2024 in Review: Manifestations and the Future of AI in Medicine

Should we talk about Lowe's?

Clearly you want to talk about some lows.

There's just only really one low, which is dad on the pot.

Oh, I thought you were going to say me.

Why would I say that to you?

Hi, everybody, and welcome to Podcast. This is Generation's md. My name is Stephanie, and I am joined here by my colleague, Dr. Sarah Davis, who's also my mother. We're coming to you live. Well, not really live. Not live from the Sunshine State of California. Is the Sunshine State here? Is that Florida?

I don't know, California seems pretty sunshiny. Okay, I'm not sure if that's the motto or not, but anyway, yes, we're here in California. We have been doing some skiing and snowboarding and relaxing.

I officially passed my first semester of medical school. Woo. Woohoo.

She's one eighth of a doctor.

Yeah, that would have been really embarrassing if I didn't pass.

I'm not sure if the podcast could have gone on.

Yeah, well, I was thinking. I was like, okay, well, if I don't pass, then maybe I can make it a whole thing and then get some, like, sympathy. Well, you know, just like, get some traction from it. Tell my story.

Let's not make that your story.

Yeah, yeah, I guess. I guess it's not.

It'd be better if, you know, you kind of go on, become a doctor. I think that's. I think that's a better story.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. I'm glad that I don't have to. Don't have to remit. First semester recap. Okay, guys, I posted this on TikTok. And you know what? I'm just going to preface this by saying this is just my experience. Okay? And all I can speak about is my experience. My first semester of med school.

Okay.

I know the hardest part is yet to come, and I know it's just gonna get harder and it's just gonna get worse. And I know that.

And life is miserable and everything is gonna get worse and worse no matter what. Yeah, there were people. Have you say that, but go ahead with your experience.

I had such a great experience. I thought it. Med school, the first semester was great. I met some awesome people. I've made some friends who were going to be some lifelong friends, and I had a lot of fun. There was some hard points. Yeah. But I think especially after that first exam, when I got through that, because I just didn't know what to expect. But after getting through that, I was like, okay, I got this. I can do it. You know, I Mean, I definitely. I got some grades that would have put me into a coma in.

In college.

Like, you get that. And you're like, like. But I was cheering. I was happy I passed because the whole first semester was pass fail. So it didn't matter what the grades were. But it's just kind of funny that, like, when one of my friends said that they got a 51 on their practical and. But we all cheered. We said, y. Yay.

Okay. You know, more than half the stuff. Yeah.

So that was like a. Definitely a shift that I had to make. But I mean, socially it's been great. I mean, overall, like, I couldn't have asked for a better semester, honestly.

Yeah. You made a great group of friends.

Yeah. Which has been huge and really helpful. And again, since this whole first semester was pass fail, I think that kind of like, just changed it a little bit because we all knew we just had to pass. So we had a lot of fun. I don't. Now that we're going into graded system, which I don't know why I chose to go to a school with graded system, but I don't know. We'll see. I'll give you guys the report of how that's gonna go, but I think things are going to shift a little bit and people are going to start taking things a little bit more seriously. But. I don't know. But yeah, Great first semester.

The. It's so funny to think about, like, from a year ago till now, how different your life is.

Don't you think? Yeah, for sure.

I mean, all these people that are your really good buddies, you didn't even know a year ago.

I know. And I was thinking about that before I started. I was like, I'm going to make some. Like, some of my best friends are still yet to come. Which is funny.

That's nice. It's nice to think about that. And I was looking back. So. Yeah. So a year ago, you didn't even know where you would be going to medical school. You had gotten in though, at that point.

Yes.

So you knew you were going to go to medical school, but that's it.

That's it. But you know what? This kind of brings me to my subject because I was looking back at my manifestation. 2024 board.

Wait, that's a board?

Like a Pinterest board. I made a Pinterest board.

Like. Okay, wait, can you explain what that is?

Okay, so on Pinterest, I made a board. So essentially it's like you just. You just.

With a bunch of motivational sayings no.

Just a bunch of pictures of like what you want your life to look like.

Okay.

So I was going back. So at this time last year, I made it. And yeah, I didn't know where I was gonna be. I didn'. I knew I was going to be in medical school. But looking back at my vision board, I have, well, lots of it is me with friends.

