Opinion: STAT+: Sometimes, it would be unethical not to use AI in medicine

STAT News · Feb 20, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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By Morish Shah and Ami BhattFeb. 20, 2026 Shah is a master’s of precision health student at the University of Chicago. Bhatt is the chief innovation officer of the American College of Cardiology and inaugural chair of the FDA Digital Health Advisory Committee. Artificial intelligence can detect breast cancer on screening mammograms more accurately than individual expert radiologists in some study settings. In a 2020 Nature study using large U.K. and U.S. datasets, Google Health’s AI system matched or exceeded the performance of six radiologists and, in the U.S. test set, reduced false negatives by 9.4% and false positives by 5.7% compared with the original clinical reads. This evidence has sparked a debate that is stuck in a false choice. On one side are tech evangelists who think algorithms can simply replace clinical judgment. On the other are skeptics who defend “the human touch” as if every part of medicine requires it equally. Both sides miss the point. The frontier is not whether to use AI in medicine, but how to design systems where algorithms and clinicians each do what they genuinely do better. STAT+ Exclusive Story Already have an account? Log in This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers Unlock this article — plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts. Already have an account? Log in View All Plans To read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+. Subscribe