How Two ER Doctors Created the Top Clinical Tool for Physicians: The Origins of MDCalc with Dr. Joe Habboushe
Key Podcast Moments
- How two emergency physicians turned a side project into one of medicine’s most trusted clinical tools
- Why MDCalc’s early success stemmed from restraint and not hype
- What “safe, fast, trusted” really means in a high-stakes clinical environment
- How MDCalc resisted COVID-era pressure to publish tools without rigorous validation
- Why AI alone isn’t enough—and where human-centric guardrails must live
- What physician-founders can learn from MDCalc’s deliberate growth, mission alignment, and credibility focus
Dr. Joe Habboushe is an emergency physician and the co-founder and CEO of MDCalc, one of the leading clinical decision tools used by millions of doctors globally to take care of hundreds of millions of patients. MDCalc also happens to be co-founded by Dr. Graham Walker (!), Offcall's co-founder.
In this episode of How I Doctor, Graham discusses MDCalc's origin story and journey from early calculator scripts to building a global decision support platform. They explore how MDCalc fostered clinician trust, how it positions itself amid the AI wave, and what lessons their journey can offer for other physicians who are interested in building tools of their own.
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Huge thank you to our sponsor Abridge — also physician founded and led, and building leading generative AI for clinical conversations
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How to Learn More About MDCalc and Dr. Joe Habboushe
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-habboushe-md-mba-69042b3/
Sign-up for MDCalc at https://www.mdcalc.com/signup
Some of MDCalc’s most referenced calculators and resources:
- Physician’s Guide to MDCalc & Clinical Decision Making — a meta-resource teaching when (and when not) to apply decision tools.
- MDCalc for EHR — explore how MDCalc is integrating with clinical systems via smart autofill, formula suggestions, and chart embedding
- Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) — a foundational score for neurologic assessment
- HEART Score — used widely in chest pain evaluation
- CHA₂DS₂-VASc / HAS-BLED — applications in atrial fibrillation stroke and bleeding risk
- MELD Score — used for liver disease severity / transplant prioritization
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