This One Feels Different
I've learned the hard way that an English degree and a MD don't qualify you to found the next Microsoft. I've acquired more sunsetted Gmail addresses and GoDaddy domains than any doctor in human history. VoPorta, iMedicom and VirtuMed are just a small sampling of the healthcare startup losers my unbelievably patient wife, friends and colleagues heard way too much about. And what I'm about to say will inspire none of them:
This one feels different.
The ideas behind OpenCare.ai are — by far — the best I've ever had. And yet, they can't and won't be mine.
Let Me Explain
When I experienced the phenomenon that is OpenClaw something clicked. Not a VoPorta click. Not a VirtuMed click. Something deeper.
The healthcare system in the United States is about to be owned — lock, stock, and barrel — by its citizens, its nurses, and its doctors. And there is not a damn thing the HCAs, Epics, Uniteds, and Pfizers of this world can do about it. The proverbial cat is out of the bag. Well, not really a cat, but "The agent is out of the bag" doesn't have quite the same universality — at least not for the next few months, anyway.
Admittedly, it would be gratifying if OpenCare.ai CareAgents play a role in giving healthcare back to the patients and those that serve them, but I'll be just as happy if they arrive from elsewhere. And make no mistake, they are coming and every tech giant is racing to produce and own them. But here's the thing: they can't own them — you will.
There's a fact at the center of medicine that I've lived with my entire career: I'm on the hook for the care I give my patients. The same goes for nurses, PA's, therapists and other providers that took an oath and get paid to take care of the humans.
No AI company is going to absorb that risk. No hospital system will either. Not Epic. Not Oracle. Not Microsoft. Not Google. None of them. It stays with the patient and it stays with the provider. We are the ones whose lives and livelihood are on the line.
I call this the Irreducible Risk Hypothesis, and it clarifies everything. When you understand who owns the risk, then the question of who should own the AI answers itself:
All of us. And if we own it, we have to know it — down to the very last byte and bit. Such transparency comes in only one form: open source.
So I invite you to know it. Please explore github.com/careagent and opencare.ai to learn more.
