OnDemand: Grand Rounds- May 2026: Artificial Intelligence and the Changing Landscape of Obesity Medicine-Artificial Intelligence and the Changing Landscape of Obesity Medicine

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Dr. Geetanjali Srivastava’s grand rounds talk explored artificial intelligence through the lens of obesity medicine, blending clinical insight, innovation, and personal stories. She framed the presentation around “GOATS” and shared lessons from her father’s forward-thinking research in carbon nanotubes and low-power chip design, connecting it to today’s AI hardware energy challenges. She explained how human thinking differs from AI, emphasizing that obesity care is probabilistic rather than deterministic: treatments shift the chances of outcomes rather than guaranteeing results.<br /><br />Srivastava reviewed the history of AI, from Turing and McCarthy to early chatbots like ELIZA, and outlined how AI systems are built, trained, and tested. She highlighted how AI can reveal heterogeneity in obesity treatment response, support more precise clinical trials, and help determine medication eligibility using existing clinical features. At Vanderbilt, her team is using AI and real-world data to identify care gaps, improve continuity, and reduce discontinuation through patient-centered digital tools.<br /><br />She also discussed the future of agentic AI, wearable integration, ethics, governance, bias mitigation, and clinician-AI collaboration. Her conclusion: AI will not replace obesity specialists, but will amplify them by reducing administrative burden, improving access, and enabling more proactive, personalized care.

Keywords

artificial intelligence

obesity medicine

clinical decision support

machine learning

real-world data

personalized care

wearable technology

AI ethics

patient-centered digital tools