August 24th, 2026
In the Spotlight: Dr. Douglas Flora of Tensor Black
Happy Monday, friends. Currently writing to you from Bern, Switzerland, on the banks of the Aare River. Evan’s wife, Hannah, got invited to a flora workshop at a French château for her business, Cosmo Floral Design, and they offered to let me crash on the couch of their friend’s Paris apartment. Easy yes. I booked a second week to hang out solo in Switzerland and do some remote work.
Really awesome episode for you this week, on a topic that has likely impacted us all in some way or another, and that is cancer. I sat down with Dr. Douglas Flora, Executive Medical Director of the Yung Family Cancer Center at St. Elizabeth and co-founder of Tensor Black. Dr. Flora is a practicing oncologist, a kidney cancer survivor, editor-in-chief of the journal AI in Precision Oncology, and one of the clearest thinkers I've met on where AI and medicine actually meet.
There is no shortage of startups aiming to improve patient outcomes using AI. But for a busy oncologist, it’s nearly impossible to find the free time required to separate the signal from the hype. That’s why he started Tensor Black: a clinician-led coalition of expert oncologists that vets the technology and tells peers what's worth their time. He calls it "the GPS for oncology."
Based in the NKY/Cincinnati area, Doug is in the heart of the region that is often called the “epicenter of cancer in America”. After losing his mother to cancer when he was 38, then battling cancer himself at 46, he describes the impact it had on him as creating a sense of urgency and a bias towards action. As artificial intelligence offers massive potential in healthcare, he’s ensuring that his colleagues have the information they need to improve their patient’s care.
What We Discussed
The GPS for oncology, and the trust gap - Why the real bottleneck in AI in oncology isn't the technology - it's trust - and how a coalition of vetting clinicians beats a marketing deck every time.
The three layers of AI in cancer care - From back-office billing and ambient note-taking, to pattern recognizers reading scans, to the "co-pilot" that supports physicians. Doug's verdict: we're in inning one or two.
Catching cancer before it's an onion - Detection is moving upstream to the "pre-patient," finding disease at 10⁻⁶ cells rather than an onion-sized mass, and treating it in a "better neighborhood" before it gets tough to kill.
Keeping physicians at the wheel - The lesson of the electronic medical record, why Doug wants a "wise, non-sleepy, non-distractable" co-pilot beside every doctor, and why the human will continue to be in the driver’s seat.
Get in the sandbox - His most actionable advice for med students, residents, and 55-year-old doctors alike: just start using the tools- for anything. Plan your vacation or your kid's birthday party with GPT or Claude, and start building an AI-proof brand around yourself.
We hope you enjoy this episode! If you have any thoughts after listening, feel free to shoot me a message at [email protected]
Have a great week, friends!
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