May 17, 2024
The rise of robots
Dr. Matthew McGirt ’94 on AI and the future of healthcareby Joseph Kahn ’67
From surgery to genome editing, AI and robotics are redrawing the healthcare landscape and Matthew McGirt ’94 is helping accelerate the revolution.
Besides directing the country’s largest neurosurgery group, McGirt, who’s based in Charlotte, N.C., cofounded the National Spine Registry, a shared data collection platform for all U.S.-based spinal surgeons, and the National Neurosurgery Quality & Outcome Database (N2QOD). As general partner of Mammoth Venture Capital, he also helps fund companies doing revolutionary work in the healthcare and med tech fields.
“Around 20 percent of U.S. healthcare currently provides no discernable benefits to patients,” McGirt says. “That percentage will drop dramatically as advancements in AI, imaging, robotics, big data systems, and digital health remap the field. This means the quality of health care our grandchildren will receive will be superior.”
Breakthroughs include radiation-free MRI scans and intraoperative optical scanning that uses real-time AI to help surgical robotics navigate “continually changing anatomy” during an operation. Although still in the experimental phase, “independently learning robots that serve as assistants to surgeons are just around the corner,” McGirt says. “Exponential improvements in life sciences will continue to approach a near vertical slope.”
Q How far and how fast will advances in medical technology carry us into a
healthier future?
"While current costs are unsustainable, healthcare access and quality will look very different in 10 years as automation and AI evolve further. In 50 years, medical and surgical error rates should approach zero, while physicians will likely be assisting robots—not the other way around—and AI-assisted drug development will see an exponential rise in disease cures."
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