Fabio Ynoe de Moraes, Associate Professor at Queen’s University, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Medicine is not losing credibility because science failed.
It’s losing credibility because expertise stopped leading.
I just read a powerful editorial on the future of medical leadership, and it crystallized something many of us feel but rarely articulate clearly:
- The central crisis in medicine today is not a lack of data.
- It is the replacement of expertise by ideology, incentives, and noise.
When evidence is filtered through politics, profit, or engagement algorithms, truth becomes negotiable. And once truth is negotiable, patient harm is inevitable.
What struck me most is the author’s framing of leadership:
Humanity first. Expertise second. Teams always.
Not hierarchy.
Not performative certainty.
Not “loud confidence” on social media.
Real medical authority comes from:
- Rigorous training and outcomes
- Transparency in reasoning
- Intellectual humility (“I don’t know” is a strength)
- And collaborative decision-making
When we lose this, a vacuum forms. And vacuums are always filled—by ideology, misinformation, and poorly governed technology.
This is especially urgent in the era of AI. AI can restore time for patients or massively accelerate misinformation.
There is no neutral path. Without transparency, auditing, and clinician governance, AI will not democratize expertise—it will simulate it.
Another uncomfortable truth raised in the piece:
Calling everything “meritocracy” while dismantling equity is not neutral.
It often installs less qualified voices, not better ones.
Equity is not ideology—it is quality control.
The call to action is clear:
- Physicians must reclaim public leadership
- Institutions must protect science from ideological capture
- Professional societies must speak with unity and courage
- And health systems must reward outcomes—not volume, clicks, or compliance
If we do not lead this moment, others will define medicine for us.
And they will not define it in the patient’s interest.
Expertise is not elitism.
Truth is not political.
And leadership without humanity is not leadership at all.
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If this resonates, it’s time to stop being silent observers and start acting as stewards of medicine.
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More posts featuring Fabio Ynoe de Moraes.