Summary
We sit down with Dr. Patrick McGill, who shares his experiences and challenges as Chief Transformation Officer at Community Health Network and as a family doctor at South Indy Family Practice in Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. McGill discusses the growing disconnect between doctors and patients due to administrative tasks and required documentation, which often take away valuable time and focus from patient care. Dr. McGill discusses his initial skepticism about integrating AI-powered solutions and his eventual relief, both personally and professionally, upon using the cutting-edge technology to help restore human connections in his practice.
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Dr. Patrick McGill, MD MBA FAAFP
Dr. Patrick McGill is a board-certified family medicine physician and healthcare executive. He currently serves as the Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer at Community Health Network in Indianapolis, leading information technology strategy, analytics, digital transformation population health, and value-based care initiatives.
Dr. McGill earned his Doctor of Medicine from the Medical College of Georgia and completed his family medicine residency at Ball Memorial Hospital. He also holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Data Analytics from the University of Southern Indiana and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Healthcare Administration.
With over 20 years of clinical experience, Dr. McGill has held various leadership roles at CHNw focused on optimizing clinical workflows, implementing team-based care models, and driving quality improvement. He is a frequent speaker on topics such as data analytics, clinical transformation, virtual care, and value-based payment models.
Dr. McGill is actively involved with several professional organizations and serves on multiple boards, including the Indiana Health Information Exchange and SIHO Insurance Services. His accomplishments include being recognized as an inspiring Chief Transformation Officer by Becker’s Hospital Review in 2022 and 2023.
Transcript
DDx SEASON 11, EPISODE 1
The Human Connection
RAJ: This season of DDx is produced in partnership with and sponsored by
Microsoft.DISCLAIMER: In this episode, we feature a conversation with Dr. Patrick McGill.Dr. McGill is an independent user of DAX. He has received no compensation for participating in this episode and the views expressed are his own.
Dr. McGill: I was seeing a patient in clinic one day, and I noticed that the patient was telling me their story, telling me their history. I was asking questions, but I wasn’t really listening. I was more concerned about transcribing the information that they were saying. And I, at one point, had to go back and ask them to repeat themselves a couple of times. And when I realized that it just kind of dawned on me that I’m not giving them the time that they need from me. I’m not giving them the attention. I’m doing them a disservice. I’m not providing the best care. And so I realized that I had to make a change.
RAJ: This is DDX, a podcast from Figure 1 about how doctors think. I’m Dr. Raj Bhardwaj. This season we’re exploring an ambitious promise. Technology companies claim that AI-powered tools can help physicians transform their clinical practice. They aim to give doctors back their most valuable resource, time. Imagine, you walk into an exam room, put your phone on the desk, and just start talking.
The AI-powered tool called DAX Copilot listens to the conversation between you and your patient, and writes the medical note for that visit.
No more charting in the room, or afterwards, well after you’ve stopped seeing patients for the day…
Beyond shorter working hours, your focus is back where it should be, on your patient.
But does this technology live up to its promise?
In each episode, we examine the potential and the possible drawbacks of this technology in healthcare settings.
Today, we dive into a critical problem in modern medicine: the growing disconnect between doctors and patients—and ask if this technology might help bridge that gap.
Dr. Patrick McGill has experienced this challenge firsthand—both as Chief Transformation Officer at Community Health Network and as a family doctor at South Indy Family Practice in Indianapolis, Indiana. You heard him in our opening.
CHAPTER 1: THE PHYSICIAN’S CHALLENGE
Dr. McGill: I became a family physician because I wanted to connect with people. When I was in medical school, I chose to become a family physician because I wanted to be like the physicians that I grew up with, that were the family doctors that knew the family that knew the extended family that took care of generations of people that really knew them deeply, not only medically, but personally. That’s why I chose medicine. And over time, this tool, the EMR, was in the middle of my relationship, so it really started to disconnect, and I started to feel disenfranchised about why am I doing this, why has it led to this? And it’s really frustrating, you put a lot of time and energy and effort into becoming a physician, building your practice, building relationships, and now you’re just frustrated that it’s this documentation that has come between you and your patients.
RAJ: Dr. McGill’s experience isn’t unique.
Across the country, physicians are facing a growing divide. Administrative tasks are piling up, leaving less and less time for patients. This isn’t just about burnout—it’s about quality care.
Dr. McGill: When you’re fully absorbed in typing and paying attention to the computer and not focusing on the patient, it’s the exact same thing that’s happening if you were texting while you’re driving, or a pilot in the cockpit that’s distracted on their phone. We know that errors happen when people are distracted. And the keyboard and the computer are the same types of distraction in the exam room. So when doctors are too busy typing and not paying attention, they miss key details. They miss the focus. They miss the key concepts that could be life or death in some situations.
RAJ: Missed opportunities for care.
Misdiagnoses.
