Doctor Robot for You, Real Doctor for Me.

• Date: 15 April 2019
• Author: Singleton, Marilyn M.

A couple of years ago, computer programs, algorithms, and glorified Google searches were touted as the replacements for a physician's analysis of a patient's medical condition. Compressed medical research is quite useful for clinicians who are presented with novel situations and have no readily available colleagues with whom to discuss the case. However, the purpose of flow charts should not be to replace the brains of busy clinicians or, worse yet, be a cookbook for the practitioners at drugstore clinics.

Medical technological aids have now jumped the shark. An unbelievable, but--thanks to cell phone video--verifiably true news report detailed how a robot rolled into a patient's Intensive Care Unit cubicle and a physician's talking head appeared on the robot's "face" and told the patient the sad news that he had a terminal illness. While remote medicine is reasonable in rural areas where access to medical care is limited, telling a patient he is going to die from a TV screen is...