Articulated Insight – “News, Race and Culture in the Information Age”
Overview: Clinical AI is reshaping medical practice, but physicians emphasize that technology must enhance, not replace, doctor-patient relationships. While AI reduces burdensome documentation and paperwork, healthcare leaders and clinicians must address significant workflow barriers, protect clinical intuition in medical training, and proactively eliminate algorithmic bias to ensure equitable care for historically underserved communities.
Doctors Confront the Promise, Administrative Realities, and Equity Risks of Artificial Intelligence in Patient Care
I left a recent healthcare conference turning over a central question: what happens to the human connection when artificial intelligence enters the exam room?
My colleague Jahmal Miller, Chief Administrative Officer of Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group and board member of National Medical Fellowships, invited me into a room where practicing physicians did not hold back. They spoke with remarkable clarity about clinical AI in healthcare—where it actually assists, where it stumbles, and what worries them as digital tools enter daily clinical practice.
The panel, moderated by Dr. Félix Manuel Chinea (Head of Health Equity and Inclusion Strategy at Doximity), brought together perspectives from across the front lines:
- Dr. Amit Phull, Chief Medical Officer, Doximity
- Dr. Melissa Chen, Assistant Dean of Community Health & Engagement and Professor of Medicine at Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University
- Dr. Melissa Holmes, Associate Chief Medical Informatics Officer and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Rush University Medical Center
Hearing leaders from academic medicine, pediatrics, and emergency care grounded the conversation in the realities of patient care.
Cutting Administrative Burden to Restore Focus
Most physicians agreed on one immediate win: taking on paperwork. Administrative overload drains hours from clinical care. In any leadership role, excess documentation steals attention from mission-critical work. In healthcare, that lost time directly diminishes the attention patients receive.
AI tools designed for clinical documentation and note-taking show genuine promise. When software handles note formatting and transcription, a physician can look up from the monitor and look straight at the patient. Yet the panel stressed an essential caveat—technology is only useful if it fits real-world clinical workflow.
In an emergency department, for instance, a physician cannot pause to troubleshoot software. Data must arrive instantly and accurately. A digital solution that thrives in scheduled outpatient visits can easily fail in an acute crisis. Healthcare leaders cannot claim an implementation victory without understanding those front-line differences.
Equity, Access, and the Blind Spots of Algorithmic Care
Having spent decades championing inclusion and organizational accountability, I listened with particular care when the discussion addressed access.
Digital health tools can bridge language gaps, but access to software does not equal digital health literacy or real benefit. As leaders, we must ask: who are we truly designing these systems for?
If health systems roll out clinical AI without accounting for costs, language nuance, digital literacy, and the daily barriers facing historically underserved communities, we risk building higher walls around care. Equity cannot be an afterthought bolted on after launch—it must be baked into system design, data selection, and roll-out.
The conversation around algorithmic bias in healthcare demands direct attention, especially regarding longstanding disparities affecting Black patients. Clinical algorithms train on historical data, which means an answer can look complete on screen while missing vital social determinants of health. If the data behind the model never captured a community’s reality, the recommendations cannot serve that community safely. Clinicians must know who built the dataset, what was excluded, and how to challenge the machine’s output.
Training Clinical Judgment in an AI Era
The academic leaders on the panel raised a critical warning for medical training: if medical residents and students lean on screens for quick answers, how do they develop clinical intuition?
Medical training must continue to teach emerging physicians how to listen, observe body language, and evaluate what a patient leaves unsaid. Technology can supply data points, but human expertise must interpret them. Every industry adopting automated systems faces this same test: you cannot evaluate an algorithm’s answer if you never learned the fundamentals yourself.
At the same time, patients now arrive at appointments holding AI-generated medical searches. Rather than dismissing those questions, clinicians have an opening to build trust. Walking through what an algorithm got right—and where its analysis falls apart—takes time and empathy, but it anchors the doctor-patient relationship in transparency.
The Real Test for Healthcare Leadership
If you run a health system, measure your AI investments against human benchmarks:
- Does this platform eliminate administrative burden, or just shuffle the work around?
- Does it create more time for face-to-face dialogue?
- Are clinicians trained to catch errors and challenge algorithmic bias?
- Are the measurable benefits reaching underserved patient populations?
My ASK Pam takeaway is straightforward: use clinical AI to protect the humanity that medicine demands. When technology gives physicians the time to listen closely and act with deep understanding, patients win. That is where progress begins.
Pam McElvane, CEO, Author & Publisher, Promena Media
CEO | Master Coach | Board Governance Expert | Data Scientist | Strategist | Publisher
Pamela McElvane, MBA, MA, MCPC, is the CEO and founder of P&L Group, Ltd which has 3 key brands: Promena, 3I Research Institute & Diversity Learning Solutions, headquartered in Chicago, IL. Ms. McElvane has spent more than 25 years working with large and midsize companies providing insights and best practices, leadership and executive coaching, strategy, and organizational management.
About Promena (A P&L Group Brand)
Promena.Set the Standard (previously Diversity MBA) is a media, leadership, learning, research, and insights company dedicated to setting the standard for inclusion, equity, and performance. Through data-driven benchmarks, executive education, and thought leadership, Promena helps organizations turn inclusion from aspiration into a measurable business capability.
About Promena Insights
Promena Insights is the research and analytics division of Promena. It develops proprietary indices, benchmarks, and frameworks—including the Inclusive Leadership Index™ (ILI) and the Industry Inclusion Index (I³)—to measure inclusion maturity and guide evidence-based strategy for organizations and industries.
Contact for public speaking, coaching and leadership training opportunities:
833-362-2100 ext. 700 (Main) | pam@promenasetthestandard.com
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