Thoughts about time
I want to start this newsletter on a different note, one in which we briefly talk about time. Many years ago, I read a powerful quote about time, and through my discussions with mentors/close friends and family, I began to think more deeply on what time means to each of us.
“Time is one of the only things in life we never get back. “
When I read the above statement, I reflected on how important time is I the sense that we all have a limited amount of it. As of this writing and based on based on the average life expectancy of an adult male in the United States, I have twenty-three summers left… twenty three winters… twenty three springs and so forth. This seems like a very short time to experience all that the world has to offer and really highlights how we spend each moment at work, with our friends, with our families and with ourselves. More on this at the end…
Launching our new product
I’m beyond excited to share an effort of creativity, meaningful work and a tool for leaders in the healthcare environment: leadership rounding cards! Since this idea came to fruition, many have asked “what are rounding cards?”
Rounding is an art that takes practice, and when equipped with 52 ideas under your belt, these “prompts” are sure to help you create meaningful engagement with your team.
11 rotating themes with a few samples below:
- Engagement and Team Building
- Communication and Feedback
- Patient-Centered Focus
- Celebrating Diversity
We currently have a limited inventory with a launch price of $24.99 (discounted from $32.99) and available via direct message (website is being updated with an Ecommerce option, so appreciate the patience).
More exciting tools for leaders across several industries, so please subscribe to the newsletter for more announcements!
Tech Recap:
While I believe most of the world has now heard of Deepseek, I wanted to briefly discuss key information. The week of January 26th, we saw the entire stock market rocked by a Chinese-owned AI company that made substantial claims to have a smaller economic footprint, be more eco-friendly and rival that of the top US AI innovations. Some of the key stakeholders in AI technologies independently lost 10’s of billions of dollars in a single day with companies like Nvidia, the world once most valuable company, dropping 17% and marking a record one-day loss in market capitalization for a Wall Street stock (that equates to $593 billion).
On January 21st, The Trump administration announced a massive investment ($500 billion) in AI infrastructure within the United States, backed by OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank. Titled Project Stargate, investors began increasing support behind everything related to AI, including energy companies… which all seemingly changed when Deepseek hit mainstream. The company has been around since 2023 and I thought Lennart Helm wrote a nice blog about the developments which can be found here: DeepSeek Timeline. The zero-cost DeepSeek R1 model is closely aligned with OpenAI’s o1 model, which is priced at $200 per month. Both are highly advanced large language models designed for complex reasoning, far beyond simple Q&A chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The key similarity lies in how R1 and o1 approach tasks… both break down problems into a series of logical steps, carefully analyzing each one. Privacy concerns are clearly abundant, but that’s for another time…
Yes, more models…
If you blinked, you might have missed it! AI developments are moving at breakneck speed with no sign of slowing down. On February 6th, Mistral AI relaunched its AI assistant—now available on iOS and Android—along with several new features. The big claim? It’s supposedly 10X faster than ChatGPT. If time is money, that could be a huge boost to efficiency. I decided to give it a quick test.
The prompt: Can you help me identify three AI-driven tools that directly impact healthcare professionals in improving efficiency in day-to-day operations in an acute care facility. Expand the information on the tools related to measured ROI.
Follow up: Can you provide any available academic references of support for these tools?Play
A demo from the company is listed below:PlayNow that is fast
My initial impression was positive and I found Le Chat to indeed, be very quick. Due to time constraints, I decided to yes… use AI to compare and contrast using over 38 websites to compile the data. Here’s what the results were from Perplexity (another valuable tool for your arsenal):
Core Capabilities
Le Chat
- Flash Answers: Generates responses at ~1000 words/second, prioritizing speed for real-time interactions.
- Document/Image Analysis: Excels at parsing complex files (PDFs, spreadsheets) and images using industry-leading OCR and vision models.
- Code Interpreter: Executes sandboxed code for data analysis, simulations, and visualization.
- Image Generation: Powered by Black Forest Labs Flux Ultra for photorealistic or creative outputs.
- Enterprise Features: Offers on-prem/VPC deployment, custom models, and granular moderation.
ChatGPT-4o
- Multimodal Integration: Processes text, audio, and images in a single model, enabling real-time voice conversations with human-like latency (~320ms).
- Emotional Voice Nuance: Generates speech with tone variations and sentiment analysis across modalities.
- Language Support: Handles over 50 languages and real-time translation.
- Vision Capabilities: Analyzes images/videos for tasks like chart interpretation and diagnostics.
- Structured Outputs: Generates code compliant with JSON schemas and integrates with APIs.
Performance and Accessibility
Speed: Le Chat emphasizes raw text generation speed (~1000 words/sec), while GPT-4o optimizes for low-latency multimodal interactions (audio responses in ~320ms).
Pricing:
- Le Chat offers a free tier with Pro/Team upgrades ($14.99+/month) and enterprise solutions.
- GPT-4o is free for basic use, with paid tiers offering 5x capacity and API access at half the cost of GPT-4 Turbo.
- Deployment: Le Chat supports private infrastructure for enterprises, whereas GPT-4o focuses on cloud-based scalability.
Video Interviews
Episode 2 & 3 of Coffee with Chris on Youtube (soon to be available via podcast) are both live! I truly hope you take the time to listen my friend, inspirational mentor and healthcare leader, Dr. Victor Grazette (Episode 2), as well as the seasoned leader and amazing guy, Will Conaway (Episode 3). Sit back, relax and listen to these gentlemen as they really bring worldly perspective into many aspects of leadership and technology.
Now back to time…
In closing, my small consulting business (HealthTok) spans a wide range of interests but focuses primarily on efficiency. Efficiency doesn’t mean cutting corners or shortening critical processes—it means finding ways to give people more time in their day. Imagine having enough time to add extra detail to a project that sets you apart from the competition, or spending just a bit longer with a valued client. In your personal life, think of beating rush hour to make it to your daughter’s dance recital—wouldn’t that be a worthwhile benefit of improved efficiency? There are countless opportunities to reclaim time when you have the right tools and the right people supporting your work.
Of course, gaining precious time should never come at the expense of devaluing those around us. Creativity, innovation, and technology don’t have to cost anyone their career—especially when guided by leaders who put people first. By empowering the right individuals who bring innovative thinking and solutions to the table, we can return valuable time to our teams without resorting to layoffs or cuts. Let’s choose better ways to move forward, together.
See you in the future,
Chris
Excellent work!