Who would you rather see roll into your examination room?

Duh. Ok, that’s not really a fair question as chances are you’re not going to get a doctor that looks anything like Harrison Ford, and to that point, you’re probably not going to get a robot that looks like C-3P0 either. But still- robot or human- who would you rather have as your physician? There has been a lot of fascinating robot tech talk lately and while it is probably true that we are headed toward a robotically inclined future, some argue that they will and can never replace the importance of human touch. I tend to agree.

Some mind blowing robot technology is being accomplished at a rapid rate allowing patients to physically and mentally accomplish feats and tasks they never thought possible. Hey, we all saw Wilson defeat human contestants on Jeopardy, systematically eliminating them one by one, even Super Ken. This isn’t HAL we’re talking about here. Still, while this is wildly impressive and vital to our intellectual development, to me, there is no substitute for the power of the human hand.

I came across this Ted talk by Dr. Abraham Verghese who argues that the human touch should and will always outweigh any technology that we may develop. It’s actually very anti-Ted considering that most of the talk going on there circles around technology. Shortcuts and treating humans as data points not only may miss some important diagnostic clues but also strip us from of the all important human rituals that are emotional vital to us as well.

Take a look at the link above in pink and tell me what you think.

Related posts: