Avatars, robots, and computers are coming to primary care

Within five years, primary care providers will begin being replaced by sociable humanoid robots, avatars, and computer programs. This transformation is inevitable because of demographics, economics, and progress in artificial intelligence, but the academic leaders of medical education and health policy are largely ignorant and unprepared for this massive disruption. The health care problem that the US needs to solve is how to increase the quality and decrease the per-capita cost in an era of aging Baby Boomers, inadequate numbers of primary care providers, and a struggling economy that cannot support spending 18% of its GDP on health care. The messy, complex, hard-to-understand solution is that sociable humanoid robots and computer programs will replace human providers in diagnosing and treating some diseases. It would be wise for health policy and academic health care experts to educate themselves about recent developments in artificial intelligence and computer technology. The implications for health care delivery are enormous and may change projections about cost, workforce requirements, and the training of health care professionals.