This looks like a bunch of picnics.

But yes, there's some people, doctors. But look at that. I manifested being in the tmc, Manifested a city apartment, manifested lots of friends.

I see people hugging.

Lots of brains.

You had some travel things there.

Traveling, Traveled all around. Traveled grades, Good grades. Oh, I didn't get a dog.

No.

But you know, but look where that is.

That looks good.

This is. I pinned this park. That is exactly where I live. Yes.

Wow. That's. That's that same park.

That's the same park. I manifested living near this park. I have all the pictures of it. Manifested the city that I live in. So.

See, Manifesting, man, it works.

Manifesting. So just as we're going into the new year, there's lots of manifestations. People make their vision boards. Well, I just, I did some research on manifestation.

Okay.

And what there was has been some. Have been some studies on manifestation. Do you know what manifestation is? So manifestation is the practice of focusing thoughts, beliefs and actions to turn desires into reality. Really, it's rooted from the law of attraction. Have you heard of what the law of attraction is?

Sort of. Explain.

It's a psychological belief that essentially the idea is that you switch your mind thinking from negative thinking to positive thinking. And if you switch your mind to positive thinking, then more positive things come your way.

Okay.

So, you know, the idea is kind of like seeing the positive out of life than seeing the negative. Because there's studies that show that a lot of our, like, majority of our thoughts are negative thoughts. And if we can like reframe those neural pathways to be more positive thoughts, then we'll see the positive in life rather than seeing the negative.

Well, that sounds good.

So it's just kind of like it's rooted in that. But the idea of the manifestation is trying to speak things into existence. Like this next year I'm going to get a new job. And you're saying that and you're putting it on your vision board and doing all that, and that leads you to taking steps to do it.

Well, that's the thing. It has to be stuff that you're going to take steps to actually do. You can't just say, like, I'm manifesting that I'm going to win the lottery.

Yeah, so yeah, that's definitely a part of it. But the research shows that optimism enhances resilience and coping strategies which can lead to greater success in various areas of life. Positive thinking can shift behaviors and foster goal directed actions. Also helps with goal setting. Studies highlight the importance of setting clear, specific and achievable goals. So that's the idea too. Like you want to set like actual clear, specific achievable goals that can actually happen rather than just winning the lottery.

Yes. No, that makes lots of sense for sure.

So, but and then also just the obvious, the placebo effect. So manifestation. Manifestation may create a placebo like effect where strong beliefs and expectations drive actions that align with achieving goals. While this doesn't mean thinking makes it so, it highlights the power of a mindset shaping an experience.

Well, like if you say to yourself, I'm gonna have a good day today, and then at the end of the day you're like, well, these three good things happened today. You're like, oh yeah, and I did have a good day today. But if you said I'm gonna have a bad day today and three bad things happen and then you focus on that, then you can, you know, that's a self fulfilling prophecy.

No? Yeah, exactly. So manifestation isn't a magic solution, but it can foster motivation, optimism and intentionality.

Okay, that sounds good. Okay, well, so tell me about the manifestation for 2025.

Well, there's also a down one downside to manifestation. There's this article that was published actually don't per soc some psychology thing and under quotes the secret to success, the psychological belief in manifestation. And this was a recent study that was done and they did a manifestation scale learning, looking at people who believed in manifestation based on like some sort of scale that they created.

Okay.

And they had like a thousand participants. And they said that people that are more likely to believe in manifestation are also more likely to be drawn to risky investments, have experienced bankruptcy, and to believe that they could achieve an unlikely level of success more quickly. But they also kind of looked at the positive and negatives and in the belief system. I think also I read in here that they do perceive themselves as more successful.

Okay. So they're not actually successful, they're bankrupt, but they believe that they're successful. I mean, that's the important thing.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. You can weigh pros and cons of importance of life. I don't know.

