Recently I spent some time watching videos of surgeon David Samadi and the Da Vinci robotic operating sytem.  I began thinking about doctors and automation. I wondered, can machines act like doctors?

I wondered what part of me will be replaced by  artificial intelligence?  I suspect that much of what I do will be done more efficiently by machine.

Then I thought about last week’s post on how I structure a patient visit.  The process of data collection – hypothesis – data collection – repeat.  Can this be performed by a machine?  Of course, and probably quite well.

The hang-up is with the relational part of what I do.  Understanding a parent’s hidden agenda, watching a child’s face during the abdominal exam, observing the non-verbal dialog between a mom and daughter during the history, hearing their experience and, most importantly, processing all of it in a way that fixes a child or helps a mother better understand her child.  Perhaps the most important issue that I negotiate with parents: what level of uncertainty can we live with?  How far will we go with the technology we have?

Heady stuff.  Especially for a robot.

But I bring a chauvinistic, human bias to all this.  None of us understand the ultimate capacity of artificial intelligence.  A lot of what I do can be replaced.  But not all of it.