Balancing Burden and Breakthroughs in Digital Health with Dr. Maulik Purohit

Summary

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast: Balancing Burden and Breakthroughs in Digital Health with Dr. Maulik Purohit
May 7, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, host Chanel Bunger discusses the dual realities facing digital health with Dr. Maulik Purohit, Chief Health Innovation Officer at Dox Digital Health Labs. Dr. Purohit draws from his unique vantage point as both an active clinician and innovation leader, exploring the mounting burdens of traditional healthcare technology and documentation, as well as the exciting breakthroughs enabled by advances in AI and digital tools. The conversation is candid about root causes of clinician burnout, the necessity of system-wide dialogue, and the promise of more patient-centered technology.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Dr. Purohit’s Background & Dual Perspective

• (00:26) Dr. Purohit introduces himself, emphasizing his work in both clinical brain injury trauma and health innovation.
  • Oversees digital infrastructure in various health systems (EMR, AI tools, implementation).
  • Active on both the healthcare provider and industry side, offering “an interesting vantage point of being both on the receiving end on the health system side as well as on the producing end of products and industry.”

The Parallel Paths of Digital Health: Burden and Breakthroughs

• (01:44) Dual movements in digital health:
  • Ongoing struggles with EMR and documentation:
    • Regulatory demands and documentation overload are “making each patient visit much more burdensome” (02:09).
    • US physicians document about 35% more than peers in other comparable countries—a significant factor in burnout.
    • The “struggle between physicians... and the insurance companies” adds additional friction and requirements.
    • “All the regulatory requirements ... creates an undue burden on physicians, particularly nurses as well, and others that are in the space” (02:29).
  • Technological breakthroughs and AI advances:
    • New AI-powered tools are “improving diagnostic ability... radiology to detect diseases... even at home” (03:05).
    • Home diagnostics and earlier intervention are increasingly possible.
    • The field is “seeing a huge improvement in some of those capabilities now,” creating optimism for the future.
    • “You see this parallel: the struggle of some of the basic traditional technology and the excitement of this new technology” (03:58).

Addressing Burnout and Improving Experience

• (04:27) Dr. Purohit stresses that solving burnout and documentation challenges requires tough, systemic conversations:
  • “It is really a healthcare system and industry problem that we're facing.”
  • Quality of clinical care is threatened as highly educated clinicians leave practice for non-clinical roles—"it's going to affect the quality of clinical care at some point."
  • Need for “a national conversation about getting the right people to the table and looking at some of the burdensome things... that really doesn't need to be there” (05:41).
  • Comparison to other healthcare systems where documentation load is much lower, evidencing that change is possible.

Benefits and Promise of New Digital Tools

• (06:19) Dr. Purohit highlights positive impacts of digital health:
  • Telehealth & Convenience: “The advent of televisits... increases the convenience... especially in rural areas and hard to reach areas where the physician volume may not be as high.”
  • At-home diagnostics: Devices (e.g., EKG watches) and health-tracking apps provide real-time, continuous monitoring.
    • “We're improving technology. We're improving the ability to record vital signs, the ability to improve checking your activity levels, your sleep levels, all these basic preventive things that are huge in terms of health impact.”
  • Proactive, personalized care: Real-time data helps shift patient monitoring from sporadic clinic visits to ongoing management.
  • Role of AI: Many new technologies now incorporate AI to “give better analysis of the data as well” (07:54).
  • Dr. Purohit’s message: “All of these things are very huge positive for the health care industry and for patients particularly. So I’m excited about these technologies coming to fruit nowadays.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The regulatory requirements... creates an undue burden on physicians, particularly nurses as well, and others that are in the space.” — Dr. Maulik Purohit (02:29)
• “We have to address this. This is not just a physician issue, it's not just a healthcare system issue. This is really a national issue for us.” — Dr. Maulik Purohit (05:28)
• “The idea of capturing these things in a better way, a faster way for patients and then the convenience factor—it's a huge positive.” — Dr. Maulik Purohit (07:43)
• “AI is also very much part and parcel of every tool that comes out of healthcare as well. And so I'm happy to see these improvements, this horizon that's going to bring much better care for patients and better convenience for patients as well.” — Dr. Maulik Purohit (08:32)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:26 — Dr. Purohit’s background and dual-role vantage point
• 01:44 — The parallel challenges: EMR burden vs. new digital breakthroughs
• 04:27 — Physician/nurse burnout and the need for systemic change
• 06:19 — Telehealth, diagnostics at home, and the rise of AI in care delivery
• 08:24 — Final thoughts: future optimism for digital health and AI