Yeah, there was a book that came out quite a while ago. It was at least like 15 years ago called the Secret. And it was basically some of this stuff. But it was really. People really, like, went nuts over this thing. And it really. It was this whole thing of like. Like manifesting, but very specific. Like, I believe that I'm going to get a new car this week. And then they'd be like, oh. And I believed it. And then it happened. And. And so a lot of people were doing it. And. Yes, and then the studies did show that a lot of these people said, well, I believe that this investment is going to be great. And they sunk a bunch of money into it and it lost a whole bunch of money. But that's a different thing. That's just people, like, with unrealistic expectations. That's not the same as saying, like, this year, these are the things that I'm going to do. So, anyway, let's talk about your manifestations for 2025.

Grow the Podcast again.

Okay. Well, that's a reasonable. I mean, oh, my gosh, like a year from now. Who knows what it's gonna be?

Who knows? No, Yeah. I mean, I think that growing the podcast, I. I think I'll have a little bit more. Just a little more time in this next semester to really, you know, be able to put some more work into this and just continue growing this. And. Yeah. What are your goals for 2025?

Growing the podcast. But I was just talking about the podcast. I was looking back. We have done 50 episodes so far.

Nice.

Which is kind of amazing. And just looking back over the last year and the content of our podcast, and I think it has really. It's improved a lot. And I think that we've had. We have many wonderful guests all the way through. But, like, in the last few months, we've had some just spectacular guests.

Yeah, we really have.

And we have more great people coming up. I. I feel so, so fortunate and grateful in that. I mean, some of these people, I mean, they're. They're like famous. I mean, they're people that. I knew who they were and never thought that I would be able to have a conversation with them. Like people like Aver, Mitra and Preston, too.

I had followed Preston for a really. I never thought I would actually be able to talk to him.

To talk to him. Right. People like that and that. We reach out to them and say, hey, you know, we're a mother and daughter. We do this podcast called Generations md. You know, would you be willing to be a guest? And they just say, yes, sure, I'd love to. Which is, like, it's so nice. Yeah, I think it's really nice that people, like, will take an hour out of their day to schedule this with us and talk to our listeners and talk about the things that people are interested in hearing about. And anyway, it's just. It's. It's so encouraging to me. Yeah, I kind of thought people would be like, oh, no, you know, I don't have time for that, or like, no, you got to pay me money, or something like that. And people are just. They're very generous, I think that. To share with us their experiences and their knowledge, and I think that's just really fantastic for you and for our listeners.

Well, I think. I mean, we have to give ourselves some credit. I think what we're doing is important. You know, I think that we. The point is, is to spread people's stories and give people more information. And it's not like there's no catch 22 to coming on this podcast, you know?

Yeah, it's not going to be. Gotcha.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Like, we're trying to share. We just want to share these people's stories and stuff.

Yeah, we just want to hear about them and talk about whatever it is that they want to talk about or that they find interesting. And so, yeah, I think it's, you know, it's e. It's an easy podcast for them to be on. They don't have to really prepare or anything. But still, it. But it's still very, you know, I just think it's very generous that. That. That they'll take their time to do that. Yeah, we also. We don't have an agenda, which I think is helpful as well. Yeah, we're not trying to. We're not selling people anything. You know, we're not trying to, like, get them to say this particular thing or anything else. And I think that that's really. I think that's helpful to people, too.

Yeah. Looking back, how do you think. Highs and lows, I guess, for the podcast, what's been your favorite episode?

Oh, that's a good question. Some of it has been so fun for me in that, like, just asking different friends of mine to be on the podcast. I mean, even, you know, really good friends of mine like Heidi Flagg and Sheila B. That I talk to regularly and I see regularly, but I didn't. I never spend an hour just, like, hearing their whole story and kind of going back in time. And I did this, and I did this, and, you know, I learned things about My good friends that, like, that was incredible. And then reconnecting with some of my friends, like Scott Setser, you know, who I hadn't talked to in a while. And then just like it is with old friends, you just pick up right where you left off. And it's just so, so, so fun to talk to them. And then, you know, and that's kind of formed a reconnection with some of those people. And now we're texting more. And so I think that's been, that's been really fun for me and even other colleagues of mine. I mean, we had like Dr. McPherson on early on. So it's been really fun just talking to my colleagues that I refer a lot of patients to, but I don't necessarily know their whole stories, so that's really been really fun to. To hear that. I mean, and then, well, okay, I'm having lots of highs here, but like, people like Jesse Gold, who I book and then, oh my gosh, I get to talk to her about her book. I mean, that's just so incredible.

