How AI in health care can strengthen the patient-physician connection

Future uses of AI in health care should help physicians strengthen their connection with patients and do a better job with health outcomes, said Nolan Chang, MD, executive vice president of Strategy, Corporate Development and Finance for The Permanente Federation, who was featured in Chief Healthcare Executive. Adding more patients to a physician’s panel without enhancing the care experience should not be the intention, he added.

Dr. Chang, a panelist at the recent 2026 ViVE digital health conference, shared that some AI companies are focusing on unhelpful solutions and instead should prioritize patient-centered approaches.

AI’s role in strengthening the physician-patient relationship

A recent example of an AI tool that is helping physicians focus their full attention on patients while also cutting their administrative burden is ambient scribe technology. This tool documents office visit conversations, capturing details raised by patients that help physicians better understand and diagnose patients, said Dr. Chang. An analysis showed ambient AI scribes saved Permanente physicians in Northern California the equivalent of 1,794 working days in one year and improved physician-patient communication.

Related ambient AI scribe story: Analysis: AI scribes save physicians time, improve patient interactions and work satisfaction

How AI can advance the movement to value-based care

Dr. Chang added that AI applications have the potential to accelerate value-based care models such as Kaiser Permanente’s, which emphasizes health care innovations that improve the quality and sustainability of care delivery.

“If we’re not keeping that population healthy, then they’re going to land in the clinic or the hospital more and utilize services. And so, in that longitudinal value-based system, the more healthy we are able to keep them, the better off we’re going to be,” said Dr. Chang.

An example of patient-centered AI raised by Dr. Chang is the new and improved patient navigation portal available to Kaiser Permanente patients in Southern California. The Kaiser Permanente Intelligent Navigator harnesses physician expertise and advanced AI that allows patients to describe their symptoms in their own words when booking appointments.

Related innovation story: Transforming the patient navigation experience starts at the digital front door

The portal then directs patients to the most clinically appropriate care while watching for high-acuity cases that require immediate attention. A study showed the technology detected urgent medical cases with 97.7% accuracy and increased patient satisfaction by 8.6%.

“Aligning those technologies to be able to make sure we are able to understand the patients and meet them where they’re at, based on the words that they’re using — I think that’s really powerful,” said Dr. Chang.

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