How to Build AI Tools That Doctors Actually Use | Dr. Graham Walker (Founder of Offcall and MDCalc)

Dr. Graham Walker is an Emergency Physician and the Founder of MDCalc, a clinical decision support tool used by over 70% of U.S. physicians. He also co-founded Offcall, a platform addressing physician burnout through transparency and data-driven insights.

We dive deep into the real-world use cases of AI in hospitals—from predictive models that detect patient deterioration to generative AI scribes that free doctors from paperwork.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• How MDCalc became a must-have tool for 70% of U.S. doctors,
• Impact of AI scribes on physician burnout and patient care,
• Risks of overreliance on AI,
• Barriers to AI adoption in hospitals (privacy, cost, and trust),
• The AI-powered emergency room of the future,
• And much more!

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Brought to you by Autoblocks (https://www.autoblocks.ai/) — helping teams build safe, reliable, and compliant LLM-based products.

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Building with AI is a weekly podcast featuring conversations with top AI product builders and leaders. Through thoughtful dialogue, host Haroon Choudery explores how AI is reshaping industries in real-time. This season, we're diving deep into one of the most impactful and high-stakes applications of AI: healthcare.

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Subscribe to Building With AI:

• Website: https://www.autoblocks.ai/bwai
• X: https://twitter.com/buildingwith_ai

Where to find Dr. Graham Walker:

• Website: https://drgrahamwalker.com
• Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-walker-md/

Learn more about MDCalc:

• Website: https://www.mdcalc.com/cme/ads
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mdcalc/
• X: https://x.com/mdcalc

Learn more about Offcall:

• Website: https://www.offcall.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joinoffcall/
• X: https://x.com/offcalldotcom

Where to find Haroon Choudery:

• Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haroonchoudery/
• X: https://x.com/haroonchoudery

Learn more about Autoblocks:

• Website: https://www.autoblocks.ai/
• X: https://twitter.com/AutoblocksAI

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[00:00] Up next: 

[00:32] Episode Introduction 

[01:32] Autoblocks: AI Optimization Platform 

[03:36] Dr. Graham’s journey 

[06:34] The Birth of MDCalc 

[12:26] AI in Clinical Settings 

[19:18]  Challenges and Future of AI in Healthcare 

[29:18] Ethical AI in Patient Care 

[34:56] AI's Impact on Physician Burnout 

[41:12] Envisioning AI in Emergency Medicine 

[44:33] Advice for Clinicians and Tech Innovators