Dr. Mary Tilak & Associates

One of the findings from ViVE 2025 is that technology has become a differentiator in attracting new clinical talent, as a recent HealthLeaders article by Eric Wicklund points out. At the primary care practice level, however, incorporating #AI & #automation into care models requires a carefully thought-out approach for engaging clinical teams. At our practice, we’re finding that enthusiastic adoption of automation—which will ultimately support the use of AI on a broad scale for our team—depends in part on these six things: ✔️ Making the “why” behind automation—specifically, the use cases that prompt adoption of this technology—clear from the start of the initiative ✔️ Establishing the business case for automation and a path for return on investment, such as through increased clinical efficiencies, which are also vital to professional satisfaction ✔️ Incorporating human-centered design to simplify workflows, help in decision-making, and reduce burnout by minimizing administrative tasks while maintaining the personal touch in patient relationships ✔️ Fostering trust through clear communication. This includes sharing the impact of automation widely and often, both formally, such as through quarterly all-staff meetings, and informally, in day-to-day discussions with team members ✔️ Evaluating and adjusting the tech integration through continuous evaluation, feedback collection, and adjustments are crucial to maintaining the human element of care ✔️ Ensuring equity and inclusivity, which includes equitable access to digital health tools for diverse patient populations. A failure to do so could exacerbate existing healthcare disparities If you’re leading primary care teams in adopting AI and automation, what would you add to this list? Find out more: https://lnkd.in/eJwh7WFz https://lnkd.in/dXV_nMMx https://lnkd.in/e8HVdB4u #healthcare #healthtech #ViVEvent #ViVE2025 #primarycare #chronicdisease Mary Tilak MD, MBA ViVE

We often talk about the need to rebuild consumer trust in healthcare, but we don’t often address the challenges the industry faces when breakdowns in trust occur between healthcare workers and their leaders. Leadership in the midst of a technological revolution in healthcare is critical. Leaders have to be able to anticipate future trends, align technology with patient-centered care, navigate resistance to change, mitigate data privacy concerns, and manage workforce upskilling. But a recent study indicates just 1 out of 5 healthcare workers trust their leaders “very much.” Just over a third (36.9%) trust leadership “somewhat,” and about 42% say trust levels are low. There’s a strong correlation between trust and performance: Most of those surveyed say higher levels of trust in leadership is associated with professional satisfaction and higher-quality work. In our practice, we nurture trust between physicians, ancillary teams and staff by fostering transparent communication, active listening, and ethical decision-making while empowering teams with training and support. By leading with integrity, collaboration, and recognition, we create a culture of trust and adaptability in healthcare transformation. As a leader in this healthcare transformation, I believe in empowering every primary care provider to take a robust, smart, and vocal approach to becoming trusted partners to sub-specialty physicians in their patient’s care, which ultimately deepens the entire team’s impact while strengthening consumer trust. How is your organization making a difference in this aspect of the trust equation in care? -- Mary Tilak MD, MBA https://lnkd.in/gc-cFtgs #healthcare #leadership #primarycare #chronicdisease #specialtycare #innovation #healthtech National Institutes of Health The Joint Commission

Great insights and I agree that looking through the lens of primary care is key. This discussion highlights a critical truth—AI is not a magic fix, but a powerful tool when integrated strategically and effectively. The inefficiencies in healthcare are deeply rooted in outdated systems, fragmented workflows, and regulatory bottlenecks, making true transformation a complex challenge. We’ve seen firsthand how AI, when combined with real-world clinical expertise, can revolutionize patient care. From drug discovery to predictive analytics, AI is already reshaping the biopharma landscape—but its true potential lies in creating seamless, intelligent systems that reduce administrative burden, improve and enhance clinical decision-making. The question now isn’t whether AI will change healthcare, but how we ensure its implementation drives real impact. As we move past the AI ‘beach party’ phase, what do you see as the most urgent priority for AI adoption—workflow integration, data interoperability, or regulatory alignment?

