{"title":"Beyond the algorithm: the importance of medical humanities in the age of AI.","authors":"Marco Paglialonga, Cristiana Simonetti","doi":"10.1007/s40592-025-00259-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) is radically transforming healthcare by introducing innovative tools that enhance diagnosis, personalized therapies, and medical training. However, this technological progress raises ethical and social questions, particularly regarding the centrality of human relationships in care. Medical Humanities (MH), a field combining the humanities and medicine, provide a critical framework to balance technological innovation and empathy. Through interdisciplinary approaches, MH fosters healthcare education that integrates technical expertise with humanistic sensitivity, preventing the dehumanization of care. In this context, narrative medicine emerges as a vital tool to emphasize patients' individual stories, with AI amplifying its impact through advanced data analysis. This article offers a conceptual analysis examines the dialogue between AI and MH, highlighting the challenges and opportunities of this synergy. It also discusses strategies to mitigate algorithmic biases and ensure an ethical and inclusive approach, envisioning a future where technology and humanity coexist harmoniously in medical practice. This integration is key to promoting patient-centered care while preserving the core values of therapeutic relationships.</p>","PeriodicalId":43628,"journal":{"name":"Monash Bioethics Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Monash Bioethics Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40592-025-00259-w","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ETHICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) is radically transforming healthcare by introducing innovative tools that enhance diagnosis, personalized therapies, and medical training. However, this technological progress raises ethical and social questions, particularly regarding the centrality of human relationships in care. Medical Humanities (MH), a field combining the humanities and medicine, provide a critical framework to balance technological innovation and empathy. Through interdisciplinary approaches, MH fosters healthcare education that integrates technical expertise with humanistic sensitivity, preventing the dehumanization of care. In this context, narrative medicine emerges as a vital tool to emphasize patients' individual stories, with AI amplifying its impact through advanced data analysis. This article offers a conceptual analysis examines the dialogue between AI and MH, highlighting the challenges and opportunities of this synergy. It also discusses strategies to mitigate algorithmic biases and ensure an ethical and inclusive approach, envisioning a future where technology and humanity coexist harmoniously in medical practice. This integration is key to promoting patient-centered care while preserving the core values of therapeutic relationships.
期刊介绍:
Monash Bioethics Review provides comprehensive coverage of traditional topics and emerging issues in bioethics. The Journal is especially concerned with empirically-informed philosophical bioethical analysis with policy relevance. Monash Bioethics Review also regularly publishes empirical studies providing explicit ethical analysis and/or with significant ethical or policy implications. Produced by the Monash University Centre for Human Bioethics since 1981 (originally as Bioethics News), Monash Bioethics Review is the oldest peer reviewed bioethics journal based in Australia–and one of the oldest bioethics journals in the world.
An international forum for empirically-informed philosophical bioethical analysis with policy relevance.
Includes empirical studies providing explicit ethical analysis and/or with significant ethical or policy implications.
One of the oldest bioethics journals, produced by a world-leading bioethics centre.
Publishes papers up to 13,000 words in length.
Unique New Feature: All Articles Open for Commentary