- Patient-centered technology, like EHRs, telemedicine, and portals, improves outcomes and engagement.
- Interoperability, usability, and scalability are essential for successful adoption.
- Cybersecurity and compliance must remain priorities to protect patient data.
- Technology should reduce provider workload, not add to it, to prevent burnout.
Healthcare technology improves patient care when it’s implemented with a patient-centered approach. Tools like EHRs, patient portals, telemedicine, and remote monitoring increase access, coordination, and engagement. To succeed, providers must balance tech adoption with data privacy, usability, and workflow fit.
Most healthcare professionals learn to “treat the patient, not the monitor.” The phrase likely derives from the Hippocratic Oath’s “I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart.” It highlights the need to focus on the patient’s clinical condition and conduct a thorough physical assessment, rather than relying on a monitor screen.
At the same time, healthcare technology has advanced rapidly, integrating more screens into decision-making. Clinicians can now access a wealth of technology and tools to aid in diagnosis, treatment, communication, care delivery, administration, and more.
Digital solutions like electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine, wearables, and patient portals are redefining care delivery. They’ve improved patient care, accessibility, and efficiency. Patients can now access healthcare remotely and use health apps that empower them to take an active role in their well-being.
Artificial intelligence is further transforming the industry. Machine learning and natural language processing can analyze extensive medical data for improved diagnosis, treatment, and predictive care. AI-powered tools can help identify diseases with greater accuracy, streamline administrative tasks, support personalized medicine, and advance population health management. The goal is a more efficient, patient-centric, and data-driven healthcare ecosystem.
"The goal is a more efficient, patient-centric, and data-driven healthcare ecosystem."
Yet the rapid pace of change concerns some care providers who worry that over-reliance on technology might distract from patient care.
This article explores how you can use technology to improve patient care and outlines the most important investments you can make to improve workflows for your practice and outcomes for your patients.
Provider and patient attitudes toward digital technology are changing
Physician and patient attitudes towards digital medical technology are changing rapidly. While providers seek ways to lighten administrative burdens, patients now expect a convenient digital experience from the healthcare industry. Recent Tebra surveys of patients and providers identify important trends:
- Providers are buried in documentation. The administrative burden is a major pain point for private practices. According to Tebra’s 2025 AI survey, 88% cited repetitive documentation tasks as one of the biggest time-wasters in their workflow. This often leads to after-hours work and contributes to burnout.
- Patients expect a seamless digital experience. Patients value digital tools that make their lives easier. Tebra’s 2025 survey of nearly 4,000 patients found the digital tools that make the biggest difference in their experience are online access to lab results (48%), appointment reminders (47%), and online appointment booking (43%).
- A poor digital experience can cause patient churn. Patients are willing to seek out their preferences. The same survey found that 65% of patients would switch doctors to get their preferred digital experiences, such as easier ways to book appointments or contact your practice.
- AI adoption is growing, but providers are cautious. While 37% of providers in private practice have used AI-powered tools in their clinical workflow, many are waiting for secure and well-integrated solutions. The top factors that would make them more confident in using AI are built-in EHR integration (71%), assured data privacy (62%), and full control to review and edit notes (61%), according to Tebra’s AI survey.
The data is clear: digital transformation is sweeping healthcare. To meet patient expectations and improve practice efficiency, providers must ensure the technology you adopt truly enhances the quality of care.
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Adopt a patient-centered approach to healthcare technology
The best way to ensure your practice’s healthcare technology serves your patients is to adopt a patient-centered approach.
A patient-centered approach emphasizes individual needs and preferences. This strategy tailors tools to meet the unique challenges of each patient and creates a more personalized and empathetic experience.
"With 65% of patients willing to switch providers for a better digital experience [...] a patient-centered healthcare technology strategy is essential for retention."
This approach involves patients in their healthcare decisions, and empowers them to actively participate in their treatment plans. By enhancing communication, accessibility, and engagement, it lets patients take an active role in their health management and decision-making. This is no longer a nice-to-have; with 65% of patients willing to switch providers for a better digital experience, according to Tebra’s data, a patient-centered healthcare technology strategy is essential for retention.
Essential patient care technology for your medical practice
The following healthcare technology solutions are important components of a patient-centered approach for your practice:
Electronic health records (EHR)
The EHR platform you select is critical for your practice. A good EHR system should streamline workflows, make information easily accessible, reduce paperwork, and lead to more efficient patient care and practice management.
