The surgical team filed out of the patient’s room. I looked over my shoulder to see a shaken daughter holding the wrinkled hand of her quiet, elderly mother who lay in the bed. I shuddered as I thought of the surgery her body would endure the next day. I knew I needed to return to her room later in the day to find out more about her history. After rounds …
Robots read EKGs. Computers interpret chest X-rays. Algorithms decide which treatment a patient gets.
I asked myself this question this morning, “What job can I do as a doctor that cannot be done by a computer or a robot?” And one of the first things I said to myself was, “Comfort a human.”
But I dwelt on this for a moment and found it’s not quite true. Because computers and robots can …
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