Cognitive Atrophy Is a Leadership Crisis: Mohan Nair on Why Healthcare's AI Obsession Is Costing Us Our Best Thinking

Cognitive Atrophy Is a Leadership Crisis: Mohan Nair on Why Healthcare's AI Obsession Is Costing Us Our Best Thinking

Author: HealthIMPACT Live May 5, 2026 Duration: 51:57

In this episode of Digital Health Talks, host Megan Antonelli, CEO of Health Impact Live, sits down with Mohan Nair, innovator, author, and former Chief Innovation Officer at Cambia Health Solutions, to explore what it truly means to stay human in an AI-obsessed world. Mohan's newest book, Unreachable: How Not to Lose Your Mind in an AI-Obsessed Era, is already an Amazon bestseller, and the conversation is as timely as it is thought-provoking.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

  • Why AI adoption is creating cognitive atrophy and how the concept of "inconvenient learning" means removing friction from work may be costing us our most valuable skills
  • How healthcare leaders should distinguish between AI enablement and AI obsession, and why the physician-patient relationship remains fundamentally unreachable by any machine
  • Mohan's take on the rise of Chief AI Officers and how to find your own AI-unreachable value, the insights and instincts no technology can replicate

Mohan Nair, CEO, Emerge Inc

Megan Antonelli, Chief Executive Officer, HealthIMPACT Live


Each week, Digital Health Talks-Changemakers Focused on Fixing Healthcare brings you straight to the intersection of medicine and innovation. This isn't about abstract theories; it's a grounded conversation with the clinicians, administrators, and technology leaders who are actively redesigning systems. You'll hear their firsthand accounts of implementing tools like telehealth platforms and AI-driven analytics to tackle real-world problems-from expanding access in underserved communities to personalizing patient care. The discussions cut through the hype, focusing on practical applications of cloud infrastructure, 5G, and machine learning that are making a measurable difference today. Produced by HealthIMPACT Live, the podcast digs into the nuanced questions these changemakers face: deciding where limited resources are best invested, how to ethically leverage patient data, and what it truly takes to improve clinical outcomes. If you're curious about the tangible work being done to reshape our healthcare experience, this is a place to listen in on the honest, complex, and hopeful work of building a better system.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Digital Health Talks - Changemakers Focused on Fixing Healthcare
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