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Welcome to The Next Patient The Next Patient tracks the technology moving health care faster than the system can deliver it. | ||||||||
Four stories worth your time Start with the one that matters to you
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AI-generated conceptual illustration. Fictional people; not Casey Harrell. Living with ALS For one man with ALS, a way to speak againCasey Harrell can join family conversations, send messages, and keep working despite ALS making his speech difficult to understand. Over nearly two years, he communicated almost two million words using an experimental brain implant at home. AI software translates the brain signals from his attempts to speak into words. A computer then speaks them in a recreated version of his earlier voice. After a caregiver starts the equipment, Harrell can use it himself. So far, this study’s evidence covers one person.
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Three more major stories More health care advances
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Quick discoveriesSleep research moves into your own bed. Beacon’s headband records brain activity at home. AI looks for patterns that help researchers study illness and treatment effects overnight. Medical researchers get help reviewing papers and planning experiments. Stanford’s software assistant sifts through papers and data and suggests experiments. Less routine work could leave scientists more time to pursue promising questions. Gene clues could help predict scarring in Crohn’s disease. Comparing patient and computer-generated data revealed 43 genes linked to progression. These early clues could guide future screening for bowel damage. Hearing help follows the conversation you choose—in a lab. In four volunteers with brain electrodes, software identified which voice held their attention and amplified it. Easier listening across a crowded table could follow. Bacteria-killing viruses tackle E. coli in the lab. Stanford used AI to design viruses that attack bacteria; sixteen showed promise. They could eventually offer another way to fight infections. | ||||||||
What could come nextTreatments could be tested on virtual cells first. Stanford researchers aim to simulate human cells with AI, exploring treatment responses before testing them in real cells. Heart scans could happen between appointments. Singapore–MIT researchers envision wearable ultrasound, with AI interpreting the images, to help monitor chronic conditions during everyday life. Medical researchers could use advanced labs without owning one. A Stanford-led team is developing standards for automated labs, potentially giving more medical researchers access to sophisticated equipment. | ||||||||
A little delight If your dog could review your caregiving“Excellent company. Walks could be longer. Portion sizes remain a concern.” Some patient feedback may require negotiating skills. | ||||||||
Reader pulse Was there something here you’d tell someone about?
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The Next Patient Why we're here. Technology is about to drive demand for care faster than the system built to deliver it can keep up, and AI is the accelerant. The demand won't come from what anyone knows today. It will come from what's being discovered. What you get. Ten minutes a week and you're current on what's coming, wherever you sit in health care. Nobody in the room brings up something you've never heard of. How we work. We bring you the information with its source attached, checked two ways: the record is real, and you can open it yourself. Opinions are few and marked. The judgment is yours. New editions every Monday. Next edition: September 14, 2026. |
For one man with ALS, a way to speak again
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Sep 9, 2026
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3 min read