Big Data, fewer doctors

Yet the technology – the screens and preset formats of many electronic health records - seem to anticipate the final victory of the computer over the doctor. They provide rigid desktop tools and online forms that don't allow them to make quick notes. They discourage the use of a patient's own words in favour of preset statements which may be incorrect. This is template thinking is more suited to a machine than a clinician.

I understand the need to digitalise information but I'd much prefer my doctor to look at me rather than spend most of the session typing information in to a computer. I also understand that in order to accurately measure the outcomes of clinical management for populations, first data from disparate systems needs to be, in IT parlance, "aggregated and normalised over the longitudinal health record so evidence-based scoring metrics show reliable results."

It's just that I want my doctor back. The tension between man and machine may make a great sci-fi story but when you're lying on a trolley in Casualty at 3.00 am with chest pains, you want two things: an accurate diagnosis and a comforting human hand on the shoulder saying it will be all right.

Diagnostic machines may be the shape of things to come but currently where they fall down is trust. When my time comes to talk about managing a serious chronic disease or the end of my life, I want a flesh and blood doctor who will show positive regard and empathise with me. Not a robot.