Visiting the Future

The question of which future we may all face is a question in almost every mind these days. We don’t need a crystal ball to predict what we will have in the future; we just need to look for what is already available in new emerged innovations and technologies to draw a clear picture for the foreseeable future. We are on the edge of a historical and major paradigm shift of medical practice and medical education. Medicine and medical practice throughout history have been considered a noble human-led practice based on direct patient-physician relationship. This relationship is protected by ethics and good human values. The newly emerged era is the era of digitizing medicine sometimes known as the medical digital revolution. The introduced innovations in medical practice such as AI, robotic surgery, genetic alteration, brain chip implants, computer-brain interface, and others are promising technologies which may help many patients. The implementation and use of such new technologies should be based on values-based medicine (VsBM) with a sole goal of serving and helping patients, as the patient is the center of care. The role of the physician in managing patients is going to be changed dramatically. Therefore, surgeons and physicians should be prepared to accept, absorb, and make the best use of such technologies. Consequently, medical education has to adapt and reflect these major changes. It is possible that new technologies such as ChatGPT (medical ChatGPT) and telemedicine could perform major parts of some medical specialties like family and community medicine. So, the real challenge is how doctors and surgeons could alter their current routine practice in order to be able to implement and use these new technologies to help their patients. The nagging question is “what are the limits of these newly developed technologies”? The answer is and should be that there are no limits at all and there should not be any obstacles to hinder the scientific medical development as long it does help patients and respects their values. The aim of this chapter is not to enumerate all the current and foreseen emerging technologies that have the potential to be implemented in medical practice and medical learning. The aim is raise awareness about the challenges we will face together to ensure that all the emerging technologies will work for patients and not compromise their autonomies or rights. We must search for solutions, understand, and draw road maps for the best possible utilization of such technologies for the benefit of the patients and further development of medical research.