Artificial intelligence should genuinely support clinical reasoning and decision making to bridge the translational gap

Abstract

Artificial intelligence promises to revolutionise medicine, yet its impact remains limited because of the pervasive translational gap. We posit that the prevailing technology-centric approaches underpin this challenge, rendering such systems fundamentally incompatible with clinical practice, specifically diagnostic reasoning and decision making. Instead, we propose a novel sociotechnical conceptualisation of data-driven support tools designed to complement doctors’ cognitive and epistemic activities. Crucially, it prioritises real-world impact over superhuman performance on inconsequential benchmarks.