[ta_donk_gt]

In my opinion, the AMA and the FDA are the main blockers of machines replacing doctors (outside of surgery). Nurses can do, and to a large extent already are doing the majority of the data collection. Beyond that, the doctor's main differentiable skill is pattern-matching and decision making based on experience. Machines with mountains of data generally perform this function much better than humans.

That said, I do agree that we likely won't see the full potential of replacing doctors with machines in the near term simply due to the political and regulatory hurdles, as well as the need to overcome the fear of the public and address the very real and significant privacy issues.

As to anesthesiology, I've actually done some work for a startup in that space working on a system that could very easily move anesthesiologists to a more supervisory role where they would watch (say) 50 surgeries at once (surgeries being handled by software tied into all monitors, as well as EMR systems for history and physical data, and able to dispense chemicals as needed) and step in if and when there was a problem. Technically, there is not much really stopping it, but politics and regulations present significant impediments (and probably rightly so, for now).