A Giant Leap - by Robert Wachter (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Digital Doctor comes an engaging, clear-eyed, and ultimately hopeful examination of healthcare's efforts to embrace generative artificial intelligence.

In A Giant Leap, physician and thought leader Robert Wachter navigates between hype and skepticism to make a compelling case for AI's power to transform healthcare. He argues that, in a system buckling under the weight of bureaucratic pressures, soaring costs, and clinician burnout, AI doesn't need to be perfect--it only needs to be better.

Drawing on extensive research and more than 100 interviews with pioneers across medicine, technology, policy, and business, Wachter shows how AI is already entering hospitals and clinics to draft notes, field patient questions, recommend treatments, interpret images, and guide surgeries. He unflinchingly confronts risks like hallucinations, biases, and misinformation, while revealing how AI can now match, and sometimes surpass, physicians in areas ranging from diagnosis to empathy.

But this isn't simply a technology story. It's about the human choices that will determine whether AI becomes healthcare's salvation or another source of harm and frustration.

Blending clinical insight, vivid storytelling, and journalistic precision, A Giant Leap offers an indispensable roadmap for healthcare leaders, clinicians, and patients. It is a vibrant and timely account of how AI is changing what it means to care--and be cared for--in this age of astonishing technology.

Review Quotes

"In my 40 years working with artificial intelligence in healthcare--beginning when I trained with the early AI pioneers as a Stanford undergrad in the 1980s to leading the Mayo Clinic's AI Platform today--I never expected AI to be the hottest topic in mainstream culture. In A Giant Leap, Bob Wachter manages to cut through the hype to reveal the essential truths reshaping medical practice. The book--brimming with insight, wisdom, humanity, and compelling stories--is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what it all means and what's coming next."
-- John Halamka, MD, MS, President, Mayo Clinic Platform and Professor, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science

"A Giant Leap offers a rare blend of realism and optimism about AI in medicine, showing how it is rapidly moving beyond hype to deliver true progress for a healthcare system long overdue for reinvention. In this pivotal moment, Robert Wachter is the trusted guide we need to chart a course to a future where AI and humans work together, delivering better care, lower cost, and healthier, longer lives for all."
-- Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce

"A Giant Leap tackles the central question in healthcare today: Will AI be another digital disappointment or a genuine transformation? By offering an engaging, hype-free case for informed optimism, Wachter's book provides the essential guide."
-- Eric Topol, MD, chair of Innovative Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute and bestselling author of Super Agers

"Robert Wachter has done it again. A Giant Leap is a masterclass in clarity and insight. Yes, AI is poised to reshape healthcare in ways that are profound, practical, and deeply human. But Wachter combines rigorous analysis with vivid storytelling -- a real page-turner -- making this essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of medicine."
-- Peter Lee, President and Head of Microsoft Research

"A first-hand account of the breathtaking possibilities and sobering challenges of AI in medicine. Comprehensive and deeply engaged, Wachter embraces progress while challenging readers to grapple with the biggest questions. What does a healing relationship look like when your doctor isn't human? When AI can pinpoint a diagnosis in seconds, will future physicians feel unmoored without the technology at their fingertips? A Giant Leap is a book that thinks alongside you--and demands you think back."
-- Sherry Turkle, MIT Professor and New York Times bestselling author of The Second Self, Alone Together and Reclaiming Conversation

"As with his previous books, Wachter demonstrates his gift for anticipating and digesting the big movements in science and health care. A Giant Leap is authoritative, well-researched, timely, and reads beautifully! It left me with a better understanding of the potential and pitfalls of AI as it transforms medical practice."
- Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water

"Bob Wachter has crafted the perfect entry point for anyone curious about AI's role in healthcare. Through vivid storytelling and captivating real-world characters, Wachter grapples with the urgent questions that will shape medicine's future. How should we regulate AI technology in healthcare? What are the dangers of moving too fast--or too slow? Most critically, what values should AI embody and who gets to decide? Before reading this, I wasn't all that interested in AI; now I can't look away."
-- Lisa Rosenbaum, MD, National Correspondent, New England Journal of Medicine; Writer in Residence, BIDMC Smith Center

"A Giant Leap is a deeply researched, unflinchingly honest, and ultimately hopeful analysis of how AI will transform healthcare and the systems, cultures, incentives, and human choices that will determine whether the technology becomes a force for good or a source of new risks. We are at an inflection point in healthcare where AI is challenging us not just to adopt new tools, but to reimagine care itself. Wachter is neither an AI evangelist nor a doomsayer. He is a steward, guiding us through the promise and perils with a clinician's rigor and perspective. He has done what very few can: synthesize the technical, clinical, economic, and ethical dimensions of AI in healthcare into a story that's urgent and accessible. It is an essential read."
-- Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst

"A Giant Leap is a wonderfully engaging, lucid, and essential guide to how AI is transforming healthcare. Wachter expertly lays out the enormous benefits of generative AI alongside its most worrisome potential pitfalls--and they're not the obvious concerns like bias and hallucinations that dominate headlines. Whether you're a patient, doctor, or nurse, if you want to understand how generative AI will revolutionize your healthcare experience in the coming decade, Wachter is your indispensable pilot."
-- Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and Co-Director of the Health Transformation Institute, University of Pennsylvania

"Tech is the easy part. People, incentives, and workflows are where dreams go to die--or flourish. A Giant Leap masterfully captures these dynamics, delivering this era's definitive guide to healthcare AI."
-- Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and founder of Khosla Ventures

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.