A.I. Healing

 

I was hooked by hearing the author on the Freaknomics podcast, Can A.I. Save Your Life?.  As I read the first part of this new book, A Giant Leap, I felt it captured much of my own "informatics" history.  

Sometimes, I feel the need to skip ahead to the last chapter—but this time, I didn’t!  Perhaps that is why the final chapter of Robert Wachter’s new book, A Giant Leap, is so powerful.  In those pages, we find words like "transcend" and "awe" alongside descriptions of healing.  These are the very experiences that have defined the author’s life as a physician. 

It is also true that barriers and misuse of A.I. are realities that will require correction.  Large Language Models (LLMs) are limited by their training and their real-world applications.  These challenges are realistically addressed in this deep dive into the current state of healthcare delivery. 

What became clearer to me is that healing can be seen as a deep connection of shared stories—which is also the foundation of LLMs.  These digital stories are now connected through new tools that can facilitate who we are called to be.  The computer screen and its demands can be managed more efficiently helping to heal the epidemic of iatrogenic disconnections in healthcare and our world. 

Thank you, Dr. Wachter, for sharing your search and your stories of healing and A.I.!

Marvin

References

Can A.I. Save Your Life?

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0CHP5jKiJjfe1I55YX5S7o

Wachter, R. (2026). A Giant Leap. Penguin Group.

Goodwin L, Prather J, Schlitz K, Iannacchione MA, Hage M, Hammond WE, Grzymala-Busse J. Data mining issues for improved birth outcomes. Biomedical  Sciences Instrumentation 34:291-6, 1997

Hage, M. L. (2023). Can AI be a Healing Agent?

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2023/08/can-ai-be-healing-agent.html

Healing Traditions

Sightless Among Miracles, Carter Presidential Center

By R.T. Whalen

Days pass and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles. Lord, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing; let there be moments when Your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns unconsumed. And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness, and exclaim in wonder: How filled with awe is this place, and we did not know ,

 From the Mishkan T’filah, “A Prayer for Shabbat”

I just finished a new book by Mark Topazian, Healing Purpose: Finding Satisfaction in a Healthcare Career.  I have shared many of the same medical experiences and locations of the author.  I was particularly impressed by the extensive notes/references that accompany each chapter and the importance of the “spiritual history”.

There was one chapter in Healing Purpose, Why Jesus Went into Healthcare, that reminded me of another authors similar interest; Health Care, by Amy-Jill Levine in her book, Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians.  These authors from different religious traditions describe complementary understandings of Jesus’s healing and how that can be translated into our current cultures.

While at Kijabe Hospital (2011) in Kenya, I questioned how the Somalia population viewed the Christian activities, beliefs and care at this Christian mission hospital.  The answer given was: “God lives there!”.  For me, it has been in the healing witness in other contexts that have brought meaning to the practice of medicine and deepened my faith.

God, give us eyes to see your healing work in this world,

Marvin

References

Wallen R. T. (1995) Sightless Among Miracles, Carter Presidential Center

https://homepages.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/atlanta/carter/carterwallen.html#:~:text=Sightless Among Miracles.

Mishkan T’filah, “A Prayer for Shabbat”

https://www.godwardweb.org/sightlessamongmi.html

Topazian, M. (2025). Healing Purpose: Finding Satisfaction in a Healthcare Career. InterVarsity Press.

Levine, A.-J. (2024). Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians. HarperCollins.

Hage, M. L. (2011). Healing on Trial.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2011/12/healing-on-trial.html