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The AI Enhanced Personal Health Record - The Key That Unlocks The Door To Universal Health Care. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee In a system that controls 1/5 of the U.S. GDP; one that in 2017 employed 16 non-clinical workers for every physician; and one that under-performs at every turn (most notably for women and children, the poor, and people of color); one would be hard pressed to identify a better target for AI-driven national […]
The Medical AI Miracle? Health Data for Health Coverage. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee In his book, “The Age of Diminished Expectations” (MIT Press/1994), Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman, famously wrote, “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything.” A year earlier, psychologist Karl E. Weich from the University of Michigan penned the term “sensemaking” based on his belief that the human mind […]
"Laying Down The Gauntlet" - Are Law Schools Accountable For Their Graduates Values? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Special Council Jack Smith, in laying down the gauntlet last week in Florida, was not engaging in metaphor. That word derives from the French word, gantelet, meaning “the heavy, armored gloves worn by medieval knights,” and by transference, a formal challenge to duel with mortal intent. His human target was Judge Aileen Cannon. Smith claimed […]
Could Super-Charged "Facial Recognition Technology" Dead End in "Eugenics?" - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee How comfortable is the FDA and Medical Ethics community with new, super-charged, medical Facial Recognition Technology (mFRT) that claims it can “identify the early stages of autism in infants as young as 12 months?” That test already has a name -the RightEye GeoPref Autism Test. Its’ UC San Diego designer says it was […]
The Long Tail of Liability For MAGA Republicans - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee If legal scholars are right that “forseeability” and “special relationships” are the toxic mix most common in “long liability tails”, then MAGA Republicans should expect a rocky decade ahead. Trump acolytes in executive, legislative and judicial branches are massively exposed on at least two fronts. Led by Christian White Nationalists who succeeded in […]
The First Victims of Hitler's Genocide Were The Disabled. With Trump, it can and will happen again. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Note: Randy Souders and Mike Magee served together on the Board of Jean Kennedy Smith’s Kennedy Center Arts and Disability Program,Very Special Arts (VSA) from 2002 to 2007. Randy Souders, Guest Editorial Professional Artist /Arts & Disability Advocate / Quadriplegic (since 1972) When I was injured at the age of 17 the world was still quite […]
Jimmy Kimmel (Practically) Says It Out Loud: "Trump is mentally ill." - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Jimmy Kimmel and Donald Trump don’t get along. A back and forth about the viability of Trump’s Truth Social site has been the stuff of legends. But Sunday night, the 96th Academy of Awards host might as well have informed his worldwide audience: “Donald Trump is mentally ill. Say it out loud!” As the Awards […]
Is Being A Woman In America "Just Too Hard?" - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Britt Cagle Grant, the 47-year old Federal Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit made news this week. The Stanford Law graduate, blessed by the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo, and former clerk of Hon. Brett Kavanaugh, was nominated by Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate on July […]
Will Dobb-ists Infect Clinical Protocols? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee For most loyalist Americans at the turn of the 19th century, Justice John Marshall Harlan’s decision in Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905). was a “slam dunk.” In it, he elected to force a reluctant Methodist minister in Massachusetts to undergo Smallpox vaccination during a regional epidemic or pay a fine. Justice Harlan wrote at […]
Trump - The Modern Day Piper of Hamelin - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee You would need a mountain of psychiatrists to explain why Trump is the way he is, and an army of scholars to help us understand why Republican leaders, in state and federal positions, have decided to follow this piper’s call. Which brings me to a well known parable, described below by AI enabled […]
"Generative Pre-Trained Transformers" (GPT): An Historical Perspective. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Over the past year, the general popularization of AI or Artificial Intelligence has captured the world’s imagination. Of course, academicians often emphasize historical context. But entrepreneurs tend to agree with Thomas Jefferson who said, “I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” This particular dream however is all […]
2024 Word of the Year - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Not surprisingly, Hcom’s nominee for “word of the year” involves AI, and specifically “the language of human biology.”. As Eliezer Yudkowski, the founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and coiner of the term “friendly AI” stated in Forbes: “Anything that could give rise to smarter-than-human intelligence—in the form of Artificial Intelligence, […]
Brawn to Brain to Health: A Virtuous Cycle. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the future of work. My current obsession relates back to the accelerating forces of human isolation and shifts in the delivery of health care brought on by the Covid pandemic, and the subsequent explosion of health tech opportunists ready to bridge the geographic gap between health […]
