The future of surgery is arriving more rapidly than many of us may realize. Developments in artificial intelligence, robotics, and genomics are advancing at a pace that challenges traditional professional rhythms of validation, regulation, and adaptation. Innovation cycles that once spanned decades now unfold in years—or even months—compressing the distance between laboratory discovery and operative application. The question is no longer whether technological transformation will redefine surgical practice, but how soon and to what extent.
Any attempt to describe that future must be speculative, yet informed speculation is essential. Surgeons, educators, and trainees need to engage these possibilities now, while there is still time to shape them, rather than respond too late when they become faits accomplis. On October 22 health futurist David Ellis of the WSUSOM Department of Surgery gave a Grand Rounds talk intended not so much for prediction as for preparation—to encourage reflection and debate on what it will mean to practice, teach, and preserve the essence of surgery amid accelerating change.