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Conclusion

Dr. Maulik Purohit’s conversation with Chanel Bunger paints a candid but hopeful picture of U.S. healthcare’s digital evolution. While mounting administrative burdens threaten care quality and clinician engagement, the advances in AI and at-home digital tools are ushering in a new era of more convenient, proactive health management. Real progress, he argues, depends on open national dialogue, collaboration between all healthcare stakeholders, and embracing technology where it demonstrably benefits patients and providers alike.

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Transcript

[A]

Hello and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. My name is Chanel Bunger and today I'm excited to speak with regular guest Dr. Molek Purahit, the Chief Health Innovation Officer at Dox Digital Health Labs, who joins us regularly to share insights into digital health trends that he's keeping an eye on. Dr. Parrot, thank you so much for joining me. Could you please get us started out by introducing yourself for listeners that may not be familiar with you yet?

[B]

Sure. Thanks, Chanel. It's always a pleasure and honor to be on the Becker's Podcast gives us such a great lineup. My background, I'm a physician in brain injury trauma and so the neuroscience of it is something I study day in and day out. I'm still clinically active, but I'm also have been chief Health Information Officer for several health systems and overseeing the digital infrastructure. From EMR to AI products and tools to implementation, operations, marketing, et cetera, anything that really involved digital was under my purview. And then I've also been on the industry side as chief Innovation officer for various companies and understanding the development of healthcare products as well as how to implement them and put them into a healthcare setting. And so it's been an interesting vantage point of being both on the receiving end on the health system side as well as on the producing end of products and industry. And now actually I sit on both sides as I'm with the company, but I'm also still with Pam Health Active clinically and in their innovation space. And so it's been a nice vantage point to get both perspectives of both industry and health system.

[A]

Thank you so much for the introduction. And now getting into the discussion a bit, could you give us an overview of the advent of NUBA digital health tools and how they're impacting the healthcare space right now?

[B]

Great question, Chanel. And I think I see two parallel movements that are in effect today. One is with some of the traditional tools like the emr, et cetera, we're still seeing a lot of struggles with that because it's. And it's not just EMR alone, but it's this overlay of regulatory requirements and documentation and things that people have to do, both physicians, nurses and others in the healthcare system, where you're having a proliferation of things that you have to do within the EMR that makes each patient visit much more burdensome because you're not getting to just talk to the patient, you're having to document miles of paper after that, electronic paper in today's world, but having to document for A considerable amount of time after that, and then all the regulatory requirements of things you have to do, all the things you have to check off. And that creates an undue burden on physicians, particularly nurses as well, and others that are in the space. I think there's a statistic I saw recently that documentation in the US by physicians is about 35% higher than in other countries of comparable areas, such as the UK and others, where the documentation requirements are far less, despite them having a nationalized system. And so you see that, and then inherent in that is a struggle between the physicians and others who provide care and the insurance companies who have been fighting and denying and putting in more barriers to COVID patients. And so that plays out in a digital world with just more requirements and more burden, which leads to a significant amount of burnout for people. And then on the flip side, on the positive side, we're also seeing quite a bit of new tools that are coming in, taking advantage of this AI wave that we have to improve diagnostic ability, to improve, improve care ability and things for radiology to detect diseases that were hard to see, or things on EKGs or things on echo, and a way to improve diagnostic capability even at home, instead of requiring patients to go to the hospital and diagnostic capability at home, and then that then feeds into their chart and other areas. And so now you can intervene earlier for patients instead of waiting too late. And so that's the positive side of this. We're seeing a huge improvement in some of those capabilities now. And so at the same time, you see this parallel, though, the struggle of some of the basic traditional technology and the excitement of this new technology that's going to offer better tools for people and putting those together in the same environment.

