The following is the partial text of an unpublished interview with a man who thinks of himself as being on the front line of changes in modern medicine.

Q: Dr. Rush, I know you consider yourself an expert. Could you give us your qualifications?

A: Gladly. I have extensive experience riding in ambulances and helicopters. I have laid on many an operating table. I have had probes thrust into all available orifices and, as I speak to you, my heart is jam-packed with a radioactive isotope.

Q: That being the case, are you going to live through this interview?

A: Try me.

Q: OK. First, can you comment on some modern medical advances?

A: Of course. Let us start at the shopping mall. You are feeling a mite peaked, so you step into the shiny blue booth labelled Mediscan and punch in your PIN.

Q: Excuse me. Mediscan?

A: Yes. Let me explain. The fully automated booth registers your weight, takes your blood pressure, checks for fever and, when you roll up your sleeve, takes a blood sample for an instant test. Then, up pops a screen with a menu of possible symptoms, such as dizziness or fatigue or nasal drip. You touch the ones that apply to your condition, slip your credit card into the slot and out pops a packet of pills. Simple. No waiting around in crowded offices.

Q: That may work for minor issues, but what if it’s more serious? What if you have an iron band around your chest and shooting pains in your left arm?

A: Easily addressed. You scroll down the extended menu to the correct item and hit “Enter.” At this point, a red light flashes outside the booth and, we like to think, emergency personnel will suddenly appear.

Q: And do they?

A: Frankly, Mediscan is still in the early stages. In some trials, the first responders have been lawyers suggesting a will.

Q: What can the booth do if your problem is other than a runny nose?

A: Let us say that this booth, which we prefer to call an “automated doctor,” detects an infectious disease. The booth then seals itself, sets off a flashing red light and a pulsating alarm. Down the mall rolls a machine that looks like a Zamboni. It picks up the entire booth and trundles it off to a secure facility.

Q: Secure facility?

A: We used to call them “hospitals.”

Q: I can see some advantage in this new medical approach, but do you really think it will work?

A: Certainly. Take, for example, a medical interview. Sure, a thinking computer can take a medical history just as well as a doctor can. And a computer never goes “Tsk, tsk” or chides you. And think how easily a robot doctor can go over your ailments.

Q: How easily is that?

A: A cinch. You just take off your clothes and the robot goes over you with a stethoscope, looks in your ears, peers down your throat, wiggles your toes and pushes you out the door. It is programmed to call for a CT scan or X-rays every so often because it mimics human doctors.

Q: But if robot doctors and approaches are becoming the norm, what is going to happen to real doctors?

A: Oh, they’ll still be around. Even robots are programmed to like second and third opinions.

Q: You are keen on automated medicine. Can you give me a flaw?

A: There’s one. The cellphone app. In reading The Atlantic magazine, I see that some group is developing a smartphone that can test for sexually transmitted diseases. It seems that the testing procedure calls for you to urinate on a chip within the phone.

Q: We can stop right there. Would you mind telling me where you went to medical school?

A: Yes, I would. Thank you.

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