Yeah, it is. It really is. Yeah.

So, you know, I'm in a book club. I read lots of books, but you never get to talk to the author of the book. So I thought that's been really fun. How about you?

I mean, we've just had so many great people and so many. I mean, I. It's so rare to get an opportunity to talk to all these people. And, you know, I can, obviously I could listen to all these podcasts, but the amount of advice and just words of wisdom that I'm getting from all of these older physicians is just. It's incredible. It's. It's life changing and it's really, really special that we get to do this. I mean, there's just so many people that I'm just learning so much from and I think is just going to shape my career and life decisions and all of that. So I think it's. It's. All of. It's just been so great.

The. Do you have a favorite piece of advice that you've gotten?

I liked more recently. I guess the first thing that comes to mind is just Tiffany Moon saying, surround yourself with good people. I think that that is. I know you hear that a lot, but it is just so important and just an important reminder because it's. Yeah, I liked what she said. She was like, just. Even if it's four or five people, just good people that you know that you trust, that is way more important than having hundreds of friends. And yeah, The.

The piece of advice that I really liked was Paul Tran saying, ask for advice. Which is kind of funny. But the. But I love that phrasing, and I've never really thought about that. You know, don't ask for criticism, because nobody wants to criticize anybody. But even if you are an amazing, stellar student on your rotations, there's. You could always be better. And if you phrase it like that of like, do you have any advice for me? It just takes the pressure off the person who's giving the advice, because I feel like, you know, I mean, even if. I don't know if somebody's working for me or something, and they're. They're incredible. They do a great job. But then if they say to me, oh, do you have any advice? Be like, oh, okay, well, you know, there's this or that, but you just don't want to ever say that. Like, somebody. You feel like if they ask for criticism, you're like, well, I don't want to criticize you because you're fantastic. So I thought that was a really good. That's just a really good thing to say and something you can say when you're on your rotations to your residents, like, do you have any advice for. For me? And then, you know, they can. They can give you some stuff. I think that's a good one.

Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, well, we were talking about highs and lows of the podcast, and we talked about some highs.

Yeah.

Should we talk about lows?

Clearly, you want to talk about some lows.

There's just only really one low, which is dad on the pod.

Oh, I thought you were gonna say me.

Why would I say that to you?

I don't know.

You're my love. So mean. Say that to you. No, he was. He was the worst podcast guest.

Yeah, I know. We would have had him back, but.

I know he's begging to come back. He's begging for another chance. Drop us a note in the comments and say, let us know if you think Dr. Matt Davis deserves another chance.

Yeah, and let us know.

We should put a poll out.

Yeah, we'll put a poll.

Yes. No, right now, I mean, I feel like he needs to tell us, like, how he would be different. Yeah, yeah.

He needs to send an application to.

Be a good podcast guest. I mean, number one rule of a podcast guest is you don't try to be the host.

Yeah, yeah, no, it was. It was way too much. But I guess, speaking of having family members on the podcast, we will bring our other family member in, which you guys don't know of which is my brother, Ryan Davis. Okay, Ryan. Well, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be on. I've listened to most episodes, although admittedly not every single one. So I'm excited. I'm excited.

Okay. We got a. He's a fan. He's a fan. Yeah.

Yes. Yes, I am.

Yeah. So how should. Can you give him an introduction?

Okay. Yeah. Ryan is my brother and he is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. He is an engineer. He does hard things that I don't really understand codes a lot. And he is now the lead AI engineer at a startup at his company.

Yeah, at a, at a small eight person startup. We'll be announcing the name and everything in a couple weeks. So I'm excited for that.

Stay tuned.

Stay tuned. It's a secret currently, but yeah, Brian, thanks for being on. You're our token engineer. He gets upset a lot of the times because sometimes we want to do the IT stuff and if anybody's having.

Problems with their phone or computer, generally asked to set up the WI fi or turn on the tv, fix the radio, things of that nature, things that.

He doesn't actually have any formal education. Correct.

Yeah, exactly. But since you're now the lead AI thing, us people, lead AI.

Engineer.

