The Importance of Empathy in Medicine

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There's a lot of excitement, maybe too much, about what machine learning and big data can bring to medicine. Russ: We have mostly relying upon this long-unpromised, short-on proof of these retrospective data sets. And so we only have a very limited handful of studies that have been in this prospective category.

Cardiologist and author Eric Topol talks about his book Deep Medicine with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Topol argues that doctors spend too little face-to-face time with patients, and the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning is a chance to emphasize the human side of medicine and to expand the power of human connection in healing. Topol surveys the current landscape of the application of technology to health care showing where its promise has been overstated and where it is having the most impact. The conversation includes a discussion of the placebo effect and the importance of the human touch in medicine.