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He needed help to find a way forward that would not be a "band-aid" but would help bring transformative and meaningful change to both individuals and the healthcare team. This is what came out of that search....

International Phronesis Institute

2 min read

When Good Intentions Aren’t Enough: AI, Medicine, and the Risk of Losing What Matters Most

Patient - Physician Relationship Artificial Intelligence is transforming medicine at a breathtaking pace. With nearly 700 FDA-approved AI devices already in clinical use, the promise of greater diagnostic accuracy, improved efficiency, and reduced costs is real and compelling. As physicians, we should embrace tools that improve patient care. But we must also ask a harder question: at what cost? In a commentary published in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (see attached) ,

Dr. Walter Lee

2 min read

The Heart of Inquiring vs. Indicting

From Substack @walterleeipi The same words can carry entirely different weight depending on what lies beneath them. Take this for example: “What were you thinking?” Say it aloud. Now say it again, Chances are you said them in a indicting way. Say it aloud again but this time imagine you’re genuinely curious about someone’s reasoning. Do you hear and feel the difference? The words are identical, but the intention behind them transforms everything. How often have we jumped to c

Dr. Walter Lee

3 min read

To Be, Rather Than To Seem

I’m a medical student at Duke University, nestled in the woods of central North Carolina. So I thought it would be fitting to open with our state motto: Esse quam videri. Or in English, "To be, rather than to seem". It’s a beautiful sentiment, but when I started medical school in 2023, I felt like I was doing the exact opposite. I had a textbook case of imposter syndrome. The Trap of Seeming In those early months, I looked around the lecture hall and saw classmates who were b

Michael Zhu

3 min read

Personal Reflections of experiencing "Practical" in Healthcare

Singapore from Cloud Forest Today I am in Singapore. It is a place I never even thought about traveling to, but I got to come as Faculty with the International Phronesis Institute (IPI), I am joined by my husband Barry- who has worked in medicine his entire career, Walter Lee - Founder and CEO of the IPI and a physician at Duke University, and Michael Zhu - a Duke medical student. We have come this week to hold focus group meetings for a future program called Healthcare Exc

Vivian Doublestein

5 min read