Engineer. We over here in the medical community don't really understand AI and understand how it might affect our world. Can you speak on behalf of how maybe that we could either utilize it or it could be to our detriment.

Is it going to replace us?

You can hold this.

The short answer. No, I, I don't think it's going to replace anybody in full anytime soon. But I do think that in most industries, like medical included, that there's going to be a real change in how people work and that AI is going to be augmenting the workflow of like everyone from like basically any sort of white collar office job, I think are going to be sort of augmented by AI. And I don't think we've really seen that in the medical field yet, but I think that we're getting close to the point where people are starting to implement these processes in their workflows.

I think that, I mean, I have seen, I don't use any of it yet, but you know, helping you write your notes, doing billing, that kind of stuff, I think there's huge potential for that because those are tasks that it seems like, I mean, even as you're doing it, you're thinking somebody else could be doing this for me, I don't need to be doing this. And we spend a lot of time and energy doing those things. We'd rather be spending more time with patients. So I think that could be helpful.

Yeah, exactly. I think that's a great point. I think any of the sort of SaaS products that you use as a doctor or as any sort of medical professional are going to be sort of changed by AI. I'm already seeing some companies use AI for medical billing so that doctors don't have to like go through these tedious processes of like submitting various things. Like they can just sort of have an AI agent take care of it all themselves. So it, I think it's kind of like the actual decision making. We're very, very long way away from any doctor like Nai having influence in a doctor's actual decision making process. But I think in all the other stuff, we're getting close to where doctors will be able to leverage those tools to help them.

Well, how do you feel about. I've seen this in some discussions is that, yes, AI is going to make it easier to write a note and to do the billing so doctors don't have to take as much time doing that. But then people are saying, well, there's going to be more pressure for doctors to see more patients. Because you can, you know.

Because you can.

Because you can. Yeah. So they're like, okay, maybe you should see 30 patients today. Well, now you need to see 100 patients a day because you don't have to spend that time doing a note and all of that. I don't know.

Well, I don't think that's really up to Ryan.

Well, I think it will happen. I think that you're already seeing in other industries, basically AI is taking care of like all these processes that people don't want to do and so they can focus on their main work. But that sort of definitely incentivizes these industries to like get more clients or what have you. And it ultimately sort of drives the price of each additional client down a little bit. That makes sense because people basically just have more bandwidth to spend like with their clients. And I, I think I could definitely see a world in which that happens in medicine where, yeah, doctors might maybe have a little bit more pressure to see more patients. But I think it's going to be beneficial for doctors in the long run because I think that doctors don't want to spend time like writing notes and like submitting bills. I think they want to spend more time with their patients.

Yeah, true. Really true. I love AI I have to say.

How do you use it in. In med school?

Yeah. I'll have my flashcards up and I'll have chatgpt up, and it's literally like having a professor right next to me. So if I have a question or if I'm confused about something, then I just ask it. And I have some pictures that, like, especially when I was studying for my last final, I'm like, it'll give me some long explanation. I'll be like, please make it shorter. I'm very tired and I cannot read it. And then it's really nice to me. It shortens it down and it explains it in a way that I can understand. And if I'm confused about one thing, I'm like, well, how does this thing relate to this thing? Then it'll explain it perfectly.

Yeah, that makes. How do you feel about the accuracy? Are you ever worried that it's hallucinating on you? Just giving you information? That's not true?

I think with what I've done so far, no, because it's pretty just like basic sciency. So definitely not. I was using. I was going. I don't know really know the difference between, like, Gemini and Chat gbt, But Gemini was more attached to the Internet. So if I needed to see a picture of something or if I needed something a little bit more up to date, then I would do that. But I know ChatGPT now has the Internet connected to it, so sourcing is a big thing too. But you can ask it for the sources that it gets it from. So.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I think. I'm sure that we're not that far away from somebody creating a bot that's sort of just. Or that's trained on, like, medical studies information specifically, so to help med students, like, study for various things. Right.

Okay.

So. So it. Well, did.

I just don't want to pay for it.

Okay, well, then there you go. I think it's definitely a concern that you feel like you might be getting the wrong information sometime.

