Dr Rafael J Grossman leads the discussion at The Surgeon Show
‘We’ve been displaced by technology in healthcare, and we are forgetting about the human patient in front of us.’ That was the stark warning from Dr Rafael J Grossmann, renowned trauma surgeon and digital health pioneer, who was the keynote speaker at The Surgeon Show in London last month.
Celebrated for his innovative approach at the crossroads of healthcare and technology, Dr Grossmann captivated the audience with his passionate speech, emphasising the event’s importance as a pioneering platform for surgical innovation and collaboration.
He praised the event as ‘magnificent and most-needed’, expressing enthusiasm for how it showcased new robotic technology and AI applications in healthcare, as well as its facilitation of the ‘meeting of global minds’.
However, his main message was a cautionary one: implementing new technology in surgery cannot happen without considering the human element.
Dr Grossmann, a self-confessed ‘geek,’ was one of the earliest adopters of wearable technology in the operating room and has long been an advocate for digital innovation in surgery. He said he has ‘always been fascinated by the power and potential of technology to change how we do things’.
But he warned that ‘technology pushes us to forget the person in front of us’. For him, using AI, robotics, and new technologies intelligently means holding on to our humanity.
Speaking with the event’s media partners, Future Medicine, after his address, he said it was important to ‘use technology smartly in order to not forget that the primordial goal is that person in front of you’.
‘Technology is almost forcing us to do that unless we fight back,’ he added. ‘We forget to talk, we forget to inform. And the patient becomes a number, becomes a case, becomes a disease pathology rather than a human with disease.’
He also suggested that the profession itself can sometimes act as a barrier to the adoption of new technology. ‘There are cost barriers, there are regulatory barriers, and there are political barriers. But education is the main barrier – for the professionals, the regulators and the administrators. I’m a full-time evangelist, and if we don’t make it our goal to really change minds, it will never happen… we need to accelerate it because we have no time.’
He agreed that there can be a disconnect between surgical training and what medical students are exposed to, as well as the realities of clinical practice, and emphasised that the profession needs to update the curricula. The way surgery is taught, even in countries in the Global North, is decades out of date, he said, adding that it is a ‘paradigm that we need to figure out how to change’.
‘In the five to seven years of training, the world changes radically. Every day, there is something new in AI and robotics, so unless this is adapted and brought to the training of a new generation, playing catch-up only proves difficult and costly, contributing to burnout and affecting patient care.’
Elsewhere, the day’s discussions spanned all aspects of future surgery, including robotics, AI, and immersive technologies, as well as digital ethics, data-driven care, training, leadership, and mentorship in the modern era.
Attendees could access 25 curated, high-level sessions on recent advancements and challenges in surgery, offering excellent networking opportunities.
The exhibition, complementing the sessions, showcased a wide range of innovative surgical technologies, including artificial intelligence, digitalisation, virtual reality, 3D printing and robotics.
Successfully attracting an impressive 656 C-suite surgeons from around the world, the UK’s pioneering Surgical Leaders Summit has already cemented its place on the global surgical calendar.
