Patients have made over 14,000 virtual appointments in the eight months since Mass General Brigham launched its AI-powered platform to connect people who need primary care with telehealth physicians.
The platform, originally called Care Connect when it debuted in September, features a chatbot that questions the patient, then sets up a telehealth appointment with a physician in as little as half an hour. MGB is among the first health systems nationally to roll out the app.
The platform was originally designed for patients who couldn’t find primary care physicians. In February, MGB expanded its use to include patients who might have a primary care provider but want urgent virtual care, including at times when their doctor’s office is closed. MGB ditched the name Care Connect and rebranded the service “24/7 Virtual Care.”
“It was simply to describe the service better,” said Dr. Rajesh Patel, vice president of digital patient experience. “We’re happy with the feedback we’re getting from patients.”
So far, patients have set up 14,524 appointments, Patel said.
They include Magdala Estephan, a 52-year-old Middleton resident who had a persistent cough and body aches last month and felt too sick to see her primary care physician at an MGB practice in Beverly. She said she went on the app at 7 a.m. and had a telehealth appointment with a doctor an hour later.
“Despite being virtual, the level of care I received from him was really exceptional,” said Estephan, the founder and head of a foreign language enrichment program for public and private schools. She said the physician, Dr. Douglas Campbell, assured her that her symptoms stemmed from a virus that was going around and prescribed medicine that made her feel better in about a week.
The app represents a partnership between MGB and K Health, a New York AI firm. K Health has set up similar digital platforms for several large health systems facing shortages of primary care doctors, including Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
When MGB launched the platform, it said the health care system had 15,000 patients who lacked a regular primary care doctor because of a nationwide shortage of such providers. Recently, however, MGB executives shared a slide deck with employees showing that there are more than 30,000 patients in the health system without a primary care provider, according to a copy of a slide obtained by the Globe.
Jessica Pastore, an MGB spokesperson, said that the number of patients without a primary care provider hadn’t grown; rather the health care system initially rolled out the platform to a limited number of patients and has now made it available to more of them.
Several primary care doctors at the health care system described the platform as a distraction from what they contend is the real solution to the shortage of such physicians at MGB: providing the pay and working conditions that will attract more primary care physicians and keep them from leaving.
“Instead of focusing on Band-Aid solutions, I think they should be investing in primary care,” said Dr. Kristen Gunning, a primary care physician at a Massachusetts General Hospital practice since 2008. “An AI chatbot is not primary care. It can help with the refill of a prescription, but it is not a replacement.”
A year ago, primary care doctors at MGB voted 183-26 to join the Doctors Council of the Service Employees International Union. It was the first time that primary care doctors in Massachusetts had voted to form their own bargaining unit. MGB has challenged the makeup of the union chapter to the National Labor Relations Board and refused to negotiate a contract with the employees.
Dr. Helen Ireland, a senior medical director at MGB who helped launch Care Connect, said in the fall that the health system has worked hard to recruit primary care physicians. In the prior two years, MGB said, it has hired more than 110 such doctors to help fill vacancies.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com.