I’ve been writing about technology for a long time. Gadgets come and go. Apps promise to simplify life, then quietly disappear. Over time, you develop a certain skepticism — not because technology can’t help, but because it often overpromises and underdelivers.
Health technology feels different.
When artificial intelligence enters the conversation around healthcare, reactions tend to polarize quickly. Some people lean in with excitement, convinced it will fix what’s broken. Others recoil, worried about privacy, bad advice, or machines replacing human judgment. Before speaking with Dr. Earl Campazzi — and before reading his book, Better Health with AI: Your Roadmap to Results — I probably sat somewhere between cautious and curious. I knew AI was already doing some things well, but I wasn’t convinced much of it translated into every day, practical use for most people.
That view shifted — not dramatically, and not uncritically — but enough to make me rethink where we actually are right now.
AI is already better than humans at some things — just not the things we notice
One of the most interesting points Dr. Campazzi raised in our conversation is that AI is already outperforming humans in very specific, narrow tasks. Interpreting certain lab results is one example. Machines don’t get tired, distracted, or rushed. They’re exceptionally good at spotting patterns across massive datasets — something humans simply aren’t built to do at scale.
Better Health With AI: Your Roadmap to Results
At the same time, we’re still being told to bring a written list of medications to medical appointments or the emergency room. Not a screenshot. Not an app. A piece of paper.
That contrast says a lot about where we really are.
Some parts of healthcare are quietly becoming very advanced. Others remain stubbornly manual. The future isn’t arriving all at once — it’s arriving unevenly.
The tech you already have may be doing more than you realize
What surprised me most was how little emphasis Dr. Campazzi placed on buying new gadgets. This isn’t about chasing the latest wearable or installing every health app you can find. In many cases, the tools people already own are already collecting useful information.
Smartwatches and fitness trackers continuously gather data — heart rate, sleep, movement, sometimes stress indicators. Most of us glance at those numbers briefly, if at all, and move on. On their own, they feel abstract.
Where AI becomes useful is in connecting those dots over time.
Humans are not good at noticing slow, incremental change. AI is. It can surface trends that are easy to miss — sleep quality declining before you feel exhausted, activity levels drifting downward, or irregular patterns that don’t stand out day to day. These aren’t diagnoses, but they are signals. And signals, when noticed early, can change the timing of decisions.
Dr. Campazzi shared examples where wearable data helped flag atrial fibrillation before symptoms were obvious, prompting medical follow-up that reduced stroke risk. No device made the diagnosis — but awareness shifted the outcome.
Consistency beats intention — and I see that in my own habits
Once tracking starts to feel like work, most people stop doing it. I’ve seen that firsthand.
At one point, I made a conscious effort to track my protein intake. I knew it mattered. I knew why it mattered. And I still gave up fairly quickly — not because it wasn’t important, but because manually tracking it became tedious.
That’s where apps can help — not by making tracking perfect, but by making it tolerable. Lowering the barrier is often enough to keep people engaged long enough for patterns to emerge.
I’ve noticed the same thing with my Fitbit. I look at my stats every day, but only because it’s effortless. For a long time, I didn’t even fully understand what the “Readiness” score represented — it was just another number. After my conversation with Dr. Campazzi, I started paying more attention to how it reflected sleep, activity, and recovery together, rather than focusing on any single metric in isolation.
1 of 80+ Apps referenced in Dr. Earl’s Book.
Recency bias is real — and AI can help counter it
One insight from Dr. Campazzi that really stuck with me was his reminder about recency bias — our tendency to focus on the most recent data point and assume it represents the whole story.
It’s something I see in myself all the time. If I sleep poorly one night, that result looms large. If yesterday’s numbers look good, it’s tempting to assume everything is fine.
Dr. Campazzi pointed out that individual data points matter far less than trends over time. That’s where AI-powered aggregation becomes valuable. Downloading data and letting an aggregator analyze patterns across weeks or months can reveal things that daily check-ins simply can’t.
In other words, the value isn’t in today’s number — it’s in what’s quietly changing over time.
The most useful AI skill isn’t getting answers — it’s asking better questions
One of the most practical ideas from Better Health with AI is what Dr. Campazzi calls “flipping the script.”
Instead of asking AI anxiety-driven questions — What’s wrong with me? Should I be worried? — he encourages starting with context and goals. Here’s what I’ve noticed. Here’s what’s changed. What questions should I be asking my doctor?
That reframing matters.
AI works best as a preparation tool, not an authority. It helps organize thoughts, summarize patterns, and surface questions you might not think to ask under pressure. In a healthcare system where appointment time is limited, better preparation often leads to better conversations.
It’s a mindset I already use in my work — AI helps me think more clearly, not think for me. Applied to health, that distinction becomes even more important.
photo courtesy Apple Inc.
This doesn’t feel equally distant to everyone — and that’s okay
For some, this may still feel like a next-decade conversation — or even something closer to science fiction. But seeing where AI already outperforms humans in narrow tasks, and where it clearly doesn’t, makes it feel less distant to me. The gap between “someday” and “soon” is shrinking.
At the same time, the fact that we still rely on handwritten medication lists is a reminder that progress doesn’t move at the same speed everywhere. Both things can be true at once.
Sometimes the most useful advice is still analog
For all the talk of AI and apps, one of the most practical takeaways from my conversation with Dr. Campazzi was refreshingly low-tech.
He recommends keeping a simple printed list of medications, dosages, supplements, allergies, and major surgeries in your wallet or purse. Not on a phone. On paper.
In an emergency, paper still works. And that reminder captures the spirit of the book perfectly: technology should support real life, not complicate it.
This isn’t about living forever — it’s about living better
Better Health with AI isn’t about optimization for its own sake or chasing perfect numbers. It’s about preserving independence, reducing unpleasant surprises, and staying engaged in your own health decisions.
Awareness doesn’t guarantee outcomes. But it improves odds. And often, improved odds come from noticing patterns earlier than we used to.
Talking with Dr. Earl Campazzi — and reading his book — didn’t make me suddenly enthusiastic about every health app or wearable. What it did was sharpen my thinking about where technology genuinely helps, where restraint matters, and how much value already exists in tools many of us carry every day.
Sometimes the biggest shift isn’t adopting new technology.
It’s learning how to use what you already have — thoughtfully.
Better Health with AI: Your Roadmap to Results is available in paperback, hardcover, eBook, and audiobook formats. You can find it on Amazon or at https://www.betterhealthwithai.com.
