A Giant Leap - by Robert Wachter (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Digital Doctor comes a bold, insightful exploration of how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing healthcare--and why that matters.

Healthcare has long resisted the forces of digital disruption that have transformed nearly every other industry.

Until now.

In A Giant Leap, physician and thought leader Robert Wachter chronicles medicine's AI awakening. Drawing on painstaking research and interviews with more than 100 pioneers at the intersection of medicine, technology, policy, and business, Wachter describes how AI can now match--and sometimes surpass--physicians in areas ranging from diagnosis to empathy.

Even as AI enters hospitals and clinics to assist with documentation, recommend treatments, interpret images, and guide surgeries, challenges remain--including hallucinations, biases, and misinformation. Yet, Wachter argues, in a healthcare system buckling under the weight of medical errors, limited access, maddening paperwork, clinician burnout, and crushing costs, AI doesn't have to be flawless to be useful--it just needs to be better. And, if we make the right choices, it will be.

Blending clinical insight, vivid storytelling, and journalistic precision, A Giant Leap is a timeless and engaging guide to how AI is changing what it means to heal and be healed in this age of astonishing technology.

About the Author

Robert Wachter is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he is the Holly Smith Distinguished Professor of Science and Medicine and holds the Benioff Endowed Chair in Hospital Medicine. He has appeared on Modern Healthcare magazine's list of the 50 most influential physician-executives in the U.S. more than a dozen times; he was #1 on the list in 2015. An elected member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine, he coined the term "hospitalist" and is considered the father of the hospitalist field, the fastest-growing specialty in the history of modern medicine. He is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, author and journalist Katie Hafner, and their miniature poodle, Newman.