Delegates to the recent Web Summit held in Vancouver were enthralled to hear from Madam Lu Zhang, and other experts of the panel for expertise in medicine, of the astonishing speed with which the healthcare sector will be transformed within the next decade.

Traditional procedures for interaction between doctor and patient and the administration of hospitals and clinics will be drastically altered so that diagnosis of diseases and prognosis for their treatment will become a routine operation for the AI robots which are being specially prepared for this purpose.

An example is the ARC Institute´s Evo 2 model which was recently launched to provide high powered digital diagnosis for conditions such as heart disease and cancer by analising genetic codes

Regenerative and personalised medicine are the fields where the new procedures are most likely to be successful. Their success is essential before proceeding to surgery and non-intrusive techniques which may be routinely entrusted to robots.

The logistical benefits are expected to be enormous. No longer will patients be expected to make long and arduous journeys to reach a treatment platform while drugs and specialized medical equipment may be delivered to patient location by drone.

However, there are several flies in the ointment!

Of all global data, 30% is estimated as being attributable to healthcare but only 5% of this immense resource has yet been made available to the data centres which are mushrooming worldwide. Without the input of missing statistics, the analytical power of AI will be flawed. However, the widening of the data base can only be achieved by regulatory entities being relieved of their duty to protect private information from commercial and political exploitation.

The perennial problem with innovation is one of who will be in control to ensure that all of humankind will benefit fairly. For healthcare to be egalitarian such control should be in the care of democratically appointed governance.

Already, we are seeing battle joined by the few immensely powerful corporations which have achieved their top positions as US$ trillionaires by ruthless competition. Executives of the Altman colossus are reported as being poached at high levels of compensation and huge welcome bonuses by Zuckerberg´s Meta. The expectation is that a new creative team will achieve a vastly superior form of AI which will have no difficulty in acquiring data by making people subordinate to machines.


Last week, British Ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared the modification of his support for Parliament legalising a strictly limited form of Euthanasia because it is essential to “uphold the role of the medical profession as care-givers who alone can safeguard vulnerable people from the possibility of private profiteering by legal-medical consortiums which might well see assisted dying as a lucrative business”.

Clearly, the antique procedure of convening a panel consisting of a judge, two doctors and a psychiatrist to approve the application for assisted suicide will be substituted by the new AI administration which will make recommendations based on the patient´s records with comparisons to peer data.

The application of potentially marvellous Artificial Intelligence to everyday medical contingencies is fraught with danger for the patient but full of promise to those who seek to profit by its implementation. Let us pray that the new Portuguese government will be aware of this and co-ordinate a comprehensive national service which will fully meet the burgeoning needs of its population.

by Roberto Cavaleiro - Tomar 22 June 2025