More than 4 in 5 physicians are regularly using AI in their practices — a figure that has doubled since 2023, according to new research by the American Medical Association.
Yet as AI use in medical practice climbs, trust in these technologies is waning among patients, an April 7 survey from Columbus-based Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found. Forty-two percent of respondents were open to AI being used as part of their care, down from 52% when the survey was first conducted in 2024.
Leonid Pravorev, MD, a nephrology specialist at Oakland (Calif.) Medical Center, recently joined Becker’s to share his thoughts on what the field is missing in discussions around AI.
Editor’s note: This response has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Leonid Pravoverov, MD. Nephrology Specialist at Oakland (Calif.) Medical Center: One aspect of the AI discussion that often receives too little attention is the difference between healthcare systems that already operate on a highly integrated digital infrastructure and those that remain fragmented. In integrated systems such as Kaiser Permanente, where physicians work within a single EMR platform, standardized care pathways, and coordinated care delivery models, adoption of AI feels like a natural evolution of capabilities that already exist. We have already seen this with enterprisewide implementation of ambient documentation tools, automated clinical summaries and other AI-enabled workflows.
For much of U.S. healthcare, however, AI represents a much larger leap. Fragmented records, disconnected organizations, manual workflows and continued reliance on paper and fax-based communication create challenges that technology alone cannot solve. In many ways, AI will be most successful when built on top of well-functioning care delivery systems rather than viewed as a substitute for them.
From my perspective, the discussion should be less about whether AI will replace physicians and more about how it can help clinicians deliver safer, more coordinated and more personalized care. Patients increasingly expect healthcare to leverage technology effectively, and for many complex chronic conditions, including kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, COPD and transplantation, meaningful improvements in outcomes will require better use of data, interoperability and intelligent decision support.
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