AI for the M.D

Freed from a variety of tasks by artificial intelligence, doctors will have more time with patients, Topol predicts. In 1970 in The New England Journal of Medicine, William Schwartz predicted that by the year 2000, much of the intellectual function of medicine could be either taken over or at least substantially augmented by "expert systems"--a branch of artificial intelligence (AI). Schwartz hoped that the medical school curriculum would be "redirected toward the social and psychologic aspects of health care" and that medical schools would attract applicants interested in "behavioral and social sciences and … the information sciences and their application to medicine." But Schwartz's dream of smart medical technologies, for the most part, remains just that. Eric Topol, however, is optimistic about the future of health care.