By 2030, the human race, killed by robots, will be erased from the surface of the Earth, according to some critics of Artificial Intelligence. In 2019, US Congresswoman AOC predicted that in 12 years (2031), “the world will end” due to climate change.
While we are waiting for the extinction of the human race and the end of the world, allow me to discuss why I think Artificial Intelligence will be a great boon to the world and the human race, and why I think it will be man’s best friend, making life healthier, better, more comfortable, longer, and more fun for us humans.
Naturally, just like any new device or idea, we must truly study and deeply understand AI, and know how to manage and fully control it wisely and safely. To slow down its progress now and allow our adversaries to be ahead of us is foolhardy and dangerous. Had Japan been ahead of us in developing the Atom Bomb, which the USA used to end WWII by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, history would have been a disaster for the West.
As a cardiac surgeon, I can visualize how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can revolutionize modern medicine. By automating administrative burdens as an essential collaborator for medical professionals, the symbiotic relationship not only restores humanity to the practice of medicine but ultimately saves countless lives through superior, more precise care.
AI-Powered Medical Scribes: Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools can securely listen to a doctor-patient conversation and instantly synthesize it into a structured, accurate clinical note. AI directly targets the electronic health record-keeping crisis, a major factor in physician burnout, through ambient clinical intelligence. AI can automate routine tasks like drafting insurance pre-authorizations, sorting inbox messages, and managing prescriptions. By relieving doctors of clerical burdens, AI returns them to their original calling: interacting directly with patients. This reduction in cognitive fatigue directly translates to safer care, as well as happier, more focused physicians.
Enhancing Diagnostic Accuracy to Prevent Fatal Errors: Diagnostic errors and delayed treatments contribute to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths annually. AI serves as a tireless, ultra-precise “second set of eyes” across multiple medical specialties.
Advanced Radiology & Pathology: Deep learning algorithms can analyze X-rays, MRIs, and biopsy slides in seconds, identifying microscopic anomalies—such as early-stage lung nodules or aggressive breast cancers—that might be missed by a fatigued human eye.
Sepsis and Deterioration Alerts: By recognizing subtle, multi-variable trends hours before overt symptoms appear, AI can alert nursing staff in ICUs to impending sepsis or cardiac arrest, buying critical time to deploy life-saving interventions.
Continuous Remote Monitoring: Wearable devices integrated with AI track patient biometrics at home. If a congestive heart failure patient begins retaining fluid, the AI flags (communicates) the trend to the care team, allowing for a simple medication adjustment that prevents an emergency hospitalization or a fatal event.
Not replacing humans
The integration of Artificial Intelligence in medicine is not a replacement for human clinicians, but a vital reinforcement. AI successfully mitigates the burnout threatening the medical workforce. Simultaneously, its capacity for rapid data analysis, early symptom detection, and diagnostic precision creates a safety net that catches errors before they reach the patient. Ultimately, an AI-supported healthcare system is one where doctors have the time to care, and patients have a much higher probability of surviving and thriving.
A powerful catalyst
The integration of Artificial Intelligence into medicine and healthcare delivery represents one of the most profound technological shifts of the modern era. Historically, healthcare has been constrained by human cognitive limits, administrative bottlenecks, and the immense time required to translate biological discoveries into bedside treatments. Today, AI acts as a powerful catalyst, augmenting human clinical expertise, streamlining logistics, and personalizing patient care. AI is transitioning healthcare from a reactive system to a proactive, predictive, and highly efficient model of medicine, as I have described in my book, Let’s Stop ‘Killing’ Our Children (Amazon.com)
The most immediate and revolutionary impacts of AI: Machine learning models, trained on millions of clinical data points, can identify subtle patterns that may escape even the most experienced human eyes, with accuracy rates that rival or surpass human specialists. For instance, AI systems can detect microscopic signs of breast cancer or early-stage lung nodules years before they become symptomatic. Furthermore, AI-driven pathology tools accelerate the biopsy analysis process, providing rapid cellular staging that allows oncology teams to initiate lifesaving interventions days or weeks ahead of traditional schedules.
In drug discovery, AI bypasses traditional trial-and-error laboratory methods by using predictive modeling to simulate how billions of molecular compounds will interact with specific disease targets. AI can design entirely new synthetic proteins or repurpose existing medications for new therapeutic uses in a fraction of the time
Healthcare providers spend a disproportionate amount of time on charting, billing, and documenting patient encounters. Ambient clinical intelligence—AI systems that securely listen to doctor-patient conversations and automatically generate structured electronic health records (EHRs)—frees clinicians from their screens, allowing them to focus entirely on the patient. By streamlining these workflows, hospitals can reduce costs, minimize waiting times, and maximize resource utilization.
Through wearable devices and remote monitoring sensors, AI continuously tracks vital signs, blood glucose levels, and cardiac rhythms of patients in their own homes.
Predictive algorithms can flag a deteriorating trend in a chronic heart failure patient and alert a care team to intervene before a crisis occurs, significantly reducing hospital readmissions. For rural or underserved populations, AI-driven triage systems and telemedicine platforms provide expert-level diagnostic support and guidance where physical specialists are unavailable, bridging the gap in global health equity.
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The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, Health Advocate, newspaper columnist, and Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. He was a decorated recipient of the Indiana Sagamore of the Wabash Award in 1995, conferred by then Indiana Governor, later Senator, and then presidential candidate, Evan Bayh. Other Sagamore past awardees include President Harry Truman, President George HW Bush, Muhammad Ali, and astronaut Gus Grissom (Wikipedia). Websites: FUN8888.com, Today.SPSAtoday.com, and philipSchua.com Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com
Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States.
