My AI Journey: Where Medicine Meets Innovation
Before this Quest, my life was already a rich tapestry of healthcare innovation and holistic healing. As an internist with additional training in psychiatry and geriatrics, I had evolved from traditional medicine to embrace holistic approaches, life coaching, and caregiving. I had served as the first Medical Director at WPS Medicare, pioneered new medical policy development processes at the national level, and later became certified by the American Holistic Medical Association. I lead classes and support groups for peers, family and friends and veterans families for the NAMI. I’ve helped start-ups in healthcare (new genetic lab tests, medical devices for new treatment, and new drugs) create their story, obtain insurance coverage and offer new options to patients. Yet, I felt there was still another chapter waiting to unfold.

Why I Enrolled
I enrolled for two reasons: first – I've been doing similar work for while now, while the topics change, there aren't many new challenges. I feel that it’s time for me to either retire or find new adventures!! Others ask why I’ve jumped into such a huge, new area with so much to learn - Why not just retire? My answer - I'm not ready - there's more work to be done!!

My second reason is my interest and concern about the crisis in mental health. My colleagues and I are interested in seeing how we could do more – and whether we could use AI to reach more people in ways that could have a real impact on their lives. We knew about the challenge from the healthcare side but we needed to understand more about the possibilities if we added AI to the approach. I had already ventured into developing material and volunteered to dive in to my next adventure!

The Transformation
After taking this Quest, I feel like I've discovered a missing piece that connects all my previous experiences. The training has done more than teach me about AI (and uncover the geek inside) – and all the ways it can be used help people in their work and life. Much to my surprise, it has rekindled my creative spirit. As a former music major who had set aside artistic pursuits for medicine, I was amazed to find AI helping me rediscover my love for creating, whether through generating educational materials, playing with images and videos or exploring new ways to express ideas. Vyk’s song and dance were inspirational!! I dreaded English class and writing in high school but AI has shown me new ways to use words! I find myself even more talkative!!!

Biggest Changes
The areas where I've noticed the most significant changes are:
1. Professional Efficiency: What once took days now takes hours. I can create polished materials, venture into new topics, and maintain professional communications allowing me more time for the meaningful client interactions. The administrative work I used to avoid has now become a new challenge – how can I use AI and the tools to automate it? And the next question – who else would like to do the same? Who can I share this with to make their work easier and free them up to focus on what really needs their attention and time? Colleagues ask how we can actually organize our knowledge base for easier use.

2. Creative Renaissance: AI has helped me reclaim my artistic side, encouraging me not just to use AI for creation but to return to hands-on art and music. This unexpected revival of creativity has brought joy and fresh perspective to my work and shown me how it can be used by others regardless of the type of business or work.

3. Business Evolution: As a small business owner, I've found AI to be a game-changer in leveling the playing field, allowing me to compete more effectively while maintaining the personal touch that's always been central to my approach. I find myself talking about the possibilities with others who are considering starting a business, in healthcare, affiliate marketing, coaching or music.

Top 4 Takeaways
1. Integration is Key: AI isn't about replacing human expertise but enhancing it. It's a sophisticated assistant that handles time-consuming tasks, allowing more time for meaningful human connection. It has created a short-cut by outlining concepts and ideas that become food for thought and new direction for me to focus on.

2. Continuous Learning: The Quest showed me that learning never stops. The interaction with instructors and fellow students during lessons and office hours expanded my understanding far beyond the curriculum. This was an incredible amount of information provided in lessons but also in the hours of reviewing the lesson and doing the homework – the practical aspect. And it’s barely the tip of the iceberg of learning what is possible!

3. Community Power: The value of shared learning cannot be understated. My fellow students' questions often made me feel better about my own "wait, what?" moments. They also expanded my horizons and vision – their students' questions and challenges helped me see applications I hadn't considered, making the journey richer and more comprehensive.

4. Computational thinking: . It’s easy to focus on the many topics covered and software explored but the most impactful part of the lessons was the ‘big picture’ focus, the work done to create a framework for problem solving, analytic thinking, project management, computational thinking they call it! And the value-added of the work done to organize information about tools and ideas in table format with details about their value – to be plugged into the problem solving process.

Why I Recommend This Quest
I recommend this Quest because it goes beyond basic AI knowledge. The instructors bring exceptional expertise while maintaining openness and willingness to help solve real-world problems. Not only did I learn from the lesson content but also from the style and approach of the ‘teachers’ – their curiosity, their experience, the graceful way they handled glitches during the live lessons, their enthusiasm and willingness to go beyond the lesson to help us answer questions, develop our ideas and explore the possibilities. The live streaming format, though challenging, teaches valuable lessons in adaptability and problem-solving. The combination of structured lessons and open office hours provides a comprehensive learning experience that prepares you for practical application. The chance to explore ideas and challenges with experts who will help you explore the issue if they don’t already have experience with it – it’s invaluable.

Looking Forward
This Quest has shown me how to bring together all aspects of my journey – from traditional medicine to holistic healing, from coaching to caregiving, contributing solutions for mental health challenges – in a way that expands possibilities rather than limiting them. It's not just about using AI tools; it's about reimagining how we can better serve others while maintaining the human touch that makes healthcare meaningful.

The biggest positive change is finding a way to scale my impact without sacrificing the personal connection that has always been central to my work. AI has become not just a tool, but a partner in creating more accessible, comprehensive, and personalized approaches to health and wellness. It’s done this for me and I want to share it with others.

This isn't just another certification – it's the beginning of a new chapter in my life that brings together everything I've learned and done, pointing toward a future where technology and human touch work in harmony to create better outcomes for all. In between the feeling of overwhelm at all there is to learn yet – I am excited to tackle each new idea or question.