From the author of the seminal New York Times bestseller The Digital Doctor comes a bold, insightful exploration of how AI is transforming healthcare—our largest industry and one that touches all our lives.
Over the past few decades, healthcare has largely sidestepped the forces of digital disruption that have remade virtually every other industry. Until now. In A Giant Leap, renowned physician and thought leader Robert Wachter reveals how AI is reshaping medicine in ways both profound and unexpected. Blending clinical wisdom with journalistic rigor, Wachter describes the ascent of a revolutionary technology that can now match—even surpass—physicians in areas ranging from diagnosis to empathy. Yet even as AI enters our hospitals and clinics and begins to scribe notes, prescribe treatments, read X-rays, and assist in performing surgery, flaws like hallucinations, biases, and misinformation are troubling. Wachter argues that, given our healthcare system’s struggles with quality, access, burnout, and costs, AI doesn’t have to be perfect to be transformative—it just has to be better. Our continuous push for progress cannot focus on the technology alone, but also on the deep cultural, financial, political, and ethical questions that lie at the heart of medicine itself.
Drawing on original research and candid conversations with more than 100 experts at the cutting edge—from AI pioneers to frontline practitioners—A Giant Leap is a timeless guide to how AI is impacting the lives of clinicians and patients, changing what it means to heal in this age of astonishing technology.
