Restoring Human Connection in the Digital Age: A Conversation with Dr. Kevin Pho
In this episode of NRC Health’s Patient No Longer podcast, Dr. Kevin Pho—internal medicine physician and founder of the influential KevinMD platform—joins for a powerful two-part conversation with host Ryan Donohue to explore the disconnection that patients and physicians alike are experiencing in modern healthcare.
Conversation
Restoring Human Connection in Healthcare: A Conversation with Dr. Kevin Pho
Podcast Guest
Kevin Pho, MD, is a practicing, board-certified internal medicine physician, a national media commentator, co-author of the book, Establishing, Managing, and Protecting Your Online Reputation: A Social Media Guide for Physicians and Medical Practices, and an acclaimed keynote speaker.
Highlights
While the healthcare industry touts innovations and efficiencies, patients increasingly feel that they’re being treated like a number—and physicians, burdened by administrative overload, are losing the very human sense of connection that brought them to medicine in the first place.
This episode centers on a growing crisis in empathy and engagement. According to Dr. Pho, the proliferation of technology—especially the electronic medical record (EMR)—has put up a screen between patients and providers. He shares how many physicians today spend more time typing into computers than making eye contact, leading to diminished trust and patient dissatisfaction.
And yet, technology isn’t the enemy. It may hold the solution.
Dr. Pho offers a hopeful perspective: tools like AI-powered medical scribes and telehealth can restore eye contact and presence, giving clinicians back the space to connect meaningfully with patients. But to unlock that potential, health systems must first reckon with an often-ignored reality—physician burnout.
“More than half of physicians report being burned out,” Dr. Pho says. “And if clinicians are disengaged, how can we expect them to deliver great patient experiences?”
The conversation touches on multiple systemic challenges, including:
- How overburdened physicians are caught in a cycle of documentation and disconnection
- How burnout directly compromises patient safety and empathy
- The underestimated power of social media in humanizing physicians and amplifying their voices
- The importance of guiding physicians to define their online narrative in a ratings-driven world
Dr. Pho challenges listeners to shift the conversation from productivity and reimbursement to satisfaction and sustainability. He argues that improving the patient experience doesn’t begin with marketing tactics or survey scores—it begins with listening to, and supporting, those who are delivering the care.
If healthcare organizations truly want to improve satisfaction and loyalty, they must prioritize human connection—not just for patients, but for clinicians, too.
As Dr. Pho says: “The key to patient satisfaction is clinician satisfaction.”