Dr. House will yield to Deep Mind
I chuckled at this line from Dr. Ran Balicer’s 2016 TEDxTelAviv talk, “Medicine Transformed: The Algorithm Will See You Now.” Dr. Balicer is among the speakers I’m eager to hear at HIMSS 2023—not just because of his groundbreaking work in data-driven preventive medicine addressing chronic kidney disease, but also for his insights on the evolving role and value of physicians.
Make no mistake—the ability to detect chronic kidney disease years before symptoms emerge is a monumental victory on individual, institutional, and societal levels. Early intervention offers patients a vastly improved quality of life, sparing them the pain and hardship of dialysis or kidney transplantation. These treatments aren’t just physically taxing; they’re also financially burdensome. In the United States, for example, approximately 500,000 people with severe kidney disease require daily dialysis at a staggering cost of over $10,000 a month.
However, as we enter an age of AI-assisted healthcare, it’s crucial to construct a healthy new archetype for physicians. At least, that’s what I, as a patient, believe and hope for.
As Dr. Balicer frames it: “Our profession as doctors is about to be truly disrupted. The days of the know-it-all doctor relying on their clinical intuition are all but over. Machines are already doing much of this in an extremely precise manner and will override clinical intuition very soon. The art of medicine is not in precision; it is not in the deduction skills that will be the key. It is in the humane part of healthcare—in caring for our patients and partnering with them to figure out the right path for them among many precise options.”
While AI may excel in data analysis and predictive precision, the irreplaceable value of physicians lies in their humanity—their ability to empathize, understand patient preferences, and collaborate in charting the best course forward. As technology transforms the landscape of medicine, the doctor’s role will evolve but remain essential, grounded in the human touch that machines cannot replicate.