And a rising tide of physician dissatisfaction, are all consequences of the onslaught of documentation that takes physicians away from their patients. Dr. McGill knew he had to make a change.
Dr. McGill: I was going to be more present during the exam, during the exam room, and I was going to delay documentation until later.
RAJ: But this also came with negative consequences.
Dr. McGill: So what I found was, as I was delaying documentation and waiting to document more deeply or fully outside the exam room, I found myself that I was not remembering specific details that a patient might have told me. I was starting to get patients confused in that I would overlap patients that I was seeing during the day. And I was having to rely on my memory completely to make the notes. So I started making small notes in the room, but that wasn’t enough. I really needed to reevaluate how I was documenting.
RAJ: Dr. McGill’s breakthrough came with the realization that traditional fixes—like hiring scribes—were unsustainable.
Dr. McGill: The options for documentation assistance were to hire a physical scribe, person in the room. We had been down that pathway and we struggled with hiring and retaining scribes. The other option was a virtual scribe. These are people that listen in, and they document. Another option was to just make small notes in the room and document more completely outside the room. Maybe expand the time in the room, expand the office visit length. But what that did the counter was you can’t see as many patients or you limit access when you change your appointment time. So that was not an efficient, cost effective, or patient centered solution.
RAJ: Something more transformative was needed, but it had to serve the ultimate goal: restoring the human connection.
CHAPTER 2: RESOLUTION – TECHNOLOGY AS A TOOL, NOT THE HERO
RAJ: Enter AI transcription tools like DAX Copilot.
Its job?
To take on one of the most tedious, time consuming parts of a physician’s day: charting. It listens and transcribes clinical notes in real time.
The promise isn’t about revolutionizing medicine. It’s about going back to basics. Letting doctors do what they got into this job to do. Spend more time with patients.
Dr. McGill: My experience when we first started using this technology, I had this feeling of relief. It truly was like a feeling of relief that I don’t have to do all this documentation work anymore. I can focus back on the patient. I can bring back the human element.
RAJ: But every innovation brings questions—and a fair share of skepticism, especially from those tasked with using it in their daily practice.
Dr. McGill: You know, you kind of go into it with a healthy bit of skepticism. Is it for real? How hard is it to learn how to use? How hard is it to integrate the EMR into your other systems? Is it data secure? Is it private? Does it have bias in the model? Really? What’s the backbone and the cornerstone of the technology? And these tools have to adhere to all the other rules and regulations regarding HIPAA.
So you always go into these things with a healthy bit of fear, skepticism, denial, like this is just one more thing that I’m going to have to use and do. And is it going to contribute positively or negatively?
RAJ: These are exactly the kinds of questions that every healthcare provider should be asking.
Let’s break them down one by one—because the answers matter.
Can the tool do what it promises?
Early reports suggest tools like DAX Copilot can significantly cut documentation time.
How hard is it to learn and integrate?
First the good news: training only takes a few hours and most providers learn the system within a week. And DAX is built to work with major EMR systems.
Now, the potentially bad news: ‘plug and play’ isn’t always the reality.
And as you’d guess, customization and IT support can be complicated and time consuming. We’ll talk about this in more detail in a later episode.
What about data security and privacy?
It’s a big deal.
These systems are designed to follow HIPAA regulations—patient information is encrypted, stored securely, and only accessible to the right people.
We’ll dive deeper into this in a future episode too.
Does it have bias?
This is a critical question.
AI models, including those in healthcare, are only as unbiased as the data they’re trained on. Providers should demand transparency from developers about the steps they’re taking to minimize bias.
So, will this tech bring doctors and patients closer—or just add more complexity?
It all comes down to integration, training, and whether it truly frees up time for patient care.
Skepticism isn’t just healthy—it’s necessary.
But as the evidence grows, so does the possibility that tools like this could become as essential as a stethoscope.
Dr. McGill: Now, when I walk into the room, I put my phone on the desk, and I sit down on the stool, and I focus on the patient. Previously, we had techniques to position the computer between you and the patient, so it could appear like you’re looking at the patient, but now, it’s behind me, and I’m 100 percent focused on the patient. I can look at when they’re pointing at something, their knee hurts, and I can look at that. I can examine them in real time. I can have a conversation. It’s a normal flow of how an office visit should go. It’s really bringing that human aspect back into the exam room, back into that doctor patient relationship.
SHOW CLOSING
RAJ: Thanks to Dr. McGill for speaking with us.
This is DDX, a podcast by Figure 1. Figure 1 is an app that lets doctors share clinical images and knowledge about difficult-to-diagnose cases.
I’m Dr. Raj Bhardwaj, host and story editor of DDX.
Head over to figure1.com/ddx where you can find full show notes, speaker bios and photos.
This season of DDX was produced in partnership with and sponsored by Microsoft.
Thanks for listening!