SCHEQ Founder and CEO, Dr. Eugene Manley, Jr., recently joined Daniel Lucas on the Book 101 Review Podcast for a conversation on “AI, Cancer, and Health Equity, and Making Technology Work for the Patients Left Behind.”
Book 101 Review is Daniel’s long running podcast where he shares and discusses books he has read over the last 40 years, using each episode as a way to explore ideas, learning, and real world insight through conversations with guests.
In this episode, they discussed how AI can support earlier detection and better decision making in cancer care, but also how these tools can widen disparities when the data and design do not represent the communities most impacted.
They discussed:
✅ AI in healthcare and why it is not neutral when inclusion is not intentional.
✅ How medical charting, insurance decisions, and technology can shape outcomes for underserved patients, including what happens when coverage is denied and patients are forced into appeals.
✅ Why health equity is also about access to information and resources for both patients and scholars navigating complex systems.
✅ The framework we use at SCHEQ, equity, workforce, and outcomes, and why representation and trust are foundational to better care.
✅ The book that Dr. Manley recommended is the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacs. Her cancer cells were used long after she was gone to advance developments of many therapies, but neither her nor her family had given consent or were compensated.
Key takeaways:
✅ The non negotiable principle for integrating AI into the exam room is empathy and listening. Human communication has to stay at the center.
Thank you Daniel for the thoughtful questions and for creating space for a conversation that connects science, leadership, and lived experience.
🎧 You can listen and view here: