In the much-celebrated book Deep Medicine, Eric Topol argues that the development of artificial intelligence for health care will lead to a dramatic shift in the culture and practice of medicine. In the next several decades, he suggests, AI will become sophisticated enough that many of the everyday tasks of physicians could be delegated to it. Topol is perhaps the most articulate advocate of the benefits of AI in medicine, but he is hardly alone in spruiking its potential to allow physicians to dedicate more of their time and attention to providing empathetic care for their patients in the future. Unfortunately, several factors suggest a radically different picture for the future of health care. Far from facilitating a return to a time of closer doctor-patient relationships, the use of medical AI seems likely to further erode therapeutic relationships and threaten professional and patient satisfaction.

If you want to imagine the future of healthcare, you can do no better than to read cardiologist and bestselling author Eric Topol's trilogy on the subject: "The Creative Destruction of Medicine," "The Patient Will See You Now," and "Deep Medicine." "Deep Medicine" bears a paradoxical subtitle: "How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again." The book describes the growing interaction of human and machine brains. Topol envisions a symbiosis, with people and machines working together to assist patients in ways that neither can do alone. In the process, healthcare providers will shed some of the mind-numbing rote tasks they endure today, giving them more time to focus on patients.

He thinks AI...is set to save time, lives and money."―The Economist "Topol passionately and persuasively sets out the transformational potential of deep medicine."―Lancet "[Topol's] argument for using technology to bring care back to health care is timeless."―Nature "An optimistic vision of medicine's rapidly approaching future that should be required reading for the public and medical people alike."―Booklist "Enlightening... Anyone with an avid curiosity about the future of medicine will find this worthwhile."―Publishers Weekly "A gimlet-eyed look at the role of computers in medicine...A cogent argument for a more humane -- and human -- medicine, assisted by technology but not driven by it."―Kirkus "Eric Topol has a unique knack for bringing us to the frontiers of medicine in his books, and this one is no exception.

Technology has helped cardiologist Eric Topol save lives. While on an airplane several years ago, a flight attendant asked if there was a doctor on board--a man was suffering from chest pain at 30,000 feet. Topol was able to obtain an electrocardiogram from the man by using a heart activity–reading gadget that attached to his smartphone, made by the medical device company AliveCor. "It turned out to be a big anterior heart attack I could see right on my smartphone," says Topol, director and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego. "I had to tell the folks to land the plane. He wound up doing pretty well."

In Deep Medicine, leading physician Eric Topol reveals how artificial intelligence can help.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are set to change the way medicine is practiced. In his book Deep Medicine, Eric Topol argues that AI can change medicine for the better, if implemented in a way that focuses on improving the doctor-patient connection. Here we look at 7 ways in which AI can improve the patient experience. A number of algorithms show promise when it comes to medical diagnoses.1 Generally, these are Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, such as neural networks or clustering algorithms, where a computer is trained on a very large data set.

He thinks AI...is set to save time, lives and money."―The Economist "Topol passionately and persuasively sets out the transformational potential of deep medicine."―Lancet

Welcome to TechTalks' AI book reviews, a series of posts that explore the latest literature on AI. This post is the first part of a two-part interview with Dr. Eric Topol about the impact of artificial intelligence on health care and medicine. In the last part of our interview with Dr. Eric Topol, we discussed how artificial intelligence algorithms can return the gift of time to doctors and help them have more human interactions with their patients. This is a subject that Dr. Topol discusses early on in his latest book "Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again." Another topic Dr. Topol discussed about the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare was giving every person more insight and control on their own health. This is one of the areas where deep learning algorithms have made great inroads.

Medicine has become inhuman, to disastrous effect. The doctor-patient relationship–the heart of medicine–is broken: doctors are too distracted and overwhelmed to truly connect with their patients, and medical errors and misdiagnoses abound. In Deep Medicine, leading physician Eric Topol reveals how artificial intelligence can help. AI has the potential to transform everything doctors do, from notetaking and medical scans to diagnosis and treatment, greatly cutting down the cost of medicine and reducing human mortality. By freeing physicians from the tasks that interfere with human connection, AI will create space for the real healing that takes place between a doctor who can listen and a patient who needs to be heard.

Eric Topol is an American cardiologist and geneticist – among his many roles he is founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California. He has previously published two books on the potential for big data and tech to transform medicine, with his third, Deep Medicine, looking at the role that artificial intelligence might play. He has served on the advisory boards of many healthcare companies, and last year published a report into how the NHS needs to change if it is to embrace digital advances. Your field is cardiology – what makes you tick as a doctor? I was in clinic all day yesterday – I love seeing patients – but I also try to use whatever resources I can, to think about how can we do things better, how can we have much better bonding, accuracy and precision in our care.