In many parts of the United States, patients have gotten used to living without primary care. Nearly 75 million people in the United States live in an area with a shortage of these critical providers, leading to long wait times — if a patient can find primary care at all. 

The scale of the access problem, “it’s like red alert — red, red, red alert level — and it’s been like that for a while,” said physician Rajesh Patel, vice president of digital patient experience at Mass General Brigham.

The situation is only getting worse: By 2037, the nation will be short 87,000 primary care physicians, according to federal estimates. 

Clinical artificial intelligence company K Health thinks it has part of the solution. Over the last two years, it has partnered with five large health systems — Cedars-Sinai, Mayo Clinic, Hackensack Meridian Health, Hartford HealthCare, and Mass General Brigham — to launch round-the-clock virtual primary care platforms enabled by its AI. Today, it announced another partnership with Northwell Health, New York’s largest health system, which began rolling out its platform in October. 

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