00:00:04:00 - 00:00:31:15 Justin Nabity This is the DocNation podcast. We are a movement founded by doctors for doctors dedicated to empowering medical professional to reclaim control over health care decisions and advocating for their fair share of the industry's resources. Please note the views expressed are those of DocNation and not necessarily those of our Guest or Reference Health centers. Today, we have a truly remarkable guest joining us, Doctor Michael DellaVecchia. 00:00:31:17 - 00:01:00:10 Justin Nabity If we were to list every accomplishment that he's achieved, we might need an extra episode. Doctor DellaVecchia is a physician, surgeon, researcher, professor and innovator with expertise spanning ophthalmology, pathology, biomedical engineering, and even aerospace medicine. He's held leadership roles in multiple medical societies, advised NASA, worked on cutting edge technology, medical technologies, and has been at the forefront of health care policy advocacy. 00:01:00:12 - 00:01:32:13 Justin Nabity But beyond the titles and accolades, Doctor DellaVecchia is someone deeply committed to advancing patient care, medical education, and the future of physician leadership. He's a former president of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, and has been instrumental in shaping resolutions on everything from contract transparency for physicians to public health initiatives. We're honored to have him with us today to share his insights on the evolving landscape of medicine, the challenges facing physicians and what needs to change for the future of health care. 00:01:32:15 - 00:01:34:14 Justin Nabity Doctor DellaVecchia, welcome to the show. 00:01:34:16 - 00:01:38:08 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Thank you. Happy to be on board. 00:01:38:10 - 00:01:45:05 Justin Nabity So tell us about what are some of the things you're seeing right now within the health care landscape, and what are some things you're working on? 00:01:45:07 - 00:02:15:18 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Well, within the healthcare landscape, it's very dynamic and it's going in a lot of different directions. As we all know, as physicians. You have one the medical legal aspect, which in the Pennsylvania area is really tragic and totally unremarkable. You have the reimbursement aspect, which is related to the federal government, but also the corporate practice of medicine. 00:02:15:20 - 00:02:46:24 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And you also have the corporatization of medicine. So these are all major things that the practicing physician has to face. And on top of that, we have these two magical letters circling above called AI, or artificial intelligence. And personally, I think that's going to be probably the biggest shake up in medicine. You know, being a, you know, researcher and a techie, I kind of see the potential with this. 00:02:47:01 - 00:03:18:24 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia It can be an aspect that greatly helps with the care of patients, but if it's not limited and controlled and directed in the right way, the forces that or initiating artificial intelligence will eventually finish the takeover of medicine. I think, you know, that'll be our worst scope of practice issue. It won't be the lower level practitioners. It will indeed be artificial intelligence. 00:03:19:01 - 00:03:19:23 Justin Nabity You said it'll be the worst what? 00:03:19:23 - 00:03:46:13 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Uh, scope of practice issues. You know, the doctors are worried about physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and so. But I think, you know, competing against the computer, which has certain advantages. To the computer will be something that, you know, you know, supplant a lot of the actions of the doctors. 00:03:46:15 - 00:03:50:24 Reid Lancaster Michaela, when you say when you say the computer. Are you talking about AI? 00:03:51:01 - 00:03:51:15 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Yes. 00:03:51:18 - 00:03:54:17 Reid Lancaster Yeah. Okay. Robots. AI. 00:03:54:17 - 00:04:27:23 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Robots also. That's part of the advanced technology I. When during my presidency, the Pennsylvania medical society, my initiative was advanced Technologies in medicine. And we spoke a lot of that. I, you know, going back about 5 or 6 years ago and robotics and, it's also the initiation of certain sensors that will be applied directly by the patient, probably through your cell phone, which we're already seeing. 00:04:28:00 - 00:04:53:19 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You know, they can take pictures of things. And with data analysis and image analysis, do things that the doctor, in fact, cannot do. I can look at a lesion, but I can't measure it within millimeters for noticeable change. I can look at a lesion with my eyes, but it can't look at it with the different spectrum of light, which gives me more and more information. 