MEDICINE MAY BE ROOTED IN SCIENCE, but it has never been wholly driven by it. The human body and mind are so complex that progress in medicine depends more and more on technology finding better ways of peering into the unknown. Leonardo da Vinci's closely observed drawings gave doctors a better understanding of human anatomy. The discovery of X-rays made it possible to see the structure of the DNA molecule. More recently, progress has come from advances in artificial intelligence and a growing appreciation of the value of human history and diversity, among other things.
If science doesn't fully describe the practice of medicine, neither does technology completely explain its progress. Medicine is ultimately a practice of compassion, of caring for people. Recently, experts have come to believe that medical research and practice must strive to reflect the full diversity of the human species. This is not a platitude meant to signal virtue; it is essential to the task at hand. A diversity of researchers helps ensure that the medical issues that most people confront in their daily lives get attention. And in this age of AI, where data is king, including the full panoply of human biological diversity in the collection of that data helps those people who medicine has historically neglected-and, ultimately, everyone.
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