Doctors as humans

April 22, 2024

NEW DELHI – Afew years ago, I was on a return flight from New Delhi to Paris and New York, when the chief flight attendant suddenly broke up the humming silence and asked passengers to ring the call bell if anyone was a doctor. One physician, a tall and handsome young man, quietly rang the bell and was ushered to the front of the plane where another flight attendant was in physical distress due to a panic attack.

The doctor provided the treatment, and the patient was stabilized. Just a respectful and quiet thank you from the crew at the end of the flight along with a bottle of champagne and a cache of 75,000 frequent flier miles as a token of appreciation! A good doctor in the neighbourhood is a great blessing. “Wherever the art of medicine is loved,” thus spoke Hippocrates, “there is also a love of humanity.” The ancient Greek physician (460–370 BC), regarded as the father of medicine, also gave budding doctors the oath, “First Do No Harm.” But now when healthcare has become a most essential human right, much more is expected from doctors.

Today doctors, with and without borders, are in the killing fields of Ukraine and Gaza risking their lives to save lives. During the Covid-19 pandemic doctors and medical professionals played heroic roles, working endless days and nights, to save as many people as they could from an unprecedented massive global health crisis. Unbeknown to many of us, Artificial Intelligence played a crucial role in the development of Covid vaccines and the logistics of the vaccines global distribution. Early this month, Dr. Saeed Hassapour, Director of the Center for Precision Health and Artificial Intelligence at Dartmouth College, organized a symposium that drew some of the most