What You Should Know
- Integrated delivery network Novant Health has announced a major expansion of its primary care ecosystem, launching 24/7 hybrid and virtual-first options for patients across North and South Carolina.
- The expanded clinical model is anchored by a strategic technology partnership with clinical AI pioneer K Health, embedding automated screening and predictive tools directly into Novant’s native patient architecture.
- The collaboration introduces PatientGPT, a highly secure clinical AI assistant fully integrated into the patient’s active electronic medical record (EMR) to deliver personalized guidance while entirely eliminating triage dead ends.
- To streamline point-of-care operations, K Health’s automated intake engine conducts comprehensive pre-visit health screenings, delivering structured clinical summaries to physicians through MyChart ahead of the virtual encounter.
- Novant Health possesses a massive regional footprint, operating more than 900 locations, 21 hospitals, and nearly 800 physician clinics powered by a clinical workforce of 44,000 team members across the Carolinas.
Sequencing the AI Intake Workflow via PatientGPT
The technical strategy driving the Novant Health and K Health collaboration rejects the passivity of standalone consumer chatbots to enforce a highly disciplined, context-aware care orchestration layer. K Health brings massive institutional validation to the partnership, having successfully powered over 4 million clinical visits across premier health networks including Mass General Brigham, Mayo Clinic, and Northwell Health.
Rather than functioning as an uncalibrated overlay, K Health’s proprietary platform, PatientGPT, operates natively inside the protected infrastructure of the health network.
The system systematically streamlines the ambulatory intake lifecycle through a highly automated, secure execution loop:
- Pre-Visit Autonomous Screening: Ahead of a scheduled virtual encounter, K Health’s digital assistant engages the patient, programmatically collecting structured data regarding active symptoms, immediate health concerns, and the primary reason for the visit.
- EMR Contextual Grounding: PatientGPT automatically cross-references the patient’s conversational responses against their established historical medical record, aligning clinical definitions with past laboratory results and active medication lists.
- Pre-Consultation Clinical Summarization: The AI engine normalizes the collected intake data and delivers a structured clinical summary directly to the treating physician’s MyChart dashboard prior to the call, allowing the provider to enter the room completely prepared.
- Frictionless Omnichannel Routing: If a conversational query surfaces high-acuity markers, the platform seamlessly connects the user to live Novant Health clinicians for immediate virtual care or schedules a rapid in-person specialty appointment, preventing drop-offs.
“Healthcare does not need more AI tools looking for a use case,” stated Suresh Gunasekaran, President & CEO of UCSF Health, echoing a sentiment widely shared by transformation leaders globally. “It needs solutions built around the real needs of patients, care teams, and the systems responsible for delivering care.”
Sanjay Gupta, Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer at Novant Health, reinforced this strategic priority: “Redesigning our primary care offerings to meet patients’ needs around the clock is the first step in a broader effort to transform how and where care is delivered. By combining our clinical expertise with advanced digital tools, we’re expanding our ability to meet patients where they are.”
Regional Footprint Scale: Overcoming the Outpatient Database Freeze
The commercial scaling velocity underlying this regional deployment is supported by Novant Health’s expansive care delivery network. The integrated non-profit system operates more than 900 locations—encompassing 21 adult hospitals, nearly 800 physician clinics and urgent care centers, and extensive pharmacy setups—powered by a massive workforce of 44,000 team members and over 9,100 independent and employed clinicians. In 2025 alone, Novant delivered more than $2.1 billion in documented community benefit, establishing it as the pre-eminent engine for public health delivery across the Carolinas.
By linking K Health’s clinical AI pipeline directly to this immense physical footprint, Novant Health effectively addresses the core administrative bottlenecks that traditionally limit virtual care models. The integrated platform ensures that technology-enabled, outcomes-based chronic disease care is delivered sustainably, protecting physician time and ensuring that every next-best-action recommended to a patient is backed by clear institutional evidence.
