The rise of medical autonomous care, a paradigmatic turning point for military and civilian delivery of health care.

RATIONALE: Resource-limited or austere environments represent a direct threat to the likelihood of survival of patients in need of emergent care. Medical autonomous care (MAC) offers the promise to provide solutions to these challenges, change delivery of care, and improve patient outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To summarize the discussions surrounding the role of medical autonomous care in healthcare delivery held during the Defense Health Agency (DHA) funded Medical Autonomous Care State of the Science meeting (MAC-SOS): Opportunities and Obstacles in September 16-17 of 2025 in Pittsburgh. METHODS: The MAC-SOS meeting was designed by a select scientific committee including stakeholders in all aspects of the development, ethics, regulatory pathways, marketing, clinical implementation, and surveillance of medical autonomous care technology, and was composed of seven plenary sessions and six breakout sessions for focused discussion. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: 230 attendees and 44 experts from diverse backgrounds including academia, the United States Department of War (DoW), industry and regulatory agencies were in attendance. Experts and attendees engaged in two days of discussions on the opportunities and obstacles framing the research, development, ethics, regulatory approval pathways, marketing, implementation, and surveillance related to medical autonomous technologies. CONCLUSIONS: The MAC-SOS meeting provided a forum for dialogue, sharing of ideas, and discussions on key challenges, obstacles, and opportunities that medical autonomous care technology faces from inception to clinical deployment and post-implementation surveillance. It also served as a primer for the creation of a sustainable alliance between all stakeholders, and a springboard for novel ideas and future collaborations.