The problems facing healthcare are human problems.
Although there are many brilliant and good people working in high tech companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon, their technical brilliance does not necessarily extend to a deep understanding of the human condition.
In fact, the degree of focus necessary to achieve success in such intellectually specialized areas as machine learning may actually preclude a person’s deep understanding of the human condition.
Like it or not, a surgery or internal medicine intern at the end of his first year at a major teaching hospital will have more insight into humanity than a teenage drop-out from Harvard (no matter how technically insightful) at least until these young entrepreneurs have lived long enough to experience real life – life which includes, disease, disability, births and even death.
This is one reason why physicians need to get a handle some of these technology tools such as social media, artificial intelligence, and blockchain.
We need a seat at the table, or that table (seated with well-intention but humanity-naive people) is going to lead us in the wrong direction.