Where Will A.I. Take Us

Center Director Robert Truog considers the future of doctoring in The Hastings Center Report

Bob Truog
Robert Truog, DM

Center Director Robert Truog authored an perspective piece, "Of Slide Rules and Stethoscopes: AI and the Future of Doctoring,"  in the September-October 2019 issue of The Hastings Center Report.

ABSTRACT: Historically, the practice of medicine has been a physically intimate endeavor. Physicians have used their hands to palpate and reveal the secrets hidden within the body. Smelling the breath for the ketosis of diabetes or tasting the skin for the saltiness of cystic fibrosis were among the physician's essential practices. Today, perhaps the most defining characteristic of a brilliant clinician is the ability to synthesize many images—from electrocardiograms, ultrasounds, CT scans, and so forth—into a coherent picture that can guide our diagnosis and treatment. Yet this is rapidly Abstract imagebecoming a Sisyphean task. Just as we are about to drown in a deluge of data, AI is throwing us a life preserver, to save not only our patients but ourselves. But where will AI take us?

Read the full perspectives piece in The Hastings Center Report.