Welcome to Pulse: Hot Topics, where Louise and George unpack the big shifts shaping healthcare right now - from billion-dollar hype to human-level trust.

Are AI Scribes The Billion-Dollar Burnout Band-Aid?

Doctors adore them, investors can’t stop funding them - We dig into the paradox of technology that makes clinicians happy but might not be improving productivity—and why transparency is becoming urgent as these tools expand into agentic workflows.

Chatbots in Therapy: When AI Joins the Session

From therapists secretly using ChatGPT mid-session, to patients uploading their medical records for advice, and one founder shutting down his AI therapy app over safety fears — can AI-mediated care ever truly be therapeutic?

New Zealand’s Digital Déjà Vu

After a tough 2024, New Zealand’s back with a 10-year digital health plan, a new Centre for Modernisation, and a promise of one innovation a month. But with no funding announcement and an election looming, is this genuine commitment or just another round of hopeful planning? Tender watch is on.

MIT’s Top 10 Breakthrough Technologies

MIT Technology Review’s annual list has brain–computer interfaces voted readers’ #11 pick. Are BCIs about to finally enter their translation era? And would George drill a hole in his head for the tech?

The BMJ vs. TikTok Medicine

What happens when money, marketing, medicine, and misinformation collide? Raffael Heiss can tell you as he’s mapped it. Spoiler alert: it’s not god. Tina Purnat argues we can't regulate this away—we need to recognise the information environment as a determinant of health.

Resources:

• AI Scribes paper, NEJM AI Link
• NZ DH Strategy, Pulse+IT Story Link
• MIT Technology Review’s Breakthrough Tech List Link
• Public health challenges of ‘medical influencers’ BMJ Link

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