Opposing "Obamacare" Is Political Suicide For Downstream Republicans. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Despite Trump’s recent renewed pledge to once again take on Obamacare, most Republican leaders understand that opposing the increasingly popular program is political suicide. Experts have repeatedly advised the opposite, as we move slowly and incrementally toward “universalism in conjunction with simple source funding,” A brief summary of the past history helps refresh […]
"Silence Is So Accurate" In A Hyperkenetic AI World. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee “I mean, people keep saying in these troubled moments, in these troubled moments. It seems like we’re always in a troubled moment, perhaps this one even more so than usual…But the artwork is a great conduit to feeling that renewed hope for what the human being is capable of.” Those were the words […]
Don't Panic. This Is Democracy. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Shock and dismay were once again in the air this week as Donald Trump did his best to be thrown out of the courtroom in New York City during his unrequested attendance at his second Jean Carroll libel trial. But as an engaged citizen, I thank the former President for crash testing our […]
Does AI Spell The Demise of Relationship Based Health Care? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee “What exactly does it mean to augment clinical judgement…?” That’s the question that Stanford Law professor, Michelle Mello, asked in the second paragraph of a May, 2023 article in JAMA exploring the medical legal boundaries of large language model (LLM) generative AI. This cogent question triggered unease among the nation’s academic and clinical […]
Trump is Mentally Ill. Say It Out Loud. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Sunday Op-Ed: Mike Magee With the Iowa caucus just 8 days away, a tragic Donald Trump continues to dig himself into a hole that will eventually lead to some personal hell. I think we are at a point where Trump’s mental illness is undeniable to most. Those who continue to support his candidacy now do […]
Another Turn of the 25th Amendment - And Still Not The Answer For Trump's Mental Illness. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee On May 16, 2017 New York Times conservative columnist, Russ Douthat, wrote “The 25th Amendment Solution for Removing Trump.” That column was the starting point for a Spring course I taught on the 25th Amendment at the President’s College in Hartford, CT. I will not summarize the entire course here, but would like […]
2024 Prediction - Society Will Arrive At An Inflection Point in AI Advancement. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee For my parents, March, 1965 was a banner month. First, that was the month that NASA launched the Gemini program, unleashing “transformative capabilities and cutting-edge technologies that paved the way for not only Apollo, but the achievements of the space shuttle, building the International Space Station and setting the stage for human exploration […]
"No Man Can Tame A Tiger Into A Kitten By Stroking It." - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee On the evening of December 29, 1940, with election to his 3rd term as President secured, FDR delivered these words as part of his sixteenth “Fireside Chat”: “There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness…No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.” Millions of Americans, and millions of Britains were […]
Tech Ethicist Says, "AI impact on society and culture will be unimaginable.” - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee His biography states, “He speaks to philosophical questions about the fears and possibilities of new technology and how we can be empowered to shape our future. His work to bridge cultures spans artificial intelligence, cognition, language, music, creativity, ethics, society, and policy.” He embraces the title “cross-disciplinary,” and yet his PhD thesis at […]
The Terri Schiavo Case Once Again Exploited - This Time By The Left. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee The case spanned 15 years, and was rejected by the Supreme Court for a hearing four times. Hijacked from doctors and patients by political opportunists and Right-to-Life activists, it rode the poor health and disability of one unfortunate woman literally into her grave with devastating consequences for all concerned. ________________________________________________ Having lived it, […]
“AI god Tells Medical-Industrial Complex: ‘Your Health Care System Is Perfect!’” - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee One of the top ten headlines of all time created by the satirical geniuses at The Onion was published 25 years ago this December. It read, “God Answers Prayers Of Paralyzed Little Boy. ‘No,’ Says God.” The first paragraph of that column introduced us to Timmy Yu, an optimistic 7-year old, who despite […]
Giving Thanks to Women, and Children, and Lives Filled With Promise. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee As Thanksgiving Day approaches, let’s give thanks for women, and children, and lives filled with promise. One President who understood the power of promise more than many others was FDR. When he structured up “a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms and regulations…”, he memorably packaged the plan under the label, […]
The True Color of Tribalism - an orange sash, a green flag, a red MAGA hat…and a fragmented health care system. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee As Thanksgiving Day approaches, let’s give thanks for the study of history, in part because it reminds us that Trumpian words like “vermin” have been used before and serve to alert the human race that we have entered danger zone One President who understood the power of words more than many others was […]
