Episode Details

TRANSCRIPT

Eric Topol (00:00):

Hello, this is Eric Topol, and it's really a delight for me to welcome Hannah Davis who was the primary author of our recent review on Long Covid and is a co-founder of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative. And we're going to get into some really important topics about citizen science, Long Covid and related matters. So, Hannah, welcome.

Hannah Davis (00:27):

Thank you so much for having me.

Eric Topol (00:29):

Well, Hannah, before we get into it I thought because you had a very interesting background before you got into the patient led research collaborative organization with graphics and AI and data science. Maybe you could tell us a bit about that.

Hannah Davis (00:45):

Sure. Yeah. Before I got sick, I was working in machine learning with a particular focus on generative models for art and music. so I did some projects like translating data sets of landscapes into emotional landscapes. I did a project called The Laughing Room, where there was a room and you went in and the room would listen to you and laugh if it thought you said something funny, . and then I did a lot of generative music based on sentiment. So I, I did a big project where I was generating music from the sentiment of novels and a lot of kind of like critical projects, looking at biases in data sets, and also curating data sets to create desired outcomes in these generative models.

Eric Topol (01:30):

So, I mean, in a way again, you were ahead of your time because that was before ChatGPT in November last year, and you were ahead of the generative AI curve. And here again, you're way ahead in in the citizen science era as it particularly relates to the pandemic. So, I, I wonder if you could just tell us a bit I think it was back, we go back to March, 2020. Is that when you were hit with Covid?

Hannah Davis (01:59):

Yes.

Eric Topol (02:00):

And when did you realize that it wasn't just an acute phase illness?

Hannah Davis (02:06):

 for me, honestly, I was not worried at all. I, my first symptom was that I couldn't parse a text message. I just couldn't read it, thought I was tired. an hour later, took my temperature, realized I had a fever, so that's when I kind of knew I was sick. but I really just truly believed the narrati