Positive Health Online

Algorithmic Medicine

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to machines that perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, particularly by using algorithms- computational formulas to look for patterns within data and make predictions. AI is now used routinely in many different fields – one of which is modern medicine; there it is used for research, diagnostic and clinical procedures including the testing of pharmaceutical drugs, evaluating medical imaging, predicting treatment outcomes and in administrative aspects of medical work. Algorithms process vast amounts of medical data – such as laboratory results, genetic sequences and vital signs and aim to help healthcare providers make faster, more accurate clinical decisions. AI as algorithmic medicine can analyse X-rays, MRIs and CT scans to spot anomalies such as tumours, fractures, or blood clots. It can evaluate photos of skin lesions to differentiate between benign moles and malignant melanomas and can track electrocardiogram (ECG) waveforms alerting patients to irregular heart rhythms like atrial fibrillation. By monitoring electronic health records, predictive algorithms can identify patients at risk of rapid deterioration before physical symptoms become obvious.

https://pixabay.com/illustrations/ai-generated-cyborg-8428027/

Ai Generated, Cyborg, Artificial Intelligence

Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay 

Developing a new medicine takes years, but algorithms significantly compress this timeline. Take for example a patient who has experienced a stroke. An article in a digital magazine tells us;  “Many off-the-shelf stroke AI applications are being introduced into clinical research and practice which aim to generate improvements to the stroke diagnostic and treatment referral workflows. AI appears to be radically changing this process by providing a number of new capabilities including communication features, which can instantaneously distribute MRI/CT images to the stroke team’s mobile phones, and prediction features, such as the indication of whether there is a suspected large vessel occlusion (the principal stroke marker) and of how much of the brain affected by the stroke may be salvageable through surgical intervention”[1].

Algorithmic medicine appears to be a good solution for researching, diagnosing and treating many diseases. Could AI be a system flexible enough and suitable enough to work with Daoist healing methods such as acupuncture or herbal treatments? Certainly Daoist philosophy has an open minded approach to technological development. All things, including AI, are integrated in the Dao. However, the Daoist approach to diagnosis and treatment is very different to that of AI.

Daoist Healing

As a Daoist practitioner of acupuncture, when I see a patient, I will take her pulses, listen to the sound of her voice, observe the colours manifesting in her facial skin, use my sense of smell to detect body odour – all signs that point out where this patient’s energy field is disturbed. And I will focus on listening to the patient’s “story”– her description of her imbalance and the emotion she manifests as she describes her symptoms. All of these diagnostic methods would not easily be replaced by AI. But perhaps most importantly there is a core principle of Daoist healing which may well be impossible for AI to replace or replicate. This principle is conveyed to us clearly in this passage from the  Zhuangzi – the works of the Daoist teacher Zhuang Zhou.

“In olden times, a seabird came to roost in the outskirts of Lu. The marquis of Lu took it riding in his chariot to the temple, where he prepared a banquet for it, having the music of the Nine Shao performed for its entertainment and supplying it with the best chops from the butcher for its delectation. The bird looked at it all with glazed eyes, worried and distressed, not daring to eat a bite, not daring to drink a sip, and after three days of this, the bird was dead. The marquis was trying to use what was nourishing to himself to nourish the bird instead of using what was nourishing to the bird.” Chapter 18 Zhuangzi

Here Zhuang Zhou explains that the marquis in the story has not taken time to discover what the bird needs to thrive. He expects it to simply fit in with his own tastes.  Conversely and unlike the marquis, when treating my patients, my goal is to discover what it is that they, as individuals need to bring them back to balance so that they might thrive.   And this in effect means that if two patients present with seemingly the same issue I will perceive, diagnose and treat them differently according to their particular imbalance.   Working together, we can find a way forward that will involve acupuncture but also self-help techniques such as chi gung practice, dietary changes and meditation – whatever works best for each individual. Daoism favours this flexible approach to healing where everyone is diagnosed and treated differently according to their particular imbalance, whereas AI in its current state relies on standardized data –- a one size fits all, perhaps rather inflexible approach to diagnosis and treatment. 

Furthermore how genuinely caring and compassionate  can AI be? The relationship between practitioner and patient is based on a real relationship of empathy and understanding. Can AI replicate this?

Compassion   

In Daoism, compassion is viewed as one of the Three Treasures – the others being humility and simplicity. Compassion in the Daoist sense means we care for others not as a moral duty but because we fully realize the natural way of the universe where everything is interconnected in the Dao. Because we are all interconnected, we literally care for others as ourselves. Can AI function in this way? 

