Episode 121: Can Medicine Stay Human in the Age of AI with Dr Alan Cohen

Dr Alan Cohen
Dr Alan Cohen

Dear listeners,

Today’s guest is Dr. Alan Cohen, a pediatric neurosurgeon whose career has spanned more than four decades at some of the world’s most respected institutions, including Boston Children’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins.

Throughout his career, Dr. Cohen has cared for children facing some of the most serious neurological conditions imaginable and has guided countless families through life-altering diagnoses, difficult decisions, and moments of profound uncertainty.

In his new memoir, Comfort Always: Healing in the Age of Technology, Dr. Cohen reflects on a question that sits at the heart of modern healthcare: as medicine becomes increasingly sophisticated, efficient, and data-driven, what happens to the human connection that patients need most?

Drawing from deeply personal stories from the operating room and bedside, Dr. Cohen explores the difference between treating disease and truly healing patients, the emotional burden physicians carry, and why empathy remains one of medicine’s most powerful tools.

Today we’ll discuss what modern healthcare is gaining through technology, what it may be losing, and how clinicians can preserve compassion, trust, and humanity in an increasingly digital world.

Here is link to his publications and if you wish to buy Comfort Always: Healing in the Age of Technology

Listen to the full podcast episode here.

Cheers,

Dr. Dimitre