Dr. Dan Hall is a surgeon and an Episcopal priest who, in addition to teaching at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Center for Bioethics and Health Law, performs surgeries and conducts research at the VA health system. Dan joins Grant for a provocative exploration of the intersections of physical and spiritual health, the advantages and limitations of incorporating artificial intelligence into medicine, and the phenomenon of excluding clergy from hospitals during the recent pandemic. Together, they ask, “If doctors are modern-day priests, what is their obligation to the religious well-being of their patients?”
The doctor is the de facto priest of our technical, scientific society
Surgery is like running a 5k race: it requires some physical training to be successful
Assessing frailty using the risk analysis index (RAI) gives surgeons an easy tool to guage surgical risk
Discussion and documentation with palliative care physicians decreases surgical mortality rates caused by “premature withdrawal of care”
“If it works, and it doesn't cost much, and it's not too terribly hard, just keep doing it”
Applying AI to healthcare requires prudent, wise, human guidance: there's a need as the technology develops to build and maintain trust in the tool
Technologies come preprogrammed with the beliefs of their creators
AI and machine learning can automate the kind of drudgery that consumes a huge portion of clinicians' time
The best doctors have always helped life-limited patients discern answers to the fundamental questions about the purpose of their lives
Medicine is at root a persuasive practice
Clergy were not courageous or assertive enough in the face of being barred from conferring last rites in hospitals during the pandemic
We have surrendered control of our bodies to the healthcare institution, but the cost may be our spiritual health
Every five hundred years, the church goes through a transition, and we’re in the midst of that
COVID accelerated the process of pruning already underway in the church
Something in the human condition leads to searching for meaning, value, and an interpretive framework
Religious observance adds years to life because people are social, interconnected creatures
Links
Center for Bioethics and Health Law
VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion
“From Altar to Table: My Journey as Priest and Surgeon”
Lake Wobegon effect: a curious cognitive bias
The Hawthorne Effect and Behavioral Studies
“Dr. Herbert Benson’s Relaxation Response”
“A Reminder that We Are Not Alone”