Reinventing Primary Care: Dr. Sara Pastoor on Trust, Technology, and the Future of Care
At Elation, we often say that primary care is the foundation of a strong healthcare system. Few people embody that idea more fully than Dr. Sara Pastoor, a family physician and Elation’s Head of Primary Care Advancement. Her journey reflects both the timeless values of medicine and the transformative role technology can play when it’s designed to support, not burden, clinicians.
A Calling to Whole-Person Care
Dr. Pastoor didn’t always plan to become a family physician. In fact, she resisted it, partly because her father was one himself. But during her final medical school rotation, she discovered what she had been missing. “About two weeks into family medicine, I realized—uh oh—this is my jam. I’m a comprehensivist. I think holistically. And I deeply value building relationships with patients.”
What started as an unexpected choice soon became a lifelong calling. She describes family medicine as sacred work: the privilege of walking alongside people, caring for them in context, and earning their trust.
From Frustration to Innovation
That sense of trust and connection has guided her through every chapter of her career. While serving in the Army, she experienced firsthand how technology often worked against clinicians. The EHR they used was clunky and frustrating, designed more for billing than for care. But instead of accepting it, she and colleagues from across the military branches took matters into their own hands.
Meeting in a basement with developers, they reimagined the system from the ground up. “By changing the user experience, we actually changed the patient experience,” she recalls. “That was magical.” Suddenly, feedback that once took years to reach a product team was acted on in minutes. A medication request was added to the system within ten minutes of being reported. For Dr. Pastoor, this was proof that technology could be an enabler of care—if clinicians were listened to and empowered in the design process.
Discovering Elation
Years later, she encountered Elation not as an employee, but as a practicing physician during an EHR transition. The difference was immediate. “As soon as I started using Elation, it felt refreshing—like this was built for the unique work of primary care. It wasn’t just another system to wrestle with. It felt like a partner.”
That experience stuck with her, and when the opportunity came to join Elation, she saw it as the perfect fit for her mission: to restore joy in practice and make primary care sustainable.
AI as a Force for Reinvention
Today, that mission is taking on new urgency as healthcare embraces AI. Many fear that AI will replace clinicians, but Dr. Pastoor sees it differently. “AI can’t pick up on body language. It can’t sense nuance. It will never replace human cognition or relationships. What excites me is how it will reinvent the way we work—not just make things faster.”
At Elation, this perspective has become central to our AI native design. The goal isn’t to automate away the clinician’s role, but to relieve cognitive burden, surface insights, and let physicians focus on what matters most—the patient in front of them.
Building Trust, Together
Underlying all of this, Dr. Pastoor emphasizes, is trust. Trust between patients and doctors. Trust between clinicians and their technology partners. Trust that when you adopt a new tool, it will actually make things better.
Elation has earned that trust, she argues, by staying relentlessly focused on primary care. “Our customers know we’re not just selling them tech. They see us doing advocacy on their behalf. They see us building features like Note Assist with in-app feedback loops that go directly to product teams. They know we’re mission-driven—and that we keep our promises.”
A Vision for the Future
Her vision for the future is clear. In five years, she wants to see more primary care physicians rediscover joy in their practice. She wants independent practices to thrive. She wants primary care to be more accessible, affordable, and effective for every American—and for people to recognize that Elation made that possible.
She also carries a message for the next generation of women in medicine: use your voice. “There were times I needed encouragement to speak up. But when I did, I realized others were waiting for someone to say the thing out loud. So don’t be afraid to say it. We owe it to our patients.”
Reinventing Care, Together
Dr. Pastoor’s story is more than a personal journey—it’s a roadmap for what’s possible when technology honors relationships. It’s about reclaiming the essence of primary care, amplifying human potential, and building a future where trust is at the center of every interaction. At Elation, we are proud to be walking that path alongside her, and alongside every clinician striving to make primary care what it was always meant to be: the cornerstone of health for every person, in every community.
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