00:04:53:21 - 00:05:29:00 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And on the other side the robotics are becoming more and more refined. You know, and not just in extension robotics. I think the vintage system, the one where you can actually essentially present the patient before the robot and the robot or do the surgery doesn't have to be an extension of your fingers or anything. I think one of the things I felt safe with in the past was doing ophthalmology surgery, thought, or microsurgery might have been a bit too refined and so forth, to be done by a robot. 00:05:29:02 - 00:05:48:13 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia But lo and behold, there is a robot out there that's learning how to do cataract surgery. So, you know, how do you compete against this in the future? And that's why I say it's a great scope of practice issue. You know, the robots, you know, don't show up late , or you know, worry about the snow on the way in. 00:05:48:15 - 00:05:48:23 Justin Nabity Yep. 00:05:49:01 - 00:05:50:23 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia They don't take vacations. 00:05:51:00 - 00:05:51:08 Justin Nabity 00:05:51:10 - 00:05:56:20 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia For 24 hours a day. Some of them even work in total darkness. 00:05:56:22 - 00:05:58:18 Reid Lancaster They don't eat. They don't sleep. 00:05:58:20 - 00:06:01:01 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia That's right. They don't go on strike. 00:06:01:03 - 00:06:22:23 Reid Lancaster They don't go on strike. They're typically a one time payment. Michael, I have a question. You know, when we talk about AI, it doesn't matter what sector it is in. We're. There is a sense of of anxiety and fear and like, people think there's a loss. There's some kind of loss for me. What is it? 00:06:22:23 - 00:06:46:11 Reid Lancaster They're going to come take my job. They're going to come do this. Do that. What is the net negative for physicians? Then also, what is the net positive for physicians? Because there are some people who look at, I think about robotics and they think awesome and they become inquisitive. But I would say most people are more concerned than excited when it comes to, robotics and AI specifically. 00:06:46:13 - 00:07:24:24 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia That's true. And I think it's a basic fear for the unknown. Yeah. You know, if I'm going to come up to you and say, hey, look, Im going to replace you by a machine, you know, we're going to teach a machine that's going to do a lot of things better than you can do. It. And after you devoted your whole life and hundreds of thousands of dollars and decades of education, to be wiped down to little more than replacing the buggy with, you know, so it is a fear of the unknown, I think is the greatest thing, you know, and having done a lot of missionary work. 00:07:25:01 - 00:07:48:02 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia There's some good aspects of that. We hope that a level of health care will get to those parts of the world that don't have any right now, and that would be pretty good. I think even, as I say, I don't see a real doctor shortage in this country. I think there may be a distribution problem, and that's based on economics. 00:07:48:04 - 00:08:10:03 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You know, people don't want to go into a community that needs health care, but they can't make a living. And the government has to realize that fact and maybe make some sort of quid pro quo. We'll pay for your education, but you go there and help our people pay for your education, go near and help our people, and we'll supplant your income so you can make a decent income. 00:08:10:05 - 00:08:34:14 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You know, it's something fundamentally wrong with society. You know, and it's way too little semi-pro football. But I'm amazed if there's something wrong with society that I could throw a pass and have a good feed point outside. Jump shot, make a hell of a lot more than I can saving a life. So these are issues that have to be based on the good part of. 00:08:34:16 - 00:08:53:19 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia AI. I think one is data analysis. We're seeing that right now. So I come in with a new patient and I sit there and I talk and I, I really enjoy my patients. I can't enjoy them too much anymore ‘cause see this one. Move on to the next one. How are you doing. How's your family. Where do you come from. 00:08:54:00 - 00:09:26:18 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia What kind of work did you do. Okay. But if you look at AI, they could take your genetic profile. They can take your environmental exposure. Every zip code you ever lived. They can take every medicine that you ever took and cross-reference all the reactions and interactions. They can take your age and risk profile. Okay. And interact all these parameters and do it in a couple milliseconds. 