Kyna Fong on the Empowered Patient Podcast: AI Reclaims the Heart of Primary Care

Elation's Co-Founder and CEO, Kyna Fong, recently appeared on the Empowered Patient Podcast to discuss how AI is being deployed to streamline clinical workflow and, critically, improve the patient-physician relationship.

In the interview, Kyna explained that Elation's approach to AI is firmly rooted in the company’s original mission: Clinical-First.

Listen to the full podcast here

The "Clinical-First" Mandate

Kyna noted that when Elation was founded, many EHRs followed a "billing-first philosophy," with tools oriented around billing needs. Elation's aim was to shift the focus back to patient care first and foremost.

In applying AI, this philosophy remains the "guiding light". Elation views AI as a tool to tackle the pressures and burdens—especially on primary care physicians—that keep them from focusing on their patients.

AI as a Burnout Remedy and Time-Saver

Kyna also discussed in the podcast the ways in which AI tools are being deployed to create radically transformative time savings:

• Ambient Scribe for Documentation: One of the most clear and pervasive uses of AI today is the ambient scribe, which helps with documentation and can save physicians multiple hours per day.

• Actionable Task Lists: AI can extend beyond simple documentation to create actionable task lists from a visit, ensuring that every referral, lab order, and prescription update is captured and that the important care plan stays intact.

• Streamlined Communications: AI makes it easier to pull in relevant patient chart details when writing a letter or a referral, avoiding "cumbersome typing out of specific details".

• Intuitive Workflow: By leveraging generative AI and large language models, the technology can understand voice instructions and common sense, taking care of previously laborious tasks like clicking through different windows, which translates into more "brain space, more mind share to focus on how to improve their patients' health".

Restoring the Quality of Patient Interaction

Kyna emphasized that the value of AI in primary care isn’t just about giving physicians “an extra few minutes.” It’s about making those minutes count. She explained that when doctors aren’t “fumbling around in the EHR” searching for records, their full attention can go to the patient. This allows them to observe more, engage more meaningfully, and ultimately be more effective clinicians.

She also highlighted the broader impact: primary care is a high ROI investment. By enabling physicians to catch issues early and manage care proactively, AI helps prevent downstream complications and reduces overall healthcare spending.

The Critical Role of Interoperability

Kyna also shared insights from a recent White House Health IT event focused on interoperability.

She stated that for effective primary care—which acts as the quarterback of a patient through the healthcare system—the ability to access data throughout the patient's entire journey is "so important". While interoperability has been a policy issue for some time, this new push is unique because it's a voluntary pledge by over 60 organizations, representing both the demand and supply sides for health data.

Kyna believes interoperability is no longer a technical challenge, especially with AI advancing the available technologies, but rather a question of "commitment, collaboration, coordination, and charting a clear path forward".

A Sneak Peek at Clinical Insights

Looking ahead, Kyna expressed excitement about features being developed on the clinical insights front.

For complex patients, AI can create a concise summary that reflects the most important events, lab results, and clinical data points over time. This saves the physician the 10 to 15 minutes of digging through a record to grasp the full story. Instead, the system paints the picture, allowing the physician to focus on "what's new and how can I incorporate that into my decision making".

Looking Ahead: Technology That Elevates Care

The responsible integration of AI in healthcare is all about making the technology invisible so the physician's focus can remain visible—on the patient.

At Elation, we are committed to providing intuitive AI tools that work within your existing workflow, removing administrative friction without compromising clinical quality. When doctors are less burdened by paperwork, they are more engaged, less burnt out, and better able to nurture the trusted relationships that are the cornerstone of exceptional primary care.

Ready to see how Elation Health's Clinical-First approach and AI tools can transform your practice? Request a demo today!