The 2026 Calvin and Mayho Tanabe Address: Robert Wachter, M.D.

Robert Wachter, M.D.
Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and widely respected futurist and thought leader

With discussion moderated by OHSU President Shereef Elnahal, M.D., M.B.A.

Robert Wachter is one of the world’s foremost minds pioneering the future of healthcare, appearing on Modern Healthcare magazine’s list of the 50 most influential physician-executives in the U.S. more than a dozen times. His new book, A Giant Leap: How AI is Transforming Healthcare — and What That Means for Our Future, is a guide to how today's technological revolution is reshaping how all of us, from patients to clinicians, experience healthcare.

Across every major industry, artificial intelligence has proven to be a powerful tool in improving systems and scaling impact. As this tech rapidly integrates into clinical settings, it brings both extraordinary promise and significant concerns about hallucinations, bias and misinformation. Dr. Robert Wachter shares his visionary perspective on how AI is already matching — and sometimes surpassing — physicians in critical areas from diagnostic accuracy to patient empathy. With clear-eyed optimism and actionable insights, he argues that AI will have a profound, positive impact on healthcare if we navigate its implementation thoughtfully.