Storytelling should be a core part of the medical curriculum

I invited Rohan to co-write this piece because of his involvement with Roon, where he’s watched hundreds of physicians record video content. We’re both passionate about this topic and have had a few in-depth conversations about it that we figured we’d turn into an op-ed. I’m also writing a book about the topic of storytelling, which will be published in 2025.

As a healthcare industry, we spend a lot of time talking about the power of artificial intelligence and how it will “replace” or “augment” physicians. What we don’t discuss nearly enough is the human stories and relationships that are the core of medicine even in an age of advanced computing.

As Rohan often says, being a great doctor requires more than skills in diagnosis and treatment. To relieve suffering, providers need to connect deeply with patients and their families. But as we contemplate AI in healthcare, what might we lose from the human aspects of medicine? Imagine a Chatbot informing you that you have incurable brain cancer and walking you through your treatment options, in that off-putting ChatGPT conversational style?