Warner Slack: “Patients are the most underused resource”

Warner Slack, the visionary physician who wrote that the patient is the “largest and least utilised resource in healthcare,”1 died from pulmonary fibrosis on 23 June at the age of 85. Accolades have come in from scores of people who, like the authors, benefitted from his wisdom and generous mentoring.

Slack foresaw, with remarkable clarity, both the extent and the limitations of what computers could contribute to medicine. His 1997 book Cybermedicine: How Computing Empowers Doctors and Patients for Better Care2 encapsulated his steadfast belief that information technology, “implemented wisely and well,” can empower both physicians and patients.