Friday's Digest - The Newsletter for Doctors & Scientists

Friday's Digest #140

Gemini & NotebookLM:

The Best (And Free!) AI Tools for Doctors & Scientists

Wow! Gemini and NotebookLM are so powerful for doctors and scientists.

Today, I’ll show you how to use them

May 2nd, 2025

Friday's Digest - The Newsletter for Doctors & Scientists

For two decades, I've been developing tools that have improved my practice in medicine, dentistry, and scientific research.

Join me every Friday to discover a new tool you can integrate into your workflow as a doctor, a scientist, or both.

I believe in sharing knowledge, embracing automation, boosting productivity, and finding joy in the process.

Life Update
Tools and Tips
Readers’ Favorite
Stuff

Life Update

It's been a long time since I had a gadget itch.

If you don't know what a "gadget itch" is, imagine this: your friend has a new iPad and you WANT one.

You don't NEED it— you WANT it.

20 years ago, I used to get the gadget itch all the time. Probably because tech got better so quickly back then.

I was among the first to have a smartphone (long before the iPhone), a smartwatch, a Palm Pilot, and a flat-screen TV.

Nowadays, I only buy tech stuff I NEED.

Take my last tech purchase as an example.

It was an iPhone 16 Pro.

Let me tell you, it upgraded my day-to-day productivity.

I use the phone's camera much more, and I'm even writing this newsletter on it.

(Being able to walk around while writing helps with the creative process.)

But I didn't have a gadget itch before buying it.

I NEEDED it, rather than wanted it.

But last week, I went into my department chief's OR to give him an update.

The music in his OR sounded amazing. I was sure it was coming from several ceiling speakers.

But it wasn't!

It was coming from this speaker.

After appreciating it from all angles, I felt that itch. That gadget itch.

Will I buy it?

Remains to be seen!

Number 140.

That’s a nice round number!

Tools and Tips

Remember I told you about Deep Research and the major leap AI has made recently?

2 weeks ago, I wrote about ChatGPT and Perplexity (you can read it here if you missed it).

But then I started to test Google’s AI: Gemini and NotebookLM.

I was mind-blown 😮.

These tools are SO good, especially for scientific research.

Why are they so good?

Let's take literature reviews as an example— something we do ALL THE TIME.

We review literature to answer questions ("what's the standard of care for treating X"), design experiments, write introductions and discussions, and… to write literature reviews.

We all know the traditional approach:

You open PubMed and Google Scholar, then browse through endless abstracts.

But we have a problem.

There are simply too many journals and papers.

Our academic system is to blame: it demands that we publish as many manuscripts as possible.

So we're now drowning in manuscripts.

Just think about the last time you tried to review the literature. It's impossible.

And this is where Gemini and NotebookLM come in.

🔵 Gemini

First, sign up for Gemini here.

Use your Gmail account to access all features.

Select Deep Research from the top left.

Tell Gemini what you want researched. Don’t worry about spelling and nice English.

Just write naturally and specify that you want scientific papers from PubMed and Google Scholar. Include the keywords you want to include and those you want to exclude.

The more detailed your prompt, the better.

Hit enter.

Gemini may ask follow-up questions (typically offering four options) to clarify your needs.

Then it will compile everything into a professional Google Doc that looks like a literature review. Most importantly— with references.

And it's impressive.

But wait— there's more!

🔵 NotebookLM

Now you want to analyze the document you’ve just created.

This is where NotebookLM comes in.

It’s another Google AI tool you can access here.

After signing up, you'll see the "sources" window.

Here's where it gets really powerful for doctors and scientists: YOU choose what data it uses.

You can add manuscript PDFs, website links, and include the Google Doc that Gemini created.

Now switch to the “chat” window and give NotebookLM your instructions— you can use the same instructions you gave Gemini in the last step.

Now it will analyze both Gemini's findings and YOUR uploaded materials.

Pretty amazing, right?

But there's even more!

🔵 Creating a Podcast

So now you’ve got a great review, but have no time to read it. Or you’re too tired.

Why not listen instead?

Better yet, listen to 2 knowledgeable voices discuss it.

To do so, go to the "Studio" section and click to create your podcast.

The result is remarkable!

Almost unbelievable!

You have to try it to understand how great this is.

But here it gets even more incredible:

🔵 Join the Podcast

In the Studio window, look for the "Interactive Mode" button.

Click it to load your podcast.

Now, YOU can JOIN the conversation.

Yes, really!

While they are talking, you can ask the AI podcasters questions, and they will use the data YOU uploaded to answer you.

ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE!

I can go on for hours, but I think it’s enough for today.

I'll keep testing AI tools for medicine and research, and write about it.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, let me know by replying to this email.

I'll answer them in upcoming newsletters.

Enjoy!

Readers’ Favorite

How can you make sure your job is meaningful enough but, at the same time, doesn't require you to sacrifice too much?

You can read what I wrote about it here.

Stuff

📱Application I use - SciSpace.

This AI tool was specifically designed to review scientific literature.

Think of it as PubMed on steroids— plus a personal PhD assistant who summarizes everything for you in a convenient table.

If you decide to upgrade to the Pro version, the SciSpace team has given you, the readers of this newsletter, special discount codes:

SHAY20 for monthly plans (20% off)

SHAY40 for annual plans (40% off)

Epilogue

That’s it for this issue.

If you received this newsletter from a friend and would like to join Friday's Digest, visit https://newsletter.shaysharon.com

See you next week!

Shay

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