PULSE

About PULSE

PULSE, the podcast, produced by Pulse+IT and hosted by digital health legends Louise Schaper and George Margelis, is an enlightening, entertaining look at global digital health trends and current debates with our hosts’ deep takes on all the latest news in digital health.

Publisher

PULSE+IT

Category

health & fitness · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

4 May 2024

Latest episode

8 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

90 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Oct 2026

   Who Gets to Deliver Healthcare? AI Agents, Grindr, Apple and France's Telehealth Queue-Jumpers

   This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George ask who gets to deliver healthcare, as AI agents, a dating app, Apple and online platforms all push into territory that once belonged to clinicians and health services. Agentic AI moves into healthcare — Heidi's new agents can now complete referrals, recalls and follow-ups across EHRs, inboxes and patient portals, joining Epic, Oracle and ARPA-H in a shift from AI that advises to AI that acts. George draws on James Reason's Swiss cheese model and Goodhart's Law to ask who is accountable when agents get it wrong. Is Grindr becoming a front door to healthcare? — Grindr's US$250 million purchase of PrEP telehealth provider Freddie will bring HIV prevention, testing, prescriptions and medication delivery inside the app, a sign that healthcare is moving to where communities already gather. Apple pushes further into healthcare — Apple's redesigned Health app adds a Health Age score, at-home movement assessments and, in the US, lab tests you can buy straight from the app. That raises questions about validation, equity, and who has the conversation when your watch says you're older than you are. Telehealth grows up — France has given teleconsultation platforms until 1 October to stop charging patients to skip the queue. Meanwhile Australia is preparing its first national safety and quality standards for virtual care, along with rules requiring online prescribers to share medicines information to My Health Record by default. Plus, Louise reviews Eliza at Melbourne Theatre Company, the story of Joseph Weizenbaum and the world's first chatbot, and pays tribute to her PhD supervisor, the late Professor Graham Pervan. Resources Heidi launches AI agents for clinical admin, Pulse+IT Link (https://www.pulseit.news/australian-digital-health/heidi-launches-ai-agents-for-clinical-admin/) Oracle outlines healthcare AI roadmap, Pulse+IT Link (https://www.pulseit.news/irish-digital-health/oracle-outlines-healthcare-ai-roadmap/) Online prescribing Share by Default consultation Link (https://consultations.health.gov.au/medicare-benefits-and-digital-health-division/online-prescribers-sharing-medicine-related-inform/) Recommendations: Join (https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/news-and-media/consultations/consultation-draft-national-safety-and-quality-virtual-care-standards) the ACSQHC Webinars for the public consultation on the Draft National Safety and Quality Standards for Virtual Care (19, 21 and 23 October) Go see Melbourne Theatre Company Eliza (https://www.mtc.com.au/plays-and-tickets/whats-on/season-2026/eliza), showing until 31 October Watch Silenced (https://www.silenced-film.com/) documentary Aging Research and Drug Discovery Annual Meeting YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@ardd3628) Visit Pulse+IT.news (https://www.pulseit.news/) to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material. People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news. Follow us on LinkedIn Louise (https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiseschaper/) | George (https://www.linkedin.com/in/drgeorgemargelis/) | Pulse+IT (https://www.linkedin.com/company/pulseitnews/) Follow us on BlueSky Louise (https://bsky.app/profile/drlouiseschaper.bsky.social) | George (https://bsky.app/profile/drgeorgemargelis.bsky.social) | Pulse+IT (https://bsky.app/profile/pulseit.bsky.social) Send us your questions pulsepod@pulseit.news (mailto:pulsepod@pulseit.news) Production by Octopod Productions (https://octopod.productions/) | Ivan Juric (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-juric-octopod-productions/)

2. 

   1 Oct 2026

   Tech Is the Tail Wagging the Dog – OpenAI's Medicare Breach, AI Scribes in Court and the Push to Pay AI Doctors

