Healthcare is in the middle of a technological revolution. AI is helping to interpret scans, apps are guiding patients through recovery plans, and wearable devices are tracking everything from heart rhythms to sleep quality. With every new development, the conversation often polarizes: some predict that technology will solve all of healthcare’s problems, while others fear it will replace doctors and nurses entirely.

I believe both extremes miss the point. Technology is not a replacement for human care. It is a tool. The question is not whether we use it, but HOW?

When used thoughtfully, technology can do incredible things. It can reduce the burden of paperwork that keeps clinicians glued to screens instead of present with patients. It can detect warning signs earlier, giving people a chance to intervene before illness escalates. It can connect patients in remote areas with specialists they would otherwise never meet. These are life-changing gains.

But technology cannot provide what patients need most: trust, empathy, human presence. A perfect algorithm can’t replace the feeling of being cared for by another person who understands. That relational bond is at the heart of healing.

I often think of technology not as an end in itself, but as a way of clearing space. If an AI tool can summarize chart notes in seconds, that gives a clinician a few minutes back so they can take their time to make eye contact, ask deeper questions, or simply sit with a patient.

The danger is when technology is deployed solely for efficiency. If we let tools push us further from patients instead of closer to them, we lose the very essence of medicine. The goal is not to become faster machines. It’s to become more present as people.

Technology, used wisely, can restore humanity in healthcare. But only if we insist that it serves connection, not replaces it.