From the age of seven, Sylvia Owusu-Ansah knew she wanted to be a doctor. She didn’t, however, expect to be a medical consultant on a hit HBO Max show.

Today, Owusu-Ansah works as an associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She has also been an assistant medical director for the Secret Service and was one of the first healthcare workers in Pennsylvania to get the Covid-19 vaccine in December 2020.

In early 2024, she received the opportunity to be a consultant for The Pitt, a medical drama that has been praised as one of the most accurate television depictions of what it’s like to work in medicine. It’s also broken records, with Season 2 averaging more than 15 million viewers per episode.

So, how did it all begin? Owusu-Ansah credits her friend Beth Hoffman, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, for connecting her to the show.

Here are more anecdotes that made it into the show.—MA

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For five and a half years, Lisa Shah has served as chief medical officer and EVP at health tech Twin Health.

A hospitalist by training, she now oversees all patient-facing staff at the company, which is looking to fight metabolic issues using digital twins to help patients learn more about their health.

Around the world, an estimated 1.5 billion adults have some kind of metabolic issue like high blood pressure, obesity, or diabetes. Her first patients in the Twin program? Her parents, who both had Type 2 diabetes and are now off medications.

Shah sat down with Healthcare Brew to talk about her role, how the company helped her parents, and how clinical experience can enhance technology.

See the full conversation here.—CM

Many in the healthcare industry want the government to protect patients from AI’s potential harms.

Morning Brew Inc. survey data found 83% believe additional regulation is needed when it comes to the use of AI in healthcare, and 71% say regulatory efforts “are not moving fast enough.”

The majority of states have enacted laws or adopted resolutions around AI both within healthcare and beyond, per the National Conference of State Legislatures—something 50% of 160 respondents said they supported. However, President Trump has made moves to reduce states’ ability to regulate AI, including a Dec. 11 executive order that told federal agencies to identify “onerous” state AI laws and propose a federal AI standard that would overrule state restrictions.

So far, none of that has happened.

Find more insights from Chapter 6 of our report here.—CC