The Way Men Ought To Behave - According to TikToc. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee The juxtapositioning of Tuesday’s New York Times headlines was disturbing. The first “Why Does This Bride Look So Mad?”, was followed by “An ‘Unsettling’ Drop in Life Expectancy in Men.” The “reluctant bride” referred to in the first article is (by now) an estimated 175 years old if the intended bride was 18 […]
Courage Has A Face. Her Name Is Hadley. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee “Don’t call me a saint,” said founder of the early 1930’s Catholic Workers Movement, Dorothy Day. “I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.” Oddly enough, says Jesuit writer, James Martin, “That quote is probably the biggest obstacle to her canonization…Given that quote, would Dorothy really want to be canonized?” Today’s election results […]
Picking Up The "Single Payer" Baton From Ady Barkan. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee The Politico headline in 2019 declared dramatically, “The Most Powerful Activist in America is Dying.” This week, 4 1/2 years later, their prophecy came true, as activist Ady Barkan succumbed at age 39 to ALS leaving behind his vibrant wife, English professor, Rachael King, and two small children, Carl, 8, and Willow,4. His […]
"Some Like It Hot." - An Old Disease Arrives Anew. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Naomi Orestes PhD, Professor of the History of Science at Harvard, didn’t mince words as she placed our predicament in context when she said, “If you know your Greek tragedies you know power, hubris, and tragedy go hand in hand. If we don’t address the harmful aspects of human activities, most obviously disruptive […]
A Cure For "Doomscrolling". - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee In the Age of “Doomscrolling,” Doctors and Nurses Need To Stay Focused On Their Primary Mission. Exactly 1 year ago, mental health experts alerted the medical world to their version of an assessment scale for yet another new condition – “doomscrolling.” As defined in the article, “Constant exposure to negative news on social […]
Is Your University President An "Intentional Peacemaker?" This One Is! - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Two days before Hamas launched its barbaric attack on Israel, a U.S. based university president delivered a Keynote Address at an International Peace Conference in South Korea. Here were his opening words: “In the contemporary world that is somehow both entirely interconnected and increasingly divided, the need to develop peacemakers has never been […]
We're All In The Hot Seat Now. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee It’s not that easy living in the “Big Easy” these days and co-existing with a world dominated by water concerns. When Times-Picayune gossip columnist Betty Guillaud (as the folklore goes) “coined New Orleans’ undisputed nickname” in the 1960’s, it was a lifestyle eponym meant to favorably contrast life in “The Big Easy” with […]
Can An Intense Dialogue Between Science and Religion Be Fruitful? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee By all accounts, they were mutually supportive. He was three years older and the chief scientific adviser to the world’s most powerful religious leader. The Scientific American called him “the greatest scientist of all time,” and not because he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry a decade earlier for explaining the nuts and […]
Super-Human Poison Ivy Is On The Move. Why? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee Connecticut loves its’ trees. And no town in Connecticut loves its’ trees more than West Hartford, CT. The town’s borders include an elaborate interconnected reservoir system that does double duty as a focal point for a wide range of nature paths for walkers, runners and cyclists. While walking one path yesterday, I came […]
Aerobiology: The Air Is Alive - And Not In A Good Way! - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee When Paul Crutzen and his band of happy meteorologic warriors launched the Anthropocene Epoch in 2000, their guiding star was to create a “safe operating space” for humans on the planet Earth. In service of this goal, they identified nine “planetary boundaries” (measures of planetary health) as planning guideposts. Number one, familiar to […]
The Planetary Playing Field For Humanity: Surviving Tomorrow’s “Hongerwinter”. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee When it comes to our earthly survival as a human species, words are often under-powered and off-the-mark. Clearer concepts, definitions and terms are required for clarity. Here are five terms that are useful and worth remembering: Planetary Boundaries Earth Systems Human Perturbations Planetary Scale Destabilization Holocene Epoch vs. Anthropocene Epoch These terms all […]
Can We Make Sense Of American Health Care? And How Would We Do That? - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee This past week my wife and I were at a family event to celebrate my brother-in-law’s 70th birthday. Our extended family has more than a few doctors. A physician nephew who had read CODE BLUE and had a strong interest in health policy asked if I felt I (and others) were too hard […]
The 1 Question Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum Should Ask Tonight. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee This evening, the Republican Party will sponsor their first Primary Debate. It will be historic in featuring the absence of their lead contender for the 2024 Presidential campaign, a candidate who appears committed to the destruction of his own political party Events over the past year clearly have confirmed that we are a […]
The Lash of St. Francis Cuts Deep 84 Years Later. - HealthCommentary : HealthCommentary
Mike Magee On September 25, 1939, Southern California woke with fear of The Lash of St. Francis or El Cordonazo on the horizon. The term refers to northwestern tracking, cyclone-laden storms that can hit the western shores of Mexico and California most commonly around the Feast of Saint Francis, on October 4th. This one made landfall […]