00:09:26:20 - 00:09:55:03 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia I can't compete with that. I don't think anybody can. So that may be an advancement in medicine. But who controls that data and how does it go. So I could say, as they have in certain, countries with health care. Oh, we know you're 70 years old. You took these hundreds of medicines. You lived in these zip codes that had environmental exposure and high cancer risk. 00:09:55:05 - 00:10:15:13 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And we know exactly what to do with you. However, you're 70 years old, and our profile says it's just not worth investing in you at this stage. We're not going to say you can't have the intervention. We're just going to say we won't pay for it. So what do you do at that point? So there is some basic issues with AI. 00:10:15:15 - 00:10:39:14 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And one of the problems I have with my colleagues is they're a little too passive. And one of the things I state with them, I said, look, you have a choice in your future. Are you going to have a seat at the table or are you going to be on the menu? Okay. And this determines your interactivity, your advocacy. 00:10:39:15 - 00:10:40:07 Reid Lancaster Yeah. 00:10:40:09 - 00:10:47:12 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And it's not just for us as a profession. I think this is a real ethical, moral issue for the care of people. 00:10:47:12 - 00:10:47:21 Justin Nabity Right. 00:10:48:01 - 00:10:52:02 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia That's why we can't walk away from it. 00:10:52:04 - 00:10:54:11 Justin Nabity So are you saying... Go ahead, Neil. 00:10:54:13 - 00:10:56:21 Reid Lancaster We’re like a bunch of sharks all going at the same time. 00:10:56:23 - 00:10:59:03 Neil Dougherty Are you going to be on the... 00:10:59:05 - 00:11:04:10 Neil Dougherty Are you going to be on the menu? Are you going to have a seat at the table, or are you going to be on the menu? 00:11:04:15 - 00:11:06:13 Reid Lancaster Yeah, it's punch line. 00:11:06:15 - 00:11:07:00 Neil Dougherty Yeah. 00:11:07:02 - 00:11:07:17 Reid Lancaster That's good. 00:11:07:20 - 00:11:10:17 Justin Nabity I think we should adopt that, that's a DocNation slogan. 00:11:10:19 - 00:11:13:13 Reid Lancaster Yeah, we're taking that. 00:11:13:14 - 00:11:15:13 Justin Nabity We might steal that from you. 00:11:15:15 - 00:11:16:20 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You’re welcome to it. 00:11:16:22 - 00:11:35:05 Reid Lancaster Michael, I want to drill down on something you said earlier. You were taught you were drawing a correlation between, medicine and your semi-pro days. You have three athletes on the on the screen, and we played high level sports, and and, we looked around at one point and I've said this multiple times on our podcast, so you really struck a chord with me. 00:11:35:07 - 00:11:54:21 Reid Lancaster And it's like we're looking around, we're getting paid to throw a ball and more than physicians. And it's just a really kind of a uniquely odd, you know, and basically no other country. Do you see that? I mean, I know soccer's big all over the world, but you don't see that level of disparity. Can you talk a little bit more about that? 00:11:54:23 - 00:12:13:12 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia I think it's somehow, what was presented to the populace like before we came on? I had the TV on, and you're talking about the Super Bowl go Eagles or whoever. You root for it. And people are paying $7,000 for a ticket. 00:12:13:14 - 00:12:14:09 Reid Lancaster Yeah. 00:12:14:11 - 00:12:19:03 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And I grew up quite poor. My mother and father only went to the fourth grade. 00:12:19:05 - 00:12:26:14 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Okay. My father at his best earning income annually was $12,000. 00:12:26:16 - 00:12:28:13 Reid Lancaster What year was that? Approximately. 00:12:28:15 - 00:12:33:24 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia That was at his highlights. It was probably going back and maybe to the 80s. 00:12:34:01 - 00:12:34:18 Reid Lancaster Wow. 00:12:34:20 - 00:12:35:11 Justin Nabity 80s. 00:12:35:13 - 00:12:36:09 Reid Lancaster Thank you for sharing that with us. 00:12:36:10 - 00:12:55:08 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Yeah. Mom, mom was insane. I know how she managed the family and that. And Dad worked like a dog. You know, they were both pulled out of the fourth grade to go to work full time. And he actually, I found out, worked before they went to school. And that was sent out to the farms and wine, went to pick tomatoes. 00:12:55:10 - 00:13:16:13 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And mom used to go around the neighborhood with a little wagon to get, clothing to clean and to repair for my grandmother and bring them back. And the fourth grade, they would pulled out to go to full time employment, you know, so it was really tough for them. I don't know how they made it. My dad worked his whole life and served the country very well in World War two. 00:13:16:15 - 00:13:22:17 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia He never talked about it, but he was on the Normandy beach, followed up in Battle of the Bulge. 