Technology-Driven Medicine and its Impact On Clinical Judgment and Ethical Care: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

The rapid integration of digital technologies—including artificial intelligence, clinical decision support systems, electronic health records, and automation—has profoundly transformed contemporary medical practice. While these technologies enhance efficiency, diagnostic accuracy, and access to information, they also introduce new challenges that affect clinical judgment and ethical care. This comprehensive review explores the impact of technology-driven medicine on clinicians’ decision-making processes and the ethical dimensions of healthcare delivery. Drawing on recent multidisciplinary literature, the review examines how increasing technological dependency reshapes clinical reasoning, professional autonomy, and moral responsibility. Key ethical concerns discussed include automation bias, erosion of critical thinking skills, accountability in technology-assisted decisions, algorithmic bias, and the potential weakening of clinician–patient relationships. The review further highlights tensions between standardized, data-driven care and the need for contextual, patient-centered judgment grounded in ethical principles such as beneficence, autonomy, non-maleficence, and justice. The findings underscore that technology is not ethically neutral and must be implemented with safeguards that preserve human oversight, ethical reflection, and professional accountability. The review concludes that sustainable, ethical healthcare requires positioning technology as a supportive tool that augments—rather than replaces—human clinical judgment.