Robert M. Wachter

Robert Wachter is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he is the Holly Smith Distinguished Professor of Science and Medicine and holds the Benioff Endowed Chair in Hospital Medicine. He has appeared on Modern Healthcare magazine’s list of the 50 most influential physician-executives in the U.S. more than a dozen times; he was #1 on the list in 2015. An elected member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine, he coined the term “hospitalist” and is considered the father of the hospitalist field, the fastest-growing specialty in the history of modern medicine.

Wachter is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller, "The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age." His new book, "A Giant Leap: How AI is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future," will be published by Portfolio/Penguin in early 2026.

He lives in San Francisco with his wife, author and journalist Katie Hafner, and their miniature poodle, Newman.