00:13:22:19 - 00:13:23:01 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Woah. 00:13:23:01 - 00:13:46:21 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia How he survived and how I got here. I'll never know. But, you know, that's part of it. You know what brings people at that level, today who are what we would call median income to say, you know, I'm going to come up with $2,000 to walk into a stadium and stand or $7,000 and go to the Super Bowl. 00:13:46:23 - 00:14:07:12 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Okay. And when your doctor, when you go see your doctor, this same person will say, doc, what can you do on this co-pay? You know, I'm a little short, I don't know the 5 or 10 bucks. So I think there's a different value system and it's part of the image, you know. We don't really have star athletes anymore. 00:14:07:12 - 00:14:14:04 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia We have demigods. These, these people are at such a level. 00:14:14:06 - 00:14:14:15 Reid Lancaster That's right. 00:14:14:16 - 00:14:29:03 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And their salary, they're like Tom Brady I think in my heyday I probably threw the ball as good as he did, but he just signed for 300 and something million dollars to be a TV commentator. 00:14:29:05 - 00:14:29:21 Reid Lancaster Yep. 00:14:29:23 - 00:14:33:02 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You look at the guy at the top, the Dodgers, 00:14:33:08 - 00:14:34:18 Reid Lancaster Shohei Ohtani. 00:14:34:20 - 00:15:03:21 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Yeah. 700 something million dollars. As a very successful physician, you will not make any fraction of that in your entire life. And these people are going to make more in a season than you made in your entire life. So what is it about society that has that value system? I think one of the things that I find depressing, I think, is the the whole issue of the value of life has been deteriorated. 00:15:03:23 - 00:15:27:12 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You know, and it has a lot of different aspects, you know, such as war and stuff and when it has a different entry into society we kind of overlook some things here. We kind of had people justify it like let me ask you basic question. Do you think World War Two is a bad idea? You're hesitating. 00:15:27:12 - 00:15:32:12 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia The answer is yes. It was a very bad idea. During the course of World War two. 00:15:32:14 - 00:15:44:05 Reid Lancaster Whoa whoa, what was the question? Do I think it was a bad idea? I think any I think any war is a bad idea on anybody's behalf. Are you saying was it a bad idea for the United States to to retaliate after we got attacked? 00:15:44:07 - 00:16:07:22 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia For the United States? Yeah. Not to retaliation. The bad part about it is millions of people lost lives. The Americans lost approximately 410,000 lives during World War Two, of which a little over 3000 were civilian lives may have been nurses, the red cross people and so forth. Horrible figure, isn't it? 00:16:07:24 - 00:16:08:23 Neil Dougherty It's horrible. 00:16:09:00 - 00:16:29:08 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Yeah. Well, guess what, gentlemen? Every year, every year, the tobacco companies are responsible for at least that number of deaths in the United States, along with 1.2 million disabilities, chronic lung diseases, other cancers and so forth. 00:16:29:10 - 00:16:41:10 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You know, same equivalent loss of lives. But I don't see us going after the tobacco companies or the social issue of smoking 00:16:41:12 - 00:16:41:18 Justin Nabity True. 00:16:41:18 - 00:16:50:08 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia the same way that we look at World War two. And one of the reasons is a lot of people making a lot of money off of that. 00:16:50:10 - 00:16:52:20 Justin Nabity Yeah, it's all about dollars. It's all about the economics. 00:16:52:20 - 00:16:59:12 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Right. And a lot of people with that money knows what to do with the social aspect in advertisements. 00:16:59:12 - 00:17:00:01 Reid Lancaster Right. 00:17:00:03 - 00:17:12:15 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You know when you were growing up, you’re teenagers, wanna be a tough guy like that Marlboro man, if you're a young teenage, you're a girl. You want it to look like the young diva you know, when you smoke. 