a great headline, a great dinner party argument, and a great way to stress out a podcast co-host. It’s also, unfortunately, the wrong question. In a follow up to our last episode, we respond to our listeners’ feedback. We put co-host and radiologist Jonathan Mates on the spot and use radiology as our test case — the specialty that’s been at the center of this conversation longer than any other, partly because the job looks simple from the outside. You look at pictures. AI looks at pictures. What’s the problem? It turns out there are a lot of problems. We get into what radiology actually involves, why AI can be impressive and still not replace humans, and some other factors we need to consider when answering this (wrong) question. Links: Geoff Hinton on radiology

    35 min
  2. How should you and your doctor use AI?

    May 20

    How should you and your doctor use AI?

    One in four ChatGPT users — roughly 200 million people a week — use it for health questions. About a third of them end up changing their medications or requesting referrals based on what it tells them. Is that brilliant, terrifying, or both? In this episode, we dig into the question everyone is asking themselves, whether they want to or not: How should my doctor be using AI? And how should I? We bring in Rachel Lomasky — an AI scientist and expert — to help us give both the patient perspective and a realistic view of what AI is capable of. Links: Large Language Model Performance and Clinical Reasoning Tasks Are AI Tools Ready to Answer Patients’ Questions About Their Medical Care?  America’s Largest City Hospital System Ready to Start Replacing Radiologists With AI, Its CEO Says

    38 min
  3. When Your Results Go Viral

    May 6

    When Your Results Go Viral

    People are sharing medical results from their online portals, just like they do with college acceptances and baby gender reveals. How did we get to this point? And what are the real effects on how patients understand their medical records and how doctors document them? In this episode, we explore how technology and regulatory changes have shaped our relationship to healthcare from the inside and out. Links: Why am I Watching People Get Their Medical Results? Why Reading Your Doctor’s Notes Can Be Painful

    30 min

  4. Apr 23

    Why is Your Doctor's Website so Terrible?

    We’ve all had this experience: you go to your doctor or hospital’s web page to do something. Maybe you want to make an appointment. Maybe you want to refill a prescription. Maybe you just want to know when the lab opens. What should be a simple task—something you can easily do on any other website—instead turns into a frustrating ordeal that leaves you yelling: “Why?!” Why is something so simple so hard to do? Why can’t they make this better? Why is this so stupid? In this episode we dig into that very question, sharing our own experiences working with these technologies from both inside and outside of healthcare, and shedding some light on how we all got here.

    31 min

  5. Apr 4

    Should you get that test your doctor ordered?

    Doctors’ ability to see inside their patients with lab and imaging tests is one of the miracles of modern medicine. Without tests, we’re just guessing!  But the unsaid truth is that doctors overtest patients, and that may be doing more harm than good to patients, doctors, and the entire health care system. In this episode, we sit down with cardiologist Dr. Jeff Sobel to understand the forces behind overtesting and how he is taking on the problem in his system. Show Notes: Overuse of diagnostic testing in healthcare: a systematic review  The Landscape of Inappropriate Laboratory Testing: A 15-Year Meta-Analysis Why Doctors Test Too Much Projected Lifetime Cancer Risks from Current Computed Tomography Imaging Getting to “No”

    1h 2m

  6. Mar 19

    Why Telehealth is Both Brilliant and Stupid

    Nothing says 'quality care' like showing a stranger your throat via a grainy webcam while your cat walks across the keyboard. Telehealth — or medical care without the doctor and patient being in the same room — has exploded, partly enhanced by the COVID pandemic. Some say that this is the beginning of a new paradigm in medical care. For others, the experience feels more like putting more technology between them and their doctor. When you need to talk to your doctor, should you email them? Schedule a visit? Meet with them on video? We chat with Dr. Matt Sakumoto, a virtual care veteran, to answer those questions and more, as we uncover both the brilliant and stupid truth of telehealth. Show Notes: The Lancet on the Telephone (1977)

    57 min

  7. Mar 2

    The Concussed State of the Primary Care Medicine

    If a Primary Care physician is the quarterback of our healthcare system…OUCH!…they’re getting sacked time and time again by some burly bureaucratic linebackers. Primary care medicine is meant to be the foundation for a high-functioning health system. Yet why do so many primary care physicians and their patients experience angst and disappointment with that system? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Eugene Lee, a primary care physician who has practiced in several systems, to understand the gap between the promise and reality of primary care and what doctors and patients can do to make it better.

    1h 28m

  8. Episode 1 Trailer

    Why "Healthcare is Stupid" Exists

    In this short trailer, pediatrician Rahul Parikh and radiologist Jonathan Mates introduce Healthcare is Stupid. We’ll explore the absurdities of American healthcare—how we got here, the incentives and structures that quietly shape it, and what practical, incremental improvements might actually move things in a better direction. If you work in healthcare, depend on it, or simply wonder why so much of it feels unnecessarily complicated, this podcast is for you.

    1 min

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

4.9
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Physicians Rahul Parikh and Jonathan Mates explore the absurdities of modern American healthcare—what it’s like, how we got here, and what practical steps might move it in a better direction.

Information

  • Creator
    Rahul Parikh & Jonathan Mates
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Healthcare is Stupid
  • Show Website
    Healthcare is Stupid

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