“You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
– André Gide
As healthcare innovators, we are constantly searching for new solutions that improve care for patients and support the physicians who treat them. Doing that well means being willing to challenge the status quo—a bold move in healthcare where following established guidelines is the norm and the cost of getting it wrong is high.
Progress in healthcare has always required courage. Tom Fogarty’s revolutionary approach to vascular surgery—the balloon embolectomy catheter—and the era of minimally invasive procedures it initiated, is a prime example. But while transformative change that benefits human health requires a willingness to “lose sight of the shore,” it also requires never losing sight of why we do what we do. As Tom often reminded us: if patients win, the rest usually follows.
Today, we are confronting an even more sweeping paradigm shift — the rise of AI. Its potential is profound. AI can help us address some of healthcare’s most pressing challenges: an aging population, the growing burden of chronic disease, and persistent inequities in access and outcomes. It may also help us move from treating illness to predicting and preventing it.
While I admit that worries about how AI will be used or misused sometimes keep me up at night, I am committed to the journey. By leading with the same bold spirit that has always driven progress in healthcare, we can help shape how these tools are developed and applied—safely, thoughtfully, and always with patients at the center.
There is another quote I like, this one from Eric Topol, MD: “Artificial intelligence has the potential to restore the humanity in medicine.” That is our goal. On its own, AI cannot fix healthcare. But used thoughtfully, it can help us build a system that works better for the people it serves.
In closing, I’d like to thank all who joined us last month to celebrate Tom’s life. It was exactly what he would have wanted—family and friends gathered together, eating, drinking, and sharing outrageous stories. And in his honor, I am pleased to share that nominations for the 2026 Thomas J. Fogarty Innovation Prize will open on April 2.
Cheers,
–Andrew
(The above is an excerpt from Andrew Cleeland’s column in Fogarty’s March 2026 newsletter.)