Howie and Harlan are joined by Evangelos Oikonomou, a cardiologist and data scientist at the Yale School of Medicine, to discuss how AI can extract overlooked signs of heart disease from routine ECGs, imaging studies, and electronic health records—and how to deploy these AI tools responsibly at scale. Harlan explains whether a widely covered study suggesting that coffee may lower the risk of dementia should change your daily brew; Howie grapples with the ethical questions surrounding a proposed hepatitis B vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau.

Show notes:

Coffee and Dementia

"Coffee and Tea Intake, Dementia Risk, and Cognitive Function"

"Coffee linked to slower brain ageing in study of 130,000 people"

"2 to 3 Cups of Coffee a Day May Reduce Dementia Risk. But Not if It's Decaf."

Evangelos Oikonomou

"What Is Opportunistic Screening in Healthcare?"

Evangelos Oikonomou: "Artificial intelligence in medical imaging: A radiomic guide to precision phenotyping of cardiovascular disease"

Evangelos Oikonomou: "Non-invasive detection of coronary inflammation using computed tomography and prediction of residual cardiovascular risk (the CRISP CT study): a post-hoc analysis of prospective outcome data"

Evangelos Oikonomou: "Artificial intelligence-guided detection of under-recognised cardiomyopathies on point-of-care cardiac ultrasonography: a multicentre study"

"Fellow Focus in Four: Evangelos Oikonomou, MD, DPhil, Cardiovascular Medicine"

Health & Veritas Episode 80: Josh Geballe: Turning Yale Innovation into Startups

Evangelos Oikonomou: "TARGET-AI: A Foundational Approach for the Targeted Deployment of Artificial Intelligence Electrocardiography in the Electronic Health Record"

"Using AI to Guide AI"

"Are A.I. Tools Making Doctors Worse at Their Jobs?"

"The Robot Doctor Will See You Now"

Health & Veritas Episode 207: Robert Wachter: AI Is Already Remaking Healthcare

"A large language model for complex cardiology care"

Vaccine Trial Ethics

WHO: Statement on the planned hepatitis B birth dose vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau

"Planned US-funded baby vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau blasted by WHO"

"Guinea-Bissau suspends US-funded vaccine trial as African scientists question its motives"

"Guinea-Bissau Installs Military Ruler After Claims of a 'Fabricated' Coup"

In the Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives program, you'll get a full MBA education in 22 months while applying new skills to your organization in real time.

Yale's Executive Master of Public Health offers a rigorous public health education for working professionals, with the flexibility of evening online classes alongside three on-campus trainings.

Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Evangelos Oikonomou: Decoding the Hidden Signals of Heart Disease