As conversations around automation in healthcare evolve at catalytic speed, I cannot overstate that there is so much potential for improved health outcomes that occurs when primary care and specialty care are tightly intertwined. When primary care teams take a very robust, smart, and vocal approach to becoming trusted partners to sub-specialty physicians in their patient’s care, they add a layer of intelligence to care conversations that cannot come from AI alone. They bring extensive knowledge of the patient’s medical history, personalized information built on long years of longitudinal care and support provided. Time and again, I see instances where a collaborative approach to care, led by the primary care team, leads to faster decision making and better outcomes, from a young woman with colon cancer who is also battling premature ovarian failure to a renal transplant patient whose adrenal glands were shutting down, a side effect of steroid treatments. In one instance, an elderly woman was scheduled for a cardiac procedure for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation. I knew the woman had nonexistent afib for two years. Through pacemaker interrogation and through intelligent advocacy, I was able to stop the procedure. In my work, I am beginning to see instances where sub-specialty teams that are not used to collaborative models of care are seeing the value of primary care led risk management through aggressive and timely chronic disease management. And in an era of AI innovation in care, it is clear that  primary care teams are best positioned for patient-centered, cross-disciplinary care that will be enabled by AI-powered systems and delivered with human empathy to address individual patients’ complex needs. By developing trusted relationships with highly skilled sub-specialty service providers and nurturing the process for  timely, pertinent sharing of data, primary care and sub-specialty care physicians can make a profound difference for patient outcomes. It’s time to break down care silos and leverage the expertise of all of a patient’s partners in care. This will allow for the contemporary technology-enabled processes to connect with the traditional empathy of human connection. — Mary Tilak MD, MBA #healthcare #AI #primarycare #specialtycare #healthtech #chronicdisease #collaboration

We’re in an era of “always-on” healthcare tech, from wearable and home monitoring devices driving an explosion of patient-generated health data to AI analyzing this data for clinical decision support. But the question remains: How can primary care physicians use these advancements to strengthen consumer trust & drive improved outcomes? “Unlike corporations, physicians have a fiduciary duty to protect patients’ best interests, requiring them to elevate their conduct above that of commercial actors,” Deloitte reports. “Without this important protection, patients could be vulnerable to predatory marketing & be influenced to pursue treatments with little evidence for efficacy.” I believe higher levels of trust will come from: 👏 Spending more personal time with patients and their caregivers. Most consumers want a personal relationship with “a physician who listens to them, makes informed decisions, and offers clear communication,” a Deloitte consumer survey shows. Using tech-enabled models that can create efficiencies, providers may be able to allocate more time in building this trusted relationship. Ultimately, while technological disruption continues to reshape healthcare, it is the combination of skill, knowledge, and empathy—rooted in a trusted relationship—that will remain the cornerstone of exceptional care, transcending all other innovations and ensuring that human connection remains at the heart of healing. 👏 Embracing shared decision-making with the patient. This rapidly transforming healthcare industry urges providers to embark on a shared journey where the physician “quarterback” becomes positioned as a trusted advisor and the consumer—patients and their caregivers—becomes intimately involved in making informed decisions. 👏 Timely sharing of data with the subspecialists who are involved in the patient’s care. Intentional effort in sharing pertinent data and timely collaboration with subspecialists, who are generally brought in at a cross-sectional point in time, improves patient outcomes and consumers’ trust in the healthcare continuum. 👏 Seeing how the science behind diagnosis and care management is applied to their care. This inside look gives consumers greater confidence that their physician understands their data story—critical at a time when more data is available to the consumer and physicians than ever before. It also provides an opportunity for more personal discussions around health, giving consumers the care connections they crave. 👏 Reducing the inefficiencies in care that stand in the way of relationship building. By accepting and learning the data science behind tech enablement, this gives physicians and providers the opportunity to address administrative and clinical inefficiencies that currently plague the healthcare industry.   Read the Deloitte report: https://lnkd.in/gDZjf9-v #healthcare #primarycare #AI #chronicdisease #consumerism #trust #patientexperience

In the next five years, the primary care landscape “will be defined by the ways in which providers adapt to changing competitive dynamics and succeed in value-based care,” a Bain & Company report suggests. I would add that value-based care will also be defined by health system leaders’ willingness to invest in a true primary care strategy. Primary care needs a bold executive strategy, one that demonstrates understanding of the complexities around clinical and administrative operations, regulatory and reimbursement aspects of primary care delivery. “Decades of research shows that primary care improves health outcomes, patient satisfaction, and health equity while reducing the total cost of healthcare,” the Bain & Company report states. With increasing consumer expectations and the pressure from disruptive, non-traditional primary care models, healthcare systems will need to define their primary care strategy largely based on the competitive dynamics of where they operate. For example, some health systems may position themselves as the specialty care center for the community in specific service lines such as cardiovascular and oncology and invest in strong independent and enabled primary care partnerships. And retailers getting into healthcare delivery in their communities will need to recognize that they have to build appropriate brand association as trusted primary care providers by developing capabilities that can service  the spectrum of chronic disease management. “One thing is certain: Primary care delivery will continue to be a focus of creativity and innovation, increasingly gaining the recognition it deserves for its vital role in U.S. healthcare,” according to Bain & Company. Will 2025 be the year when we see broader movement toward primary care transformation? And, what will it take to get there? Please share your thoughts. - Mary Tilak MD, MBA Read the report: https://lnkd.in/gTC8Tpi3 #healthcare #primarycare #trust #consumerism #value #chronicdisease #strategy #retailcare