00:17:12:17 - 00:17:37:15 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia So it's a certain amount of social attitude I think that has to change. And that's one of one of the bad things. I mean, I don't think we're going to be a totally pure society. We need a little variety, but let's not be harmful to that effect. To say you can wipe out 400,000 of deaths and another million of morbidity in the United States. 00:17:37:17 - 00:17:59:04 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia How much money would that possibly save you. What is that human life worth? It was like 20-30 years short. Tethered to an oxygen hose. Is all of that valid questions and they have a financial association, too. But this is never brought to the issue. 00:17:59:06 - 00:18:29:05 Justin Nabity I'm glad you bring this up because this is where the politics comes into play. Because how much leadership is being shared even in like the school system. It used to be back in JFK days, there was this school called a la Sierra High School. If you go look it up, you see elite warriors that are equipped, men and women going through the program, and they had different colored shorts that they would wear to that they get different colors based on advancing kinda like in martial arts, we get different colored belts. 00:18:29:07 - 00:18:54:14 Justin Nabity And there was an emphasis on physical strength and taking care of yourself on a, on a nutrition level, all these different factors. And it's like all that has gone away. And it's just like, like you said, society and culture is missing the mark on really valuing life and and promoting attributes and and virtues and things that are all about valuing life. 00:18:54:14 - 00:19:16:01 Justin Nabity And so I want to go back to what you said up before about the eye piece. And we've been we've traveled the world helping with teams do cataract surgery. And I see the blind get their sight restored. There was a 102 year old man who got his sight. He was fully not able to see in both eyes got his vision restored. 00:19:16:01 - 00:19:41:12 Justin Nabity And he sang a praise song in just complete emotional thanksgiving for having his vision restored. His eighty year old son was walking him up the mountain. This is in Africa, and so we've been around the world in various places as a part of these teams. And one of the things that we've learned through ophthalmology is that, you've got this struggle between who can do what. 00:19:41:14 - 00:20:12:18 Justin Nabity Optometrist versus ophthalmologist and I'm hearing you say that that's almost like the small potatoes. The big potatoes. Is this AI machine underway. And if 75% of doctors are now employed and corporate medicine is taking over and we're not at the table, we're getting...you're on the menu and not at the table like we have an opportunity here, I think, in this decade, to do something for doctors to get back in charge of decision making and to be at that table. 00:20:12:18 - 00:20:33:05 Justin Nabity So tell us about that. As far as what you've seen in some of these ophthalmologists, optometrists side of things, same thing with NPs getting more authority and and having clout in health care. How is that how are you seeing that as like a precursor to what's coming that's even bigger on the AI side? 00:20:33:07 - 00:20:57:13 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Well, what I see, personally, I did a lot of missionary work. I do a lot of volunteer work with the veterans now. And they're, you know, men that literally live, and women, that risked life and limb come back, you know, and peace is disabled. And the mental aspect is crazy. And I don't think we're still taking care of them the way we should. 00:20:57:15 - 00:21:49:02 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia But to get back to your question, the bottom line is the we use the word curing or treatment of disease. And personally, I don't care who does. You know, you know, there is some legislation. But the bottom line, I think that we all have to realize is you want the most capable educated person at that point of taking care of people, whether you say they’re a medical doctor, doctor of osteopathy, an optometrist, a physician's assistant, I think really at the end point matters, but maybe not to the degree that some of the political situation say it and, we don't want to get into it. 00:21:49:02 - 00:22:24:08 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia But, I ran a tertiary high emergency room at one of the academic hospitals, and we would see a lot of I don't want to use the word mistakes, but a lot of things that came in at the end point when things went wrong and we already had treatment that should be avoided. Okay. But if we have a robot that I could take with me and Project Corpus again and go down to the the outback of Africa, where we actually had to bring our own energy system, there was no electricity there, so we sort. 00:22:24:11 - 00:22:25:23 Reid Lancaster so did we! 00:22:26:00 - 00:22:27:07 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You know, 00:22:27:09 - 00:22:27:23 Justin Nabity generators, 00:22:28:00 - 00:22:56:19 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia which was teaching some technicians how to do the cataract surgery. There was one lady that was technically a quote unquote, witch doctor. But, you know, after doing a couple hundred of cases and, and proper instruction, she could do cataract surgery and do it adequately and delivered a level of care that was nonexistent there. Hopefully robotics will be able to supplant that, you know, for all the reasons we just talked about. 