To improve patient care, your EHR should provide a centralized and comprehensive view of a patient’s medical history. Having this information readily available and accessible helps your team make more informed and timely decisions. Your EHR should also facilitate seamless communication among all members of your patients’ care team to prevent medical errors and duplicate tests.
Ask about EHR interoperability when choosing an EHR. Interoperability means that the system can exchange and use data in a coordinated way across different organizations. Not all EHRs have this ability.
Many EHRs now offer advanced functionality to relieve the burden on healthcare providers, such as clinical decision support tools and integrated AI scribes. These tools can alert your team to potential drug interactions, suggest best practices, and automate and streamline note-taking to improve both the safety and efficacy of your care.
Some EHR platforms also integrate with remote patient monitoring devices, allowing healthcare providers to track patients' vital signs, wearables, and health metrics in real time. This monitoring enables early detection of changes in a patient's condition, enabling timely interventions and reducing the risk of complications.
Patient portal
Many EHR platforms include a patient portal component that facilitates secure communication between patients and healthcare teams. A portal empowers patients to participate in their healthcare journey, which boosts engagement while reducing the administrative burden on staff.
Encourage your patients to use your portal by highlighting these benefits:
- Improved communication: A portal provides a secure channel for patients to ask questions, request prescription refills, and clarify treatment plans.
- Efficient appointment management: 43% of patients value online appointment booking, according to Tebra’s data, and a portal allows them to schedule and manage appointments online, saving time both for them and for your team.
- Access to health information: A portal grants patients access to their vital health information. This is the top digital tool patients want, with 48% saying online access to lab results or visit summaries makes the biggest difference in their experience.
- Better care coordination: Seamless data sharing among different healthcare providers ensures better care coordination and fewer medical errors.
- Proactive preventative care: Healthcare providers can use automation to send reminders for screenings and follow-ups. This approach helps patients stay on track with their preventive care and can improve health outcomes.
Telehealth platform
Telemedicine has revolutionized patient care by breaking down geographical barriers and connecting patients with healthcare services they might not otherwise be able to access.
Telehealth platforms provide convenient and safe access to medical expertise, especially for patients who reside in rural or underserved areas, as well as those with mobility challenges, sensory impairments, or immunocompromised systems. Telemedicine also facilitates better continuity of care, allowing for follow-up consultations and chronic condition management without frequent in-person visits. By promoting accessibility, continuity, and patient involvement, telehealth platforms significantly improve patient care and overall health outcomes.
AI-powered practice management solution
An AI-powered practice management platform uses artificial intelligence to automate and optimize routine administrative tasks. While standard software streamlines processes, an AI-infused platform can help you predict issues, personalize interactions, and free up significant staff time while reducing human error.
"An AI-infused platform can help you predict issues, personalize interactions, and free up significant staff time."
An AI-powered practice management platform can transform key functions such as:
- Reducing the documentation burden: An AI scribe integrated with your EHR can tackle one of the biggest time-wasters in clinical settings: documentation. Tools like Tebra’s AI Note Assist use real-time transcription to turn patient conversations into structured, HIPAA-compliant clinical notes, helping to end after-hours charting and give clinicians more face time with patients.
- Strengthening your online reputation: AI tools like Tebra’s AI Review Replies can instantly generate personalized, HIPAA-compliant replies to every patient review, strengthening trust. It can also provide insights by organizing feedback into themes — like scheduling or staff experience — to help you address issues before they grow.
- Automating the revenue cycle: AI can streamline the billing process. It can instantly perform automated insurance eligibility checks to confirm coverage and reduce denials up front. On the back end, robotic process automation (RPA) can remove tedious and error-prone tasks by auto-posting ERAs and unapplied payments with speed and precision.
By intelligently managing appointments, billing, and patient feedback, among other functions, an integrated AI-powered solution creates the seamless experience patients now expect. This helps prevent churn due to common frustrations like long wait times (a dealbreaker for 51% of patients, according to Tebra’s data) and bad front desk experiences (46%), leading to higher patient satisfaction and retention.
Remote patient monitoring devices
Remote patient monitoring devices allow healthcare providers to track patients' vital signs and health metrics remotely. This technology directly addresses a key patient desire: 36% of patients want more communication in-between visits, and 29% have left a provider due to a lack of follow-up, according to Tebra’s data.
By providing a steady stream of health data, remote patient monitoring devices enable more proactive and continuous patient care. Specifically, they help providers:
- Monitor patients continuously, enabling early detection of changes in health metrics and timely intervention to prevent complications.
- Manage chronic conditions with real-time data on patients' health status and adherence to treatment plans.
- Encourage patients to take an active role in their healthcare by giving them access to their own health data.
