Reader’s Guide
Reader’s & Facilitator’s Guide
One guide, two roles. Read Doctor AI on your own — or gather your people around a table and lead the conversation that authors the change.
This guide works whether you’re reading alone or hosting a circle. Each of the book’s five parts has a short framing, a set of open discussion questions, and one “bring it home” action. Readers can keep a journal against the questions; facilitators can run one session per part — five gatherings — or combine parts for a shorter series. There are no wrong answers, only honest ones.
Setting the table
Keep it small
Six to ten people is ideal — small enough that everyone speaks, large enough for real disagreement.
Set the ground rules
Speak from experience, not authority. No fixing each other. What’s said at the table stays at the table. Don’t share anyone’s personal medical details.
Read ahead, lightly
Ask everyone to read the part for that session. It’s fine if they don’t finish — the questions carry the room.
End with action
Close each session with the “bring it home” prompt, so conversation turns into authorship.
A note on safety: a circle is a conversation, not care. It is not a place to diagnose, treat, or give medical or financial advice. For medical concerns, members should see their own clinician; in an emergency, call 911. See the disclosure.
Health 4.0: The Future of Health
- Where have you personally felt the “chaos” of American health care — the moments the system seemed to have no plan for you?
- What does it mean to refuse to be “sheep” about your own health? Where is the line between trusting expertise and reclaiming authority?
- The book frames health as a lifelong trajectory rather than a series of visits. How would your own choices change if you could see your trajectory?
The Problem with American Health Care
- Tell a story about coverage — a time “covered” turned out to mean something very different than you expected.
- If clinicians “were never gods,” what should we reasonably expect of them — and what have we wrongly outsourced to them?
- “Do no harm” is the floor, not the ceiling. What would it mean to design care around autonomy — the patient as author — and what tradeoffs would that require?
The Health Care Transformation
- The book insists AI can never be the moral agent of care — that authority stays with the person, supported by a human ally. Where do you want a human in the loop, and where would you welcome an always-on intelligence?
- What would have to be true for you to trust a health AI with your data and your story?
- “Your culture is your health.” Which region of health do you feel you belong to — and how has your culture shaped the way you seek (or avoid) care?
A New American Health Care System — The H4 Alliance Blueprint
- Is health care a right? Make the strongest case you can for the side you don’t hold, then discuss what changed.
- The blueprint separates the builder (a public benefit corporation) from the guardian (an independent trust that “can say no”). Why might that firewall matter — and where else do we wish power were split that way?
- Imagine one monthly fee covering both everyday and emergency care. What hopes and what suspicions does that raise for you?
The Crucible of Change
- Change on this scale needs an “alchemy” of many people moving at once. What is the smallest thing this group could actually do together?
- Who in your life needs to be in this conversation who isn’t yet? How would you invite them?
- If the future of health will be authored by someone — what sentence do you want to have written?
Pick up the thread.
Start a circle, take part, and help author a health system worthy of the people it serves.