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AI in healthcare used to feel more like hype than help.

We were promised fewer clicks, smarter workflows, and better decisions. But for years, all we got were clunky interfaces, extra documentation steps, and tools that looked great in demos but flopped in practice.

That’s starting to change.

In 2025, we’re seeing real AI applications finally show up where it matters: in clinical workflows. Not abstract moonshots, but practical tools—ambient scribes, search copilots, discharge summary translators—that aim to make our daily work easier and safer.

In this article, I dive into six of my most important AI stories shaping care delivery right now—what’s being built, who’s leading the charge, and why it all matters for physicians, patients, and the future of practice.

If you’ve ever signed out patients in the emergency department, you know how messy it can get. Noise, interruptions, and incomplete information are the norm—not the exception.

And that’s a big deal. Because poor handoffs are directly tied to medical errors, delayed treatments, and patient harm. Despite this, most EDs still rely on rushed verbal updates and fragmented notes.

So, what if generative AI could help fix it?

Not by replacing physicians, but by standardizing the chaos—organizing notes, flagging key diagnoses, and surfacing what’s relevant in real-time. The potential’s there, but so are the limitations…

Continue reading the article here…

Physicians are drowning in inbox messages, documentation demands, and EHR alerts. AI tools have promised relief—but are they actually making a difference?

Two approaches have emerged: ambient AI tools that passively document and summarize, and copilot agents that proactively assist with clinical workflows. Both aim to reduce the burden—but one seems to be pulling ahead.

The problem? Not all AI solutions are built the same, and some may be solving the wrong problem altogether…

Continue reading the article here…

Doximity just acquired Pathway Medical, adding AI-powered clinical decision support to its growing toolkit for physicians.

On the surface, it looks like a solid move. But there’s a deeper story here—about where AI tools are actually used, who’s building them, and how doctors fit into this rapidly evolving ecosystem.

While this is just another acquisition, it may also be a signal of where clinical reasoning support is headed…

Continue reading the article here…

OpenEvidence just raised $210 million to reimagine how clinicians access medical knowledge—with the backing of some of the biggest names in tech and venture capital.

The goal? Build an AI-native alternative to UpToDate that delivers faster, more personalized answers.

But can we really replace UpToDate? And more importantly—do doctors want something different?

Continue reading the article here…

Epic just unveiled a suite of new AI tools—ranging from clinical documentation and patient education to ambient voice assistants.

It’s a major shift from a company known for clunky interfaces and rigid workflows. So, what’s under the hood—and how much of it is actually live?

Continue reading the article here…

The discharge summary might be the single most important (and overlooked) part of a patient’s hospitalization.

But most discharge summaries are confusing, incomplete, and written more for the next doctor than the patient. That’s a huge problem for continuity, comprehension, and outcomes.

What if AI could finally make discharge summaries usable for patients?

Continue reading the article here…

Revenue Cycle Management might sound like dry admin work, but it’s the reason patients get surprise bills, doctors spend hours on paperwork, and hospitals live or die by razor-thin margins.

If you want to understand why U.S. healthcare feels so broken, you have to understand the middleman that moves the money.

👉 Read more details here.

Long wait times and no-shows are the twin headaches of outpatient scheduling—and here’s the irony: the two are connected.

The longer a patient waits for an appointment, the more likely they are to cancel or never show up at all. Add in that no-show rates spike at certain times of day and in certain patient groups, and you start to see the real operational drain this creates.

We’ve thrown the usual fixes at the problem—patient portals, reminder texts, overbooking—but the data tells a different story about where the biggest opportunity might be. It’s not just about reminding patients to come… it’s about rethinking how we build the schedule in the first place.

👉 Full breakdown here.

Medicare Advantage was supposed to deliver better care at a lower cost.

Instead? It’s become a money-making machine for insurers—one that thrives on upcoding, prior auth denials, and favorable selection. Over half of all Medicare beneficiaries are now enrolled in MA plans, and yet the government is projected to overspend by tens of billions of dollars every year.

Even lawmakers—Republican ones—are calling it what it is: a “bastardized” version of the original vision.

So how did we get here? And what would it actually take to fix the system?

👉 See all my prediction updates here.

We were trained to take care of patients. But no one ever taught us how the system actually works:

That’s why I built this course: How Healthcare Really Works.

It’s short, visual, and built for people like us — physicians trying to make sense of the business and policy forces shaping our day-to-day work.

👉 Enroll in the course here.

I’m launching a new course — AI Meets Medicine: 11 Practical Uses of Generative AI in Healthcare. It’s practical, evidence-based, and built for physicians and healthcare leaders.

I’m looking for one exclusive sponsor to make this course free for all 30,000+ Healthcare Huddle subscribers.

Reply to this email and I’ll send the details with the course syllabus.