The self-stated goal of the initiative, to “cure, prevent and manage” all diseases, sounds lofty, the panelists said, so it’s not uncommon for people to hear that and balk. In science, people aren’t used to thinking about progress on a 100-year timescale, said Stephen Quake, PhD, professor of bioengineering and applied physics, the Lee Otterson Professor in the School of Engineering, and head of science for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. But maybe they should start. “We think of grant-level, three-year timescales,” he said during a conversation with Chan. “Part of the initial reaction of skeptical people [is] they’re just not used to thinking about what happens over the course of 100 years. And if you get kind of scholarly about that, you realize a whole lot can happen in 100 years.”
Researchers shared a variety of other tantalizing ideas for the future of health and medicine. James Zou, PhD, associate professor of biomedical data science, spoke about the evolution of AI, from a predictive puzzle solver to a tool that accelerates research by generating protein sequences for therapeutics, creating images, spitting out text or supplying a variety of other products. Boris Heifets, MD, PhD, associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, shared his exploration of psychedelics in mental health management. And Anna Lembke, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, introduced a new type of self-restriction known as “dopamine fasting,” which requires a person to resist behaviors that release the hormone dopamine (like scrolling through social media or eating junk food) to curb addiction and restore dopamine balance in the brain.
Eleni Linos, MD, DrPH, professor of dermatology, took the stage as a storyteller. In May, Palo Alto, California, was treated to a rare celestial phenomenon: the northern lights. Linos begrudgingly joined a friend for a late-night stroll to a dark hill on campus, only to look up at the sky and see…nothing. “As I started to leave, someone I didn’t know tapped me on the shoulder. They said, ‘No, no, no, take out your phone,’” recalled Linos, the Ben Davenport and Lucy Zhang Professor in Medicine. She found that her phone could capture the beautiful pinks and greens streaming across the sky. “That was the moment where I was like, ‘Oh, this is real-life, augmented reality. This is exactly how it should be in my clinic.’” An AI-enabled app on a doctor’s smartphone, for instance, could scans skin lesions and help them make diagnoses based on details unseeable by the naked eye.
Linos added that years ago, on a flight, she sat next to a blind passenger. Her first reaction was to help — did he need assistance maneuvering around the plane? Pouring his drink? He did not. (It turned out he was a motivational speaker named Hoby Wedler who shared ideas about accessibility and science. He even earned a PhD in organic chemistry by feeling the relationships between molecules.) They struck up a conversation.
“We were flying to the East Coast, so we had a really in-depth conversation about accessibility and how educational institutions need to give more opportunities to people with disabilities, including blindness,” Linos said. They talked about her work as a dermatologist and concluded jokingly that there are some fields that would be extra difficult for a blind person to do. There could never really be a blind dermatologist, they agreed.
Fast forward five years. “That’s totally changed. Algorithms aren’t just as good as a dermatologist; in many cases, they’re better.” Linos reached out to Wedler. “I called him, and I was like, ‘You know what? We were wrong five years ago. You could become a dermatologist.’”
“He doesn’t want to,” she said with a laugh. But it poses new questions for Linos: What does it mean for dermatologists’ practice and careers? What will be possible in five years that isn’t today? “I just want to leave you with that optimism and that question.”