Good morning. Welcome to the Postcall newsletter: the chillest weekly newsletter for Canadian doctors that you can skim in 100 seconds or less. We take the best news and content for physicians and plays it back to you each morning like a vintage cassette.

We’re trying to spread far and wide. Just forward this email to your friends, study groups, or anyone with a sense of humour, and you can get some free merch!

Here's what we got for ya today:

• AI is eating… itself? 🍔 

• BC struggling with transplants 🪴 

• Going to Tokyo? Here’s how you can fly in style, for free ✈️

• Quick bites 🍉

• 😆 Laugh of the Day

But first, some numbers to start the day:

AI’s Curse of Recursion 🍔 

What Happened: What happens when AI plays a game of “Telephone” with itself? AI models like ChatGPT are now generating so much content, it's taking over the internet. While a testament to AI's capabilities, is leading to an unnerving outcome: future AI models may inadvertently train on bot-generated data, breaking their own models.

Why It Matters: It's like AI is falling into an Ouroboros-like loop. A new study sheds light on how this overflow of synthetic data, or AI-produced content, into the training sets of AI models can cause these models to degrade and even collapse. As more of the internet is taken up by AI-generated content, it becomes harder for researchers to identify or rely on high quality, human-made training data for future models.

Bottom Line: As the AI revolution rolls on, our online world is looking more and more like it is generated by bots. And while it feels like AI models will just keep getting better, it’s already harder to gather sufficient high quality data for training. It’s a major risk for the future development of AI research, so maybe hold off on dumping your life savings into MSFT for now.

BC struggling with transplants 🪴 

The shortage of transplant surgeons in BC is causing donated kidneys to be sent to other provinces, leaving patients waiting for years for a transplant.

Why is this happening? Only four surgeons in BC do all the transplants at two Vancouver hospitals, and patients awaiting a second transplant are considered "highly sensitized," making it difficult to find a compatible kidney. BUT between eight and ten surgeons are needed in BC so that residents waiting for a kidney can benefit from the organs that were donated in the province.

But can’t we hire more surgeons? No one wants to take on a burning fire 🔥. “Anybody coming into our landscape and situation is immediately going to be thrown to the wolves, so to speak,” a VGH transplant surgeon said. “We’ve already lost two potential hires to other jobs that were looked at more favourably than the work we have here in Vancouver.” As a result, the surgeons are overworked: in 2020, each BC surgeon transplanted 70 kidneys and was on call every other day, compared to surgeons in Calgary who transplanted 27 kidneys each and were on call every third day, and surgeons at Toronto General Hospital who transplanted 37 kidneys each but were on call every eight days.

Bottom line: A shortage of transplants hurt everyone, not just the patients. Dr. John Gill, a nephrologist at Vancouver General, said patients who are waiting for a kidney stay on dialysis instead of getting a life-saving transplant that would improve their quality of life and allow them to work. Those of child-bearing age could also have children after a transplant.

“What we should all be concerned about from a societal perspective is that each transplant, compared to treatment with dialysis, results in health-care savings of over $500,000 (over a decade).” That’s just 💸 flying away…

Details at the Globe and Mail

Free Flights in Business Class to Tokyo ✈️

Always a hot topic among doctors, the award for best credit card sign up bonus in Canada right now goes to the TD Aeroplan Infinite Privilege Visa.

Signing up for this card nets you 115,000 Aeroplan Points, enough for two business class flights to Tokyo, once you hit the minimum spend requirements. Other benefits include Maple Leaf Lounge access, NEXUS application rebates, and free checked bags on Air Canada flights. All this for a hefty $600 annual fee. 😱 

If you want to sign up for the card and get an extra $300 statement credit, check out the exclusive sign-up path shared by our users in the Postcall Forum.

Quick Bites

1: 💊 Earlier this month, BC pharmacists were given the ability to prescribe medications for some minor ailments. Now there’s an online system for booking appointments with them.

2: IM doctors are offered $202/hr (+ $500 bonus) to pick up shifts at SMH, LMH, and ARH. 🤑 

3: Land Matters: Not stopping with its Senakw development in Kitsilano, Squamish Nation is exploring development on another 350 acres on the North Shore in Vancouver. 🏗️ 

4: 🧑‍💻 End of APIs: Reddit flips the switch on its API, killing popular third party apps including Apollo and BaconReader. Despite community blackouts and outrage, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman stayed the course on the path towards IPO.

5: Ever get so mad you punched a bear? A Maine woman confronted a black bear head on after it chased her dog. Maybe next time just pack the bear spray. 🐻 

6: ⚖️ US Supreme Court has been banging out decisions like there’s no tomorrow. It sided with a website designer who refused services to same-sex couples. In another, it ended affirmative action at colleges and universities. It then nixed President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.

Laugh of the Day 😜 

That’s a wrap for this edition of Postcall. Share the Newsletter and we’ll hook it up: every signup that says you referred them will get you entered into our monthly draw!