Keeping the Focus on Humans in Medicine

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How to not get lost in the high-tech, algorithmic rush of modern medicine.

 

KEY POINTS

• Innovation can improve health care to underrepresented and lower-income populations.
• The things we cannot measure may be what ultimately sustain and enrich our lives.
• Simply telling our own stories can build community, improving well-being and mental health.
• When all seems lost, comfort can still come from the touch of our hands and our hearts.

 

The Stanford Big Ideas in Medicine Conference was held last weekend featuring big ideas that will shape the future of medicine. There were presentations about dazzling advancements in big data and AI, health equity, aging and longevity, and oncology. The conference, in its inaugural year, was a celebration of the power of ideas to shape what’s possible in health care. I was there to join conversations with thought leaders from academia, business, policy, and journalism.

 

Scientists spoke of their commitment to making high-value data resources available to researchers across disciplines to better enable them to answer their most pressing clinical and population health questions. Some are developing new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer; others are enhancing the scientific knowledge base on women's cardiovascular diseases across the lifespan; and many are using clinical data sources to inform medical decision-making. Companies are working at the convergence of technology and health care by focusing innovation to improve health care to underrepresented and lower-income populations.

 

The leaders in medicine are clearly passionate about the potential for artificial intelligence to improve our lives. They are powerful advocates of the belief that science will solve our species' greatest sources of suffering. Some even talked of efforts in developing a vaccine for aging and finding secrets for living forever.

 

Truly awed by the achievements in these areas, I was also reminded that science and technology and the instruments we are developing are lifesaving or life-enhancing but their unintended consequences may even overshadow the benefits. Louise Aronson, author of Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, and Reimagining Life, warned participants to be diligent about who chooses the questions and tools, who benefits, and who might be gravely harmed. Progress in medicine is socially and morally responsible only when it considers its impact on people of all ages and backgrounds.

 

Some presenters encouraged participants to continue advocating for keeping the focus on humans by not getting lost in the high-tech, algorithmic rush of modern medicine. Our technologies must still include the focus on caring for the health needs and well-being of diverse people throughout their lifespan. Human concerns of community-building, interpersonal relations, and spirituality can be met by returning to Indigenous approaches that offer a way to live a more holistic existence and assume responsibility in the creation of our lives.

 

As technological mastery grows, the mystery remains. The human tradition of shared experience shows us life in all its power and mystery and reminds us that the things we cannot measure may be the things that ultimately sustain and enrich our lives.

Laura Braitman, author of What Looks Like Bravery: An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love, reminded the audience that simply telling our own stories can build community, improving well-being and mental health. This is true for patients, providers, and family members.

 

Doctors and nurses will not always know what to do, will sometimes be wrong, and being vulnerable and humble can be the basis of compassionate health care. And when our medicine can do no more to keep a person alive with dignity and all seems lost, we can still comfort with the touch of our hands and our hearts.

 

References

 

Aronson, L. (2021). Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, and Reimagining Life, New Yok: Bloomsbury Publishing

 

Braitman, L. ( 2023). What Looks Like Bravery: An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love, New York: Simon and Schuster

 

Katz, R. and Murphy-Shigematsu, S. (2012). The Experience of Vulnerability: A Key to the Education of Health Professionals, In Synergy, Healing, and Empowerment: Insights from Cultural Diversity, Katz and Murphy-Shigematsu, Alberta, CA: Brush Education

 

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