- Facilitate better communication between patients and healthcare providers, leading to improved care coordination and better outcomes.
- Reduce hospital readmission rates by enabling prompt intervention when health indicators are outside the normal range.
Health information exchange
A health information exchange (HIE) is a secure electronic system that allows healthcare organizations and providers to exchange patient health information.
Interoperability is an important feature, and some medical practices purposely choose a system that communicates with their EHR. This enables healthcare professionals to access critical patient data whenever needed, which has several important benefits:
- Continuity of care: HIEs grant healthcare providers access to comprehensive and up-to-date patient data, regardless of location.
- Reduced medical errors: Access to complete patient data reduces medical errors caused by incomplete or outdated information.
- Timely and efficient patient care: HIEs enable real-time data exchange, which can be critical in emergencies.
- Elimination of duplicate testing: HIEs can prevent unnecessary repetition of medical tests by providing recent results.
- Public health benefits: HIEs can provide aggregated and de-identified health data for research, surveillance, and epidemiological studies.
Selecting patient care technology for your practice
As you decide what technology to use, consider several factors to ensure successful implementation.
Here are 5 best practices to follow:
- Assess your practice’s specific needs: To start, assess your practice’s specific needs and challenges. Identify workflows that can be improved, such as patient care, practice management, and patient communications. Rank your list from most to least urgent to make strategic investments that align with your goals and budget.
- Choose user-friendly solutions: Select user-friendly and intuitive healthcare technologies and train all staff on them. Complicated tools can lead to resistance from staff and a drop in productivity. Always ask vendors for a thorough demo or trial to assess how easily your team and workflow can adapt to the technology.
- Bring in your team: Involve all relevant stakeholders, including other clinicians and administrative staff, in the decision-making process. Involving them from the outset will ensure that the selected healthcare technology meets their needs and garners better acceptance.
- Consider interoperability and scalability: Make sure that new solutions can seamlessly integrate with your existing systems, including your EHR. This is a top priority for providers; 71% say built-in EHR integration would make them more confident in adopting new AI tools, according to Tebra’s 2025 AI survey. Additionally, make sure the solution can grow with your practice.
- Prioritize protecting patient health data: Make sure that any technology you consider meets security and compliance standards. Small private practices often lack the technical expertise of large health systems, but are still responsible for protecting patient health information. Before adopting any tool, verify that it complies with the highest industry standards and regulations, such as National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity frameworks, HIPAA, and the the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.
By following these best practices, your private practice can make informed decisions about adopting technology that aligns with your specific needs, enhances patient care and practice management, promotes efficiency and productivity, and safeguards patient data.
Find the right balance with patient care technology
Remember that using technology to improve patient outcomes should also improve your workflows. Any technology that you adopt at your practice should lessen your workload and alleviate symptoms of burnout — not exacerbate them.
Approach technology for your practice strategically. Assess how it can address specific pain points, improve efficiency, and enhance patient outcomes. It should serve a genuine purpose and integrate thoughtfully into your existing workflows. By using healthcare technology purposefully, you can optimize its potential to enhance your daily operations and, most importantly, positively impact patient well-being.
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FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Technology improves patient care by enhancing communication, access, and coordination. For example, electronic health records centralize patient history, patient portals provide secure messaging and appointment tools, telemedicine expands access to care, and remote monitoring devices enable real-time vital signs tracking. Together, these tools help providers deliver more accurate, timely, and personalized care.
New practices should start with foundational technologies that directly impact patient experience:
- Electronic health records (EHRs): For centralized, accessible medical history
- Patient portals: For secure messaging, scheduling, and record access
- Telemedicine platforms: To expand reach and continuity of care
- Practice management software: To streamline scheduling, billing, and reporting
Data security is fundamental to patient trust. Any patient care technology must comply with HIPAA, HITECH, and other regulations. Strong encryption, multi-factor authentication, secure hosting, and routine audits protect sensitive information. Secure systems not only reduce risk but also reassure patients that their health data is safe.
You might also be interested in
- Want to learn how patients find and choose doctors?: We surveyed 3,964 patients nationwide to understand how they choose a doctor and why the patient experience is key. Download the free report.
- Meet Tebra’s AI Note Assist: Document twice as fast without leaving the EHR you already use every day.
- Automate, analyze, respond: With AI, you can manage high volumes of patient feedback while strengthening the patient relationships that drive your growth.
- Current Version – Oct 23, 2025Written by: Ryan YatesChanges: This article was updated to include the most relevant and up-to-date information available.
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