The healthcare industry has spent decades investing in technology to improve care delivery, streamline operations, and enhance patient outcomes. Yet despite significant progress, many of healthcare's biggest challenges remain unresolved.
In the latest episode of Doceree Dialogue at HIMSS 2026, Ritesh Patel (Ex-Chief Growth Officer, Doceree) sat down with healthcare futurist, writer, and entrepreneur Matthew Holt (Founder & Author, The Health Care Blog)) to discuss how artificial intelligence, agentic automation, and digital health innovation could finally help healthcare overcome some of its most persistent barriers.
Drawing from over three decades of experience spanning health policy, healthcare technology, and digital transformation, Holt offered a candid perspective on where healthcare has succeeded, where it has fallen short, and what gives him optimism for the future.
Holt's journey in healthcare began in the early 1990s, studying health economics and comparative health policy at Stanford University. Over the years, he became one of the industry's most influential voices through initiatives such as The Health Care Blog and the pioneering Health 2.0 conference, which helped spotlight emerging digital health innovations long before they became mainstream.
Having witnessed multiple waves of healthcare innovation, Holt believes today's AI revolution may have a more immediate impact than many previous digital health initiatives.
While much of the industry conversation focuses on AI's clinical capabilities, Holt argues that healthcare's most pressing opportunity lies in eliminating administrative complexity.
Healthcare systems continue to rely on countless manual processes, from appointment scheduling and referrals to prior authorizations, medication reconciliation, and insurance coordination. These repetitive tasks consume enormous amounts of time for both providers and patients.
According to Holt, emerging agentic AI systems have the potential to automate many of these interactions entirely.
Rather than patients navigating multiple phone calls, forms, and administrative hurdles, intelligent agents could coordinate schedules, verify benefits, manage referrals, update records, and facilitate communication across stakeholders with minimal human intervention.
The result could be significant reductions in friction, cost, and operational burden throughout the healthcare ecosystem.
Holt also reflected on one of healthcare's longstanding challenges: the impact of electronic medical records on clinician experience.
While digitization improved documentation and record accessibility, it also introduced new workflows that often increased administrative burden for physicians. Many clinicians found themselves spending more time entering data than engaging with patients.
Today, AI-powered ambient documentation tools are beginning to reverse that trend.
Solutions from companies such as Microsoft, Suki, and others are helping automate note-taking and documentation, allowing physicians to focus more attention on patient care rather than administrative tasks.
For Holt, this represents one of AI's most immediate and meaningful benefits—giving clinicians back valuable time while reducing burnout.
The conversation also explored healthcare's ongoing struggle to move from volume-based reimbursement toward value-based care.
Despite decades of discussion and experimentation, most healthcare systems continue to reward procedures and interactions rather than outcomes.
"The system pays for activity, not necessarily results," Holt noted, highlighting the difficulty of defining, measuring, and incentivizing outcomes consistently across diverse patient populations.
While value-based care remains an aspirational goal, Holt believes meaningful progress will require both structural reform and better use of technology to align incentives around patient outcomes.
Beyond efficiency gains, Holt believes healthcare must eventually address a more fundamental question: how technology can enhance the patient-provider relationship.
Healthcare is inherently human. Patients seek reassurance, empathy, and trust alongside medical expertise.
While AI is becoming increasingly capable of interpreting information, answering questions, and supporting decision-making, Holt sees the greatest near-term opportunity in removing administrative distractions so clinicians can focus more fully on patient care.
By automating routine processes, healthcare organizations can create more time for meaningful conversations, stronger relationships, and better patient experiences.
One area that particularly excites Holt is the convergence of telehealth, digital therapeutics, and AI-enabled care delivery.
Rather than simply replicating in-person visits through virtual channels, next-generation telehealth organizations are building specialized care models that can deliver measurable outcomes at scale.
He pointed to emerging companies addressing women's health, behavioral health, and chronic conditions through a combination of virtual care, digital tools, personalized support, and evidence-based interventions.
These models are demonstrating that geography no longer needs to be a barrier to accessing high-quality specialty care.
Perhaps Holt's most hopeful message centered on healthcare's ability to replicate proven success stories.
Historically, healthcare has struggled to scale innovation. Effective programs often remain isolated to specific organizations, regions, or patient populations.
Today's technology ecosystem—combined with AI, telehealth infrastructure, and growing digital literacy—creates an opportunity to accelerate the adoption of interventions that demonstrably improve outcomes.
Whether addressing menopause care, PTSD treatment, behavioral health support, or chronic disease management, Holt believes the industry now has the tools to expand access to solutions that are already working.
The challenge ahead is ensuring those innovations reach the patients who need them most.
As healthcare navigates another major technological shift, Holt remains cautiously optimistic.
For him, the future isn't about replacing clinicians or automating care entirely. It's about removing unnecessary complexity, improving access, and allowing healthcare professionals to focus on the uniquely human aspects of medicine.
If AI can help eliminate administrative burden, scale successful care models, and create more meaningful patient interactions, healthcare may finally be approaching a transformation that delivers on technology's long-promised potential.
Watch the full conversation to hear Matthew Holt's insights on AI, value-based care, telehealth innovation, and the future of healthcare delivery.