[A]

Thank you so much for walking us through that. And now narrowing it down a bit, what are some of the things that we could do on the traditional side of healthcare to either prevent burnout, streamline documentation, or just improve the experience overall?

[B]

Great question, Chanel. And so on this one, I think it really comes down to really coming down and having a really hard and tough but needed conversation between those that provide care, physicians, nurses, et cetera, and the insurance companies. At the end of the day, it's not really simply a digital problem. It is really a healthcare system and industry problem that we're facing. And the net result of this right now is we're getting a lot of physicians being driven out of clinical care. They've chosen to become an. Maybe the residents may practice for a little bit, but then now what's happening is that they're going to non clinical work using their background, which again is commendable and definitely some of the reasons that we're getting some of these new tools. But at the same time, it's taking people out of the clinical space and it's going to affect the quality of clinical care at some point. We're trying to fill gaps with other ways, but at some point, when you take some of your most educated people out of the clinical care side, you're going to affect the quality of care in some way at some point. And so we have to address this. This is not just a physician issue, it's not just a healthcare system issue. This is really a national issue for us because you don't want to ruin the care that people are getting. But if you take physicians out of the mix, you're definitely going to do that. And again, I talk about physicians, but it can be the same story. It can be for nurses, for others. And you're seeing some of this decline in personnel who get educated at a very high level, but then they come out of the clinical and bedside space because of the struggle that's there. And so we need to have a national conversation about getting the right people to the table and looking at some of the burdensome things that we're doing that really doesn't need to be there. And we see that proof in other health Systems where it's 35% less in terms of the documentation and regulatory burden that's there.

[A]

Thank you so much. And so on the flip side of that, what are some of the benefits that you're currently seeing with all these new tools?

[B]

Yeah, another great question, and I'm glad we have a positive side to the story as well, which is that I think before we were limited in care with the physician visit or the hospital visit or the ER visit, with the advent of technology, what we're seeing is better and better ways to have care at home in a more convenient place. Some of the things we saw with COVID was the advent of televisits, which is huge because it increases the convenience. It's not to say that everything can be done by televisit, but certainly a lot of things that were routine or didn't require face to face in person can now be transitioned to telehealth. And I'm glad that Medicare has extended some of that guidelines to allow some of those things because it's convenient for patients, especially in rural areas and hard to reach areas where the physician volume may not be as high. And so Getting access to care is huge. Second is diagnostics at home. You know, one thing that a lot of us have been exposed to is this EKG on our watches, right? Whether it be a Google watch, an Apple watch, name your company, Samsung, et cetera. But the ability to have some of these things on the, on the watch or on the phone is tremendous. Now, I'm not saying this is an end all, be all for everybody, but we're improving technology. We're improving the ability to record vital signs, the ability to improve checking your activity levels, your sleep levels, all these basic preventive things that are huge in terms of health impact. And all of those are contributing to better care because now we see them in real time rather than just once a quarter or once a week or whatever it may be in just a clinic visit or just a hospital visit. And so now the idea of capturing these things in a better way, a faster way for patients and then the convenience factor. And so I think all of these things are very huge positive for the health care industry and for patients particularly. So I'm excited about these technologies coming to fruit nowadays, especially with the incorporation of AI into many of these to give better analysis of the data as well.

[A]

That's excellent to hear. Well, Dr. Paroha, I want to thank you as always for joining me today. But before I let you go, is there anything else that listeners should know?

[B]

Yeah, thanks, Chanel. I think to me this is an exciting time because of the potential that we can achieve for patients with the technology that's coming. AI is huge for all industries. I think everyone's experienced that. I think AI is also very much part and parcel of every tool that comes out of healthcare as well. And so I'm happy to see these improvements, this horizon that's going to bring much better care for patients and better convenience for patients as well. So I'm very excited for the future.

[A]

That's good to hear. Well, Dr. Pera, I want to thank you once again for your time today and for sharing your insights on the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you so much.

[B]

Thanks, Chenath.