00:22:57:00 - 00:22:57:08 Reid Lancaster Yeah. 00:22:57:08 - 00:23:24:10 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia But the bottom line is somebody owns that robot, somebody developed that robot, and somebody wants some sort of renumeration for those efforts. Even beyond that, they may want control of that. So the robot may be nice, may be sophisticated, but may be going to the highest bidder. We've seen that with laser surgery. You know, it wasn't available anywhere. 00:23:24:12 - 00:23:48:16 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And then it became available. And they went right away to where the best marketplace was. You know, I don't want to see health care to be a matter of marketplace. I want it to be seen as a matter of elevating the extension and the quality of life. Soif we could focus on that, I think, can we we know what the real note is in the symphony of taking care of people. 00:23:48:18 - 00:24:02:01 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia So I'm hoping that the directive will be more in that direction. Justin to answer your question, will it be I don't know. We've seen what happened in the past marketplaces, you know, so hopefully it will work that way. 00:24:02:07 - 00:24:10:16 Reid Lancaster Michael, what can physicians do to be, have a seat at the table and not be on the menu in terms of AI and their contribution to AI. 00:24:10:18 - 00:24:31:24 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia I think one of the things they have to do is get them off, get up off the seat, the seat that you're on now, not at the table. And and be aware and have had, you know, your experience, even if you're not a techie, you know, you look at the older premed guys, they were Latin major, they were botany majors and so forth. 00:24:31:24 - 00:24:56:08 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And that's what won in the med school, you know, being on some med school committees, I used to say to the committee, give me scientist, give me engineers, give me people that are in the humanities too. But I think we've got to look at the deployment and the advancement of medicine, and that, for the most part, is going to be made by doctors who work with the scientists. 00:24:56:10 - 00:25:20:15 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia I think if you look back at the advancements of medicines, you know, catheters, radiology, microscopy, they were all from the outside sources, scientists that were brought in, and they were adapted to focus on medicine. So I think Reid, that's what we need the doctors to work as a group. If you say I'm old.,I'm not a techie. 00:25:20:17 - 00:25:54:16 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You have a lot of experience. You know what the problems are. You know what the solutions are. May not have the modality, but some scientist somewhere may, work with that. That's great. You know what, I mean, I can't imagine, doing brain surgery 80 years ago before, you know, 100 years ago, working without radiology or MRI, knowing where are you going to bang in the skull with, you know, it's it's almost Frankenstein like. 00:25:54:22 - 00:26:19:15 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Yeah. When you look at the equations today and when you look at some of the advancements today, you know, and talk to a physician of only like 30 years ago, it's not science. It's almost magical. But let's proceed in that direction. I mean, and and you don't know where the answer is going to lie, gentlemen. I mean, if I went up to you and say, hey, you know what? 00:26:19:17 - 00:26:28:12 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Give me $1 million, I want I want to study moldy bread. And you say, why, it's moldy. Throw it the hell out. 00:26:28:14 - 00:26:28:20 Justin Nabity Yeah, 00:26:28:23 - 00:26:49:03 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Here’s a buck to get a new loaf. And then in the course of studying moldy bread, I developed these things called antibiotics. I saved millions of lives. I saved millions of people of a lot of devastating residuals from those interactions, you know, so we don't know where the true answers are going to lie. 00:26:49:05 - 00:27:20:03 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia But we know what the true questions are, and we hope we can direct our efforts to providing those answers. And I think with AI, with robotics, with the advancement of medicine in general, you know, we can, establish a quantum leap, which we never had before, along with the education of medicine. One of the things I think about is