Field Notes: ChatGPT's sympathy script, radon risks, great quick chickpea-pasta recipe + a poem by Rebecca Sturgeon

"But the next moment after that, what then?"

Good morning, friends! It’s been a minute since the last Field Notes because I’ve been downed with pneumonia. I’m on antibiotics and feeling better, but still only 75%. Mostly, I am tired. So tired. A friend told me yesterday that I was tired at the “cellular level.” Not bone tired, cell tired. That’s it.

Here are six things I’ve run across lately related to illness and wellness, cobbled from the past few weeks. I hope you find something useful or fascinating here:

1. When Patient Questions Are Answered With Higher Quality and Empathy by ChatGPT than Physicians (Ground Truths newsletter by Dr. Eric Topol) — A study published in JAMA took physicians’ answers to health questions on Reddit, asked artificial intelligence ChatGPT the same questions, and then compared the two. ChatGPT beat the human physicians by a landslide, mainly because its answers included sympathy and added more context and guidance. I found the whole study fascinating — What is the power of conveying sympathy? What do both patients and clinicians lose when we squeeze that time out of the healthcare system? What do we gain when artifical intelligence gives us at least a beginning script of sympathy?— and might write more about this sometime.

2. Understanding Benefits of a Treatment (Dr. John Mandrola in the Sensible Medicine newsletter) — This post explains clearly and simply how absolute risk reduction differs from relative risk reduction. I’m continually trying to understand medical studies better, and this was one helpful piece.

3. In Praise of the Low-Key Hang: Who Wants to Go to Target with Me? (Over the Influence newsletter by Jo Piazza) — I loved this post on the friendship beat, that reminder that we all need connection for our health. I used to hang out with friends in my 20s a lot, on the porch swing, in the kitchen, randomly cleaning out the closet; in my 40s, that time has disappeared. Jo argues that beyond the temptations of the phone and the difficulties of living farther apart, “I also think that hanging out requires a muscle that requires constant working out or it will atrophy. We have to hang out in order to hang out.”

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4. Quick Chickpeas and Pasta (Smitten Kitchen) — Fast, delicious, filling recipe now on rotation in our house. The chickpeas and pasta cook in the tomato sauce, so it’s a one-pot meal. And all the ingredients (small pasta, tomato paste, can of chickpeas) are pantry staples, so you can buy them now and wait until you have a dinner emergency in a month (or this Monday). We swap the rosemary for dried sage and like using tiny shells.

5. Adventures in radon mitigation: You, too, can lower your risk of lung cancer. (Force of Infection newsletter by epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers) — “So believe me when I say that I know you don’t want to hear this, but there’s a boring home maintenance thing you probably need to do: get your house checked for radon.”

6. “Listen, Vivek,” by Rebecca Sturgeon — My dear friend Rebecca shared this poem in her Our Daily Breath newsletter after listening to the fantastic On Being podcast episode with U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy talking about the epidemic of loneliness. I feel the same emotions often in my work at a healthcare nonprofit, learning continously about the enormous obstacles to humanistic care. (This newsletter is my own project, not affiliated with my work there.) Yes, and now what? What can I do?

Listen Vivek.
It's all well and nice and flowery to tell me Love is stronger,
is in fact the strongest force in the universe.
Stronger, even, than Borg technology or the second amendment.
This is all very nice and helps with one deep breath, one long slow exhale.

But the next moment after that, what then?
What do I do with my hands, is what I'm asking.
Who do I reach for, whose body do I embrace,
allowing our full weight to rest on one another?
Where is the patch of soil where I go to get my hands dirty,
the weight that is mine to lift,
the part of road where my rubber hits.
Because it's just not enough to be sitting here with my clean fingernails,
watching the waves of anxiety roll
while I try to regulate my breath.

— Rebecca Sturgeon

Reprinted with permission.

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This is the question always, isn’t it? What now? What next?

It is as if Dr. Murthy heard Rebecca, heard all of us in our distress, as just a few days after her poem was published, his office released an 81-page report, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community. It has recommendations for what we all can do — individuals, parents, schools, healthcare professionals, governments.

Here’s my little nudge, my little part today: People matter in your life. You matter in theirs. Who can you reach out to today? Whose voice do you want to hear today?

Thank you for being here.

To our journeys,
Brianne