When GLP-1 drugs are not combined with lifestyle management, the risk that patients will trade one addiction—food—for another increases. Jeff Cole, MD, explores this concept in a podcast and article with Shawn Baker, M.D., MD, author of “The Carnivore Diet.” One of the ugly truths behind this phenomenon is that the tobacco company founders themselves made heavy investments in food companies “to use their expertise in consumer psychology and product marketing to engineer foods that were not only profitable but also designed to exploit cravings and encourage overconsumption.” The impact: “widespread availability of hyper-palatable foods and the staggering rates of diet-related chronic diseases.” That's why it's so important to break the cycle of obesity with: - A personalized, medically supervised approach to sustaining healthy lifestyle changes for the long term - Data-driven interventions and guidance - Support in meeting a patient’s whole-health needs, from nutrition advice to behavior modification support That’s a challenge our practice takes on daily, especially at the start of a new year, when interest in healthy weight loss is at its highest. How is your team incorporating a lifestyle management approach to healthy weight loss—and how are you incorporating technology into your efforts? Let’s start a conversation … Find out more about our approach to medically supervised weight loss. Learn about our program, INCHES: https://lnkd.in/epVfTN_x Reach the article referenced above: https://lnkd.in/gVqHFJ4N Mary Tilak MD, MBA #health #healthcare #weightloss #GLP1 #chronicdisease #primarycare #obesity

Timely collaboration and intentional data sharing are key to developing primary care alliances that matter. Mary Tilak and Associates, in its work in Northwest Indiana and the Chicagoland area, has aligned a network of physicians across specialties who have a similar passion, purpose and level of expertise and who also recognize the benefits of shared decision-making. By focusing our energy on building relationships with physicians who are intimately involved in their patients’ care, committed to pertinent data sharing, and who care about people as well as science, we nurture mutually beneficial partnerships that create real value. Our technology-enabled, data-driven approach, which incorporates patient-generated data into advanced care models, is supported by our relationships with cross-disciplinary and sub-specialty teams in various health systems. This requires continuous and intentional nurturing of relationships. The delivery of such patient-centered care is no small order. Rather, it requires robust leadership, vision and cohesive team building. #healthcare #primarycare #leadership #chronicdisease #innovation #relationships #specialtycare #networking #womeninhealthcare

Our approach to connected, coordinated patient care received national recognition this week when we were named "Chronic Disease Management Company of the Year" for 2025 by Healthcare Business Review. Among the factors that caught Healthcare Business Review’s attention: 👏 Intelligent automation that enhances, but doesn’t replace, the human connection 👏 A continuous presence in patients’ lives, with patient monitoring devices and wearables for data-driven intervention and real-time support 👏 A progressive approach to risk stratification that drives better health outcomes 👏 Thoughtfully connected care experiences that make patients feel seen and empowered “In my role as a primary care internal medicine physician, I’ve always seen myself as the fulcrum of my patients’ care journeys, driving productive and timely collaborations with subspecialists and making an intentional effort in sharing pertinent data to ensure they receive the most holistic care possible and have the best possible outcomes, especially those managing chronic conditions,” Mary Tilak MD, MBA, told Healthcare Business Review. Find out more in this article: https://lnkd.in/ge8giAdN #healthcare #primarycare #patientexperience #chronicdisease #value #innovation #automation #healthtech

"In 2025, as I look at my own practice’s strategy in deploying Advanced Primary Care Management Services, I hope to find myself in discussions with tech partners that are less about 'the pitch' and more about, 'What could we accomplish together by collaborating on a solution?'”: Mary Tilak MD, MBA #healthcare #innovation #primarycare #chronicdisease