that, you know, the residents I teach routinely tell me that there are $400,000 to $500,000in debt. 00:27:20:05 - 00:27:49:05 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And, you know, if you talk to somebody like my father, who never made that his entire life, that's a lot of money. And it's still is a lot of money now. But what do we do with AI and the media? Just the only education I know, going from physics and math and to med school, I was horrified when I said, you know, this isn’t learning. I'm sitting on my butt trying to stay awake for eight hours in class and I'm going home. 00:27:49:05 - 00:28:11:04 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And I had volumes of things just to memorize. And to spit back during a test. Yeah. So suppose we step back. Suppose we made those two years of medical school full on the internet. We have. You can take it and analyze it any time of day that you want. You can go back if you're studying the foot... 00:28:11:06 - 00:28:37:14 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You got a question about the big toe. There's all these links. They answer those questions and have a good in-depth testing. So look at the expense that you do away with and the education and individual, but also look at the quality of education that you're bringing up. You know, a lot of people can have access to that. And that's really not all that innovative. 00:28:37:16 - 00:29:06:03 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia You know, you have all these online universities, quote unquote. And I have to admit in in the beginning, I really had my doubts about them and they were questionable. But now you have graduate courses at, you know, renowned institutions or I mean, you know, I’m a bachelor home alone at night, you know, I get bored with TV, but if you go on YouTube, you know, Stanford has a YouTube channel, Harvard has a YouTube channel. 00:29:06:03 - 00:29:32:24 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Johns Hopkins, Caltech. I took most of the graduate courses in optics, didn’t pay a penny. They were available in MIT. Now, it took me a few years to get through them, but I would never have the opportunity to learn that and advance my field if that wasn't accessible to me. At this stage, my education with, you know, two doctorate degrees and three residencies. 00:29:33:01 - 00:29:43:15 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Do I need another certificate on the wall that’s going to cost me $100,000 to get it. I don't think so. And I won't be doing it. I need the knowledge. 00:29:43:17 - 00:29:44:00 Justin Nabity Yeah. 00:29:44:00 - 00:29:56:12 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia And that opportunity gave it to me. And hopefully I can apply that knowledge, advance the field and have a for me, a much more satisfying position in life. 00:29:56:14 - 00:30:23:02 Justin Nabity I appreciate your focus on the value of human life. I feel like that's been a theme throughout everything you've shared with us and specifically with AI. Like if AI is programed a certain way to make decisions, how is it going to decide and who's deciding what it should be thinking or or how it should be approaching things. And patients need access to care. 00:30:23:04 - 00:30:45:00 Justin Nabity And you mentioned it doesn't really matter at the end of the day if they're getting the care they should be getting and it's good care, it's not care coming in with mistakes and issues and things that, you know, it's it's a team approach. And so I appreciate your perspective on that. That's very much patient oriented. It fits so well with what you've done up up to now. 00:30:45:00 - 00:30:51:11 Justin Nabity All these years. And, we appreciate you being on the show with us. And look forward to continuing the conversation. 00:30:51:13 - 00:31:14:20 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Be happy to. And I really have to admire you for your effort at DocNation, to have the, the media that you have and really fulfilling a need that wasn't fulfilled before. You know, I think, the doctors should work with you. We should all go forward. And I think it will be better for humanity. And that's that's the bottom line. 00:31:14:22 - 00:31:16:20 Reid Lancaster Thank you, Michael. Appreciate your time. 00:31:16:22 - 00:31:23:06 Dr. Michael DellaVecchia Gentlemen. Thank you very much. You have a good day. Looking forward to working with you in the future. 00:31:23:08 - 00:31:26:13 Justin Nabity This has been the DocNation podcast. If you like what you heard. 00:31:26:19 - 00:31:46:23 Justin Nabity Be sure to subscribe, rate and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you are listening to us. Your feedback really helps us reach more listeners like you. We'd also love to hear your thoughts and any topics you'd like us to cover in future episodes. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for updates, behind the scenes content, and to join the conversation. 00:31:46:24 - 00:31:47:19 Justin Nabity Thanks for listening.