   This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George break down: OpenAI's Agent Breaches a Medicare Portal – An OpenAI agent that "didn't accept no for an answer" pulled non-public files from a legacy Medicare statistics portal, turning a benign research task into a wake-up call for healthcare's ageing legacy systems. AI Scribes Meet the Law – A Washington State court ruled a patient had no right to the ambient AI recording of her own consult, while an Australian legal analysis warns scribes may concentrate liability on the doctor who signs the note. The Medicare Pipeline Nobody Designed – An Auditor-General's report shows software increasingly marketed to optimise Medicare billing with AI, while the Health Department switched off its own AI fraud-detection model because staff couldn't keep up with what it flagged. The US Prepares to Pay AI Doctors – A New York Times investigation finds US health officials fast-tracking AI that diagnoses, prescribes and treats, including reported discussions about paying AI doctors 60 to 80 per cent of what human doctors earn. And a huge thank you to our Pulse Poddies: we've passed 25,000 downloads! Resources: Pulse+IT: PM alleges 'unauthorised access' of Medicare portal Link (https://www.pulseit.news/australian-digital-health/pm-alleges-unauthorised-access-of-medicare-portal/) The Conversation: Australia's legacy systems were already a cyber risk. AI agents are raising the stakes Link (https://theconversation.com/australias-legacy-systems-were-already-a-cyber-risk-ai-agents-are-raising-the-stakes-292981) AMA: Patients don't have right to ambient AI recordings, court says Link (https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital-health/patients-don-t-have-right-ambient-ai-recordings-court-says) Kirkpatrick, Porter & Freckelton, "Current and Emerging Medico-Legal Issues Related to AI Scribes in Healthcare Across Australia", (2026) 32 Journal of Law and Medicine 823 Coiera & Fraile-Navarro, AI Scribes: Are We Measuring What Matters?, JMIR Medical Informatics Link (https://medinform.jmir.org/2026/1/e89337) Seuren, Williams & Cresswell, BMJ Digital Health & AI Link (https://bmjdigitalhealth.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000091) ANAO, Artificial Intelligence and Medicare Benefits Integrity Link (https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/artificial-intelligence-and-medicare-benefits-integrity) The New York Times: U.S. Health Officials Move Quickly to Deploy Medical A.I. Despite Concerns Link (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/health/ai-doctors-medicare-fda.html) ARPA-H ADVOCATE program Link (https://arpa-h.gov/explore-funding/programs/advocate) Visit Pulse+IT.news (https://www.pulseit.news/) to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material. People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news. Follow us on LinkedIn Louise (https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiseschaper/) | George (https://www.linkedin.com/in/drgeorgemargelis/) | Pulse+IT (https://www.linkedin.com/company/pulseitnews/) Follow us on BlueSky Louise (https://bsky.app/profile/drlouiseschaper.bsky.social) | George (https://bsky.app/profile/drgeorgemargelis.bsky.social) | Pulse+IT (https://bsky.app/profile/pulseit.bsky.social) Send us your questions pulsepod@pulseit.news (mailto:pulsepod@pulseit.news) Production by Octopod Productions (https://octopod.productions/) | Ivan Juric (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-juric-octopod-productions/)

3. 

   24 Sept 2026

   The Case for AI to Retain Clinicians, Not Replace Them, with Prof Daniel Baumgart

   Healthcare faces a global workforce crisis - but what if we’re asking the wrong question about AI? Professor Daniel Baumgart joins Louise and George to argue that AI’s greatest opportunity may not be replacing clinicians, but helping us keep them. They explore where AI is genuinely reducing workload, who should benefit from the ‘productivity dividend’, and why layering AI onto dysfunctional workflows may simply accelerate the problem. Daniel also warns of an emerging risk: clinicians becoming deskilled as they increasingly rely on AI, creating a divide between those who understand and can challenge these systems and those who simply depend on them. Plus: what tomorrow’s clinicians need to learn, why clinical judgement must remain human, and the two questions every health service should answer before buying an AI tool. Read Daniel’s paper in The Lancet: Global advances in health artificial intelligence: a workforce imperative Link (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00693-8/abstract?rss=yes) Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-c-baumgart-065584b1/) Visit Pulse+IT.news (https://www.pulseit.news/) to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material. People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news. Follow us on LinkedIn Louise (https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiseschaper/) | George (https://www.linkedin.com/in/drgeorgemargelis/) | Pulse+IT (https://www.linkedin.com/company/pulseitnews/) Follow us on BlueSky Louise (https://bsky.app/profile/drlouiseschaper.bsky.social) | George (https://bsky.app/profile/drgeorgemargelis.bsky.social) | Pulse+IT (https://bsky.app/profile/pulseit.bsky.social) Send us your questions pulsepod@pulseit.news (mailto:pulsepod@pulseit.news) Production by Octopod Productions (https://octopod.productions/) | Ivan Juric (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-juric-octopod-productions/)

Who has been a guest on PULSE

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Dr Amandeep Hansra
• Julia Conway
• Ida Tin

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

32 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 41 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

59

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

60

Contact PULSE

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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Questions about PULSE