Chanel Fischetti, MD - Emergency Medicine Physician and CMO of Centaur Labs

What is Centaur Labs’ mission?

Centaur Labs is focused on improving data annotation to improve medical AI. To achieve quality deep learning, you need accurately labeled images, especially in medicine. We motivate medically trained users via gamification, education and prize money awarded for accurate labeling and annotation.

To that end, one of our company’s core mission is focused on is academic credibility, such as research publications, conference presentations, and the medical education content itself. Inherently, there is that obvious educational side to the company, since all of us have been learners at some point and we are motivated to improve the medical education system. Through our app, DiagnosUs, we are providing a fun and interactive resource that medical students, residents, NPs, and Pas (really all users) can learn from.

You mentioned how your company is interacting with both AI and medicine. How do you see AI’s role in medicine evolving in the future?

It’s so funny because I feel like, as you guys know, [in medicine] we're some of the later adopters of available technology. Marketing and automobiles have started to take advantage of what AI has to offer. Medicine is a little bit slower to that trend. I think there is also a lot of fear surrounding AI within medicine. What we read in the media is, “Oh, does this mean doctors will be replaced? Does this affect our job security?” But, I see AI being more transformative in what it is going to mean for our careers. I think it will help us refocus places of emphasis. Tasks such as EMR data entry and/or analysis can be given to the AI systems, which will allow us to reorganize the way we do work, and instead, we will hopefully get to spend more time at the bedside. I think it will make things a lot more accurate too. This goes back to our vision at Centaur Labs, which is: we think the best opportunity for AI, (analogous to a centaur- half human, half horse), is humans plus computers is better than either alone. I truly think AI will ultimately improve [clinical] outcomes and doctor-patient relationships.

So clearly you have your feet in both worlds in terms of the technology side of what Centaur Labs does and the medical side. Could you just give us a quick summary of your career path and how you got to Centaur Labs?

Yes, mentorship was such a huge part of my eventually becoming a physician and I was so lucky to be at a med school that was very creative and innovative and to have mentors who were the same. I love academics, and I always thought I’d stay in academics. I ended up joining Centaur Labs, mostly because it’s very similar to academics for me. I still do a lot of research, I still do grant writing. There’s this whole other aspect, though, of business that’s very creative that I didn’t find as much in academics. Obviously, it’s there, it’s just a little bit harder to achieve. I ended up meeting up with Centaur Labs mostly through the advice and recommendation of other mentors. My friend, Andrew, had heard about them and it was a company that he and I had theorized about when we were med students. As serendipity would have it, I met up with Erik and the rest of the team and it just ended up being a really good fit for me. So, I took the leap into the startup world and it’s been great ever since.

But in terms of how does being an ER doctor fit into it? I feel very lucky that for most ER doctors, full time can be a handful of shifts a month. And that can be more or less depending on who you are and what you want your priorities to be. I’ve been fortunate enough to still practice as a clinician and yet also hold this role. And, I also think, innately, being an ER doctor, you’re exposed to all aspects of medicine, and that’s helpful because, while we’re not specialists in any one thing (besides emergencies), I am exposed to mammography reads and EKG reads and things like that. Because our company does a whole variety of medical imaging, it’s made me a little bit better versed and adaptable, which in some senses made me sometimes a little bit more useful. Both the flexibility of my job and also the exposure has been really helpful.

What are your responsibilities as the CMO of Centaur Labs?

My job is to focus on academic credibility, which includes networking within the medical community, engaging our medical students and users, building medical content and working on research publications, as well as grant writing. I'm still a learner, but I remember as a med student or resident, you want to trust the resources that you have. It’s important that whatever we publish and put out there is accurate. So, my job is basically to QA what content we do put out there and to make sure that it is a good representation of who we want to be as a company. Inherently, it would be really hard to be within the medical imaging and medical AI fields without someone in the medical field, both as a translator and as someone to ensure that the medical content is validated.

What has been the medical field's response? Do they share your enthusiasm about the Centaur system or have you received any pushback from any players or regulatory agencies?

AI is one of those [new disciplines] that is challenging traditional norms and ethics and introducing unknown or known new problems. The ethics behind AI are definitely something that are being discussed. I don't know that medicine fully understands the problems that AI will create.

But at the same time, I gave a lecture this past week at a conference, about this very idea and the medical community there seemed very responsive. Because I think a lot of us who are practicing hear a lot about AI, but nobody defines the terms. I think when they see people like me [trying to help define it], it can help translate where the bridge can be built between medicine and technology and to dilute a little bit of the fear that the media has created around technology and medicine. For example, at this conference, it was really fun to reassure the audience that I think that this will be a really awesome advent for medicine. Andrew Ng has mentioned that he believes that AI will be akin to what the invention of electricity did- which is revolutionizing life and the workplace. I feel very much the same way. We are so fortunate to be brought up in a time when this will change the way medicine is practiced. It’s similar to the way I feel about how ultrasound is transformative in the way we do POCUS imaging. I think that [AI] will be a really good thing overall, it's been fairly well-received when the fears have abated a little bit.

Were you involved in technology or business during medical school and residency?

I got interested in start-ups and tech in general during a UC Irvine med school event called “AppJam.” I was fortunate to be part of a med school that was very innovative in technology. I worked on a start-up company that was focused on improving resources for adults with autism. But, it's really hard to do things like that when you're in the middle of training and residency. It's still an idea that I’d like to come back to and one I hope to try to embed into our current company somehow. So that’s where I got my first taste of how fun and innovative business can be during that experience.

Do you have any advice for future medical professionals?

I think for us in medicine, and specifically for physicians in medicine, the road is so long. But, I love medicine because it is such a creative and constantly changing career. You can be in business, you can work clinically, be an educator. It seems limitless. But, I think knowing what you like and what you don't like are equally as important. For me, I do love clinical aspects of medicine, but I loved the creative aspect of it too. For right now, the business side of it has been such a creative outlet to try to impact and make changes within medicine. But I’d say to anyone in medicine; just try things out, if you don't like it, check it off your list. Maybe that’s something you don't want to pursue later.

But also know that failure is a huge part of it. Just because you fail at something, that doesn’t always mean you should not do it. Yes, sometimes it’s a sign that you're in the wrong direction. And sometimes it’s motivational. Regardless, I think failure can be such a good thing and a learning experience.

Additionally, mentorship is such a huge part of your training. If there is someone whose career you admire, someone whose personal life you admire, ask them: how did you get to where you are in your career and what were the steps in getting there? Where would be a good fit for me based on my strengths and interests? Mentors can play such a huge role in guiding you.

Lastly, you are first and foremost a student. Learning the medicine and doing it well will make everything else easier in life. It’s hard to juggle your extracurriculars and academic responsibilities. And so, I think being very protective of your time is important. And if that means drawing a line in the sand and saying “Oh, I can't accept that invite” or “I won't can’t make it to that party”, that’s ok! This is your time to be selfish with your career. And later in life, it will open opportunities for you because you did a great job of being protective of your education, and so as a result, you're a great clinician.

Is there anything else that you’d like to talk about what you think would be relevant to Tufts medical students or other people in the Tufts medical community that we haven't talked about already?

Overall, just stay creative. You never know where your career is going to go. If you ever need advice, you guys are always welcome to reach out to us or look forward to other mentors that you admire.

Awesome, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it.

It’s a hard and long road, but if it was easy, everyone would do it…. So, keep up the good work!