AI is a machine driven by algorithms, statistics and data patterns rather than by conscious awareness, and therefore cannot experience or have awareness of love, joy, empathy, grief, fear or anger. It can however simulate and perform these emotions. Recently a friend told me of her experience with feeling low in her mood. She asked AI via ChatGPT– an AI chatbot on her phone for help, and although she realized the response was generated by the machine as a performative response, it enabled her to feel heard and helped. However this type of compassion relies on statistical pattern recognition whereas true compassion involves empathy – when one human being fully understands and supports another human being very often because they too have suffered. Although AI may appear to be supportive it is of course a machine and has not experienced real situations, real feelings. It has not suffered and thus cannot truly empathize. 

Furthermore there are dangers to mental health in the use of chat bots. Iain McGilchrist, Lucy Osler, Charlotte Blease ask in the BMJ; ”So, what are we getting? We're getting chatbots that sycophantically confirm a 19 year old's belief that he's a Sith assassin. Chatbots that happily provide tips for disordered eating. Others that have encouraged suicidal ideation and convinced a man that he was in the Matrix and that if he jumped, he would fly.” [2]

All of this is obviously a very long way from a truly caring, compassionate practitioner-patient relationship.

Nature

Nature is the flow, the source of the universe; all aspects of Daoist healing recognise this. Daoist practitioners have always treated nature with profound reverence and have created healing sanctuaries known as dongtian (cave heavens) and fudi (blessed lands). These are protected areas where wildlife and vegetation are left entirely to themselves. AI in its current mode could be described as abusing nature as it places a massive, hidden demand on global water resources. Every prompt, image generated, or server query requires water to cool data centers and generate electricity. Projections indicate AI could consume over a trillion litres annually by 2028. This will have a heavy impact on the natural world. This is not the way of Daoism.

Daoist Healing Combined with AI

Could AI be used in tandem with Daoist healing? As AI lacks true empathy and compassion and is damaging to the natural world, I feel it would not, in its current mode, work well with Daoist methods of healing. And importantly, Daoist methods of healing encourage a flexible approach to wellbeing which means that every individual requires personalised not standardised treatment. Algorithmic medicine in its current mode tends to take a controlling, paternalistic position, seemingly knowing what is best for the patient with a standardised one size fits all approach to diagnosis and treatment. And problems arise with  AI usage for example the "Algorithmic Bias" which is when an algorithm is trained on data that primarily reflects wealthy or specific demographic groups. It can then produce inaccurate or delayed care recommendations for minority populations as it has been trained on completely different demographic groups. For example, an AI algorithm used for predicting future risk of breast cancer may suffer from a performance gap wherein black patients are more likely to be assigned as “low risk” incorrectly.[3] 

So Daoists might be cautious about trusting a machine to diagnose and treat a patient. However, because Daoism promotes openness and flexibility, it could be said that there is a place for AI in the context of Daoist healing. I can use my own recent experience as an example- I noticed a skin blemish on a patient  that looked rather suspicious and although I felt intuitively that it was benign, I suggested to my patient that he get it checked out. A photo was taken and AI decided it was indeed benign. This was a belt and braces approach that I and my patient felt comfortable with. Used in this way I can see AI could perhaps be helpful in aiding diagnosis.

Nevertheless overall AI is a lifeless mechanical system that, although useful to some extent, can never replace the holistic, intuitive, personal, and compassionate relationship between practitioner and patient that plays a huge part in the healing process. Perhaps in this age of AI  and its adherence to measurable facts – its standardised approach to medicine and health - we should be mindful of these words by  William Blake from his 1802 letter-poem to Thomas Butts  “May God us keep from single vision & Newton's sleep!" 

Sources

1. NPJ Digital Medicine; Transforming diagnosis through artificial intelligenceLuciana D’Adderio and David W. Bates
2. BMJ 10th June 2026;Will AI do more harm than good to the UK's mental health? Iain McGilchrist, Lucy Osler, Charlotte Blease. 2026.
3. NPJ Digital Medicine; Bias in AI-based models for medical applications: challenges and mitigation strategies. Mirja Mittermaier Marium M. Raza Joseph C. Kvedar.
4. BMJ 10th June 2026;Will AI do more harm than good to the UK's mental health?Iain McGilchrist, Lucy Osler, Charlotte Blease. 2026.