No, yeah, that's true. But I think, like, it's not like I'm making any major decisions. And also, if I get something wrong, it's still on the test and I know that it's wrong. I guess, like, I'll use it when I'm taking practice tests too, and I'll make it do my questions and see, because it'll give me a long explanation on the. Because sometimes I'll be doing a practice. Some practice questions, and they'll just be like, okay, this is wrong. And I'm like, well, why was it wrong? So we'll put it through. But sometimes it does get the questions wrong. But I don't know, it's just as.

Good as a study partner. They get stuff wrong sometime. Now, Ryan, how do you feel about being the only member of our family that's not a doctor?

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a little bit like I get left out of the club a little bit. There's obviously various things that I don't get or understand. And I'm sure, honestly a bunch of your listeners are in the same position, but sort of inverse where they are probably medical students or professionals and their family doesn't really understand how their jobs and processes work. So I think it's not that big of a deal, but definitely feel a little left out sometimes.

Well, we don't understand what you do either. So it's kind of like, I don't know.

Yeah, but how would it be if we had like a family of engineers and like you were the only one left out, Stephanie? That'd be hard.

Yeah, yeah, that'd be tough because they.

Would just be talking about stack overflow and engineer speak and we'd have no idea. I mean medical, at least it's like a little bit more relatable, but like your world is just like a whole, like, you know, dark space for us. We have no idea what goes on.

Yeah. I think another thing is interesting point that I think about sometimes is that engineering, specifically software engineering and medicine, like it's a completely different thought process in your day to day in like AI engineering and stuff like that, you're kind of trying to take risks and you potentially mess up and you make the wrong system that doesn't do what you want it to do. But that's okay because you can just go back and re engineer the system and try again. But in medicine you really have to be sure. Sure about whatever decision that you're making at any given point in time.

That's interesting. That's an interesting philosophy. Yours seems nicer. Can we change to yours?

It is more forgiving, I think, but it requires that you sort of are taking more risks. Because if, if you're out there building, if you actually don't go and build some product or something like that, somebody else is gonna get to it first because it's, it's so easy to just build a product. If it doesn't work, you can just scrap it. So I mean, it is nicer and it's more forgiving. But it's a, I would say almost more demanding in that like if you don't get to an idea or a product first, somebody else is gonna get to it really, really fast.

You're the one who's facing the consequences if there's a mistake. Like there's not. I mean, I guess you have your company and stuff involved too, but if you work really hard on something to do it and then it doesn't work, then you know you're reaping those consequences. Right?

Well, yeah, as a. What do you mean?

As opposed to in medicine when. Yeah. Someone, someone else is. You're making decisions for somebody else.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess I think. And that's why you're seeing like AI, I think go to these non regulated industries first is because like in healthcare or like financial services or something like that, like there are bigger consequences, I think, to the AI telling somebody the wrong thing. But to your point, I think it does work a little bit in a similar way is that like if I work on a financial services product and somebody loses their life savings, then they are assuming like some negative consequences for that. But also like you could still get sued and in the same way a doctor could still get sued for a similar situation.

Yeah, no, that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, that does make sense. That's. It is an interesting philosophy though. I mean, I feel like it's true in medicine. We really, we're not trained to. It's the opposite. We're not like trying to like get to the next thing, think outside the box. I mean, we're more trained to like, this is the traditional. Okay, you gotta have these things down. You gotta not miss this. Rather than really always trying to push the envelope and think of other things. So I don't know, that's. I guess it. Both things are good and bad. Mm. So Ryan, what are you manifesting for the year ahead?

Well, like I said, my company's launching in the next few weeks, so manifesting a successful launch. Yeah, I would say that's probably the main thing.

That's a good man.

That's a good one. Well, that's great. I think. Well, this has been great. Ryan, you've been a great guest.

Better than Dr. Matthew Davis.

Yes, 100%. This has been fantastic. Any closing thoughts for our listeners?

No. Excited.

Do you have any plugs?

No, I don't have any plugs. I will if you invite me back on another time, I may have a plug. Although not really medical related. So we'll see.

Okay.

All right. Well you know where to find us enerations MD on Instagram and TikTok and if you have any questions or interested in being a guest on the podcast, you can email us@askgenerations.mdmail.com and we will talk to you next week. Bye guys. Happy 2025 by.