A Urologist on Improving Patient Care Through Technology

Healthcare has never had more technology, and patients have rarely felt more lost. They’re discharged without understanding why they were admitted. Their records live in five portals. Their second opinion starts from scratch.

Dr. Domenico Savatta sees that fragmentation as an engineering problem, and he’s built his practice to solve it. A board-certified urologist, robotic surgeon, and founder of Innovative Urology in New Jersey, he trained as an engineer at Cooper Union before medicine. On EP 07 of Truly Integrated, he walked iScribe CEO Pat Williams through what improving patient care through technology actually looks like when a physician designs it from the patient’s side of the table.

Prefer to listen? Hear Dr. Savatta’s full conversation on Truly Integrated, EP 07: episode page · Apple Podcasts · Spotify

Key Takeaways

• Technology improves patient care when it works in the background and makes care feel continuous to the patient.
• Dr. Savatta organizes patient records into condition-specific “rooms” so test results, imaging, and procedure videos live in one place.
• Engaging patients before the first visit gets ahead of problems and makes every encounter more efficient.
• AI is powerful when it has guardrails and is used to assist the physician, never to replace them.
• Ambient documentation gives physicians their patient time back without sacrificing the note.

Start With the Problem, Not the Technology

Dr. Savatta’s engineering background shows up in how he talks about medicine. “You have a problem,” he said, and the job is to solve it.

He’s done that before. He got into robotic surgery around 2003, when it was just getting started, and helped build one of the leading robotic surgery programs in the world, training surgeons who traveled from all over to learn. Early in his career, he even built a website and an EMR for his eight-physician group.

Innovative Urology started with a different problem. Healthcare has become fragmented, and patients aren’t getting continuous care. As Dr. Savatta put it, the goal was to “put care back into patient care” and give every patient the kind of navigation he received as a physician-patient himself.

“I consider myself the captain of the ship,” he said. “We have a big crew, and [we’re] using technology wisely to help assist us in doing our job.”

Care Begins Before the First Visit

Most practices don’t consider someone a patient until they’re in the exam room. Dr. Savatta thinks differently.

His model starts the moment someone has a urologic concern. His websites give patients reputable, organized education on their condition and every reasonable option, including ones he doesn’t perform. His app, in development, lets patients communicate with his office, uses AI to help organize their history, and tells them which records to bring.

That early engagement pays off clinically. Dr. Savatta described a patient with a kidney stone scheduled to see him in a week. If the pain returns, that patient knows to call him and go to the hospital where he’ll be, and can potentially have surgery and be home within eight hours. Without that relationship, the same patient ends up at a random ER, gets another CT scan, and may be sent home or admitted for days.

“Most doctors really don’t consider it a patient until they come into the room and they’re seeing them for the first time,” he said. “I think of it a lot different than that.”

Patients respond when their physician reaches out first. In a 2024 national survey reported by ASTP/ONC, the federal office for health IT, 87% of individuals encouraged by their provider accessed their patient portal at least once in the past year, compared with 57% of those who weren’t encouraged. Engagement works best when the practice starts it.

A “Room” for Every Condition

One practical idea from the episode is how Dr. Savatta organizes information. Instead of dumping everything into a portal, each condition gets its own “room” in the patient’s app. A patient diagnosed with prostate cancer has a prostate cancer room containing the biopsy report, the MRI, the PET scan, and even video from their cystoscopy.

Technology made that last part possible. Single-use cystoscopes, at roughly $100 each, give every patient a clean scope and high-quality images that can be shared with the patient. Dr. Savatta is exploring giving patients their surgical videos, too.

“Portals have so much information on them, it’s almost overload,” he explained. The room model gives patients record portability, makes second opinions easier, and creates a more cohesive experience.

The overload shows up in national data, too. According to ASTP/ONC, more than half of individuals nationally (59%) had multiple online medical records or patient portals in 2024, yet only 7% used a portal organizing app to combine that information in one place. Organizing records by condition, around the patient, is a practical answer to that gap.

Technology in the Background, Empathy in the Foreground

For all his enthusiasm about technology, Dr. Savatta is clear-eyed about its limits. He’s excited about the future of autonomous robotic surgery, and concerned about whether surgeons trained only on screens and simulators will develop the skills to take over when something goes wrong.

His view on AI follows the same logic. “I think the AI can be used wonderfully if you know how to use it and you understand the limitations of it, and you give it guardrails, and you’re using the right software the right way. If you’re using it incorrectly, you rely on it to replace you. That’s not a good thing.”

Technology, used well, is invisible to the patient. “There’s a lot of different touch points,” he said. “They feel one care, one consistent message.”

And that frees the physician to be human. Dr. Savatta’s intake forms ask patients where their favorite place to go is and what they want him to know about them. “People are people,” he said. “I think it’s important to remember they’re people like we are and putting that first.”

Documentation Is Where Technology Gives Time Back

Dr. Savatta used a human scribe for a while. Today he uses an ambient scribe, and he called the shift “huge.”

“With the ambient scribe, it’s amazing that you can actually get your patient time back,” he said. “[It’s] a huge advance in patient care that I think has really helped us bring back the ability to talk to patients and not worry about what we’re documenting.”

That lost time has been measured. In a time-and-motion study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, which observed 57 physicians across four specialties, physicians in the exam room spent 52.9% of the time on direct clinical face time with patients and 37.0% on EHR and desk work. Every minute that moves off the screen is a minute that can go back to the patient.

For specialists like Dr. Savatta, iScribe delivers a processed note in roughly 30 seconds, provider-specific macros tuned to each urologist’s documentation, and deep EHR integration. For urology practices on athenahealth or NextGen, iScribe Code Intelligence adds E&M code recommendations with 95% audited accuracy.

Getting Ahead of Denials With Better Documentation

Dr. Savatta approaches denials the way he approaches everything else. He works to understand the system and get ahead of it. He follows established guidelines like NCCN for cancer care, so his orders are defensible, and he uses AI to draft evidence-backed appeal letters when needed.

As Pat noted in the conversation, iScribe is focused next on proactively running documentation against managed care rules so specialists don’t miss the details that trigger documentation-related denials. Those rules change constantly, and no busy surgeon should have to track them between cases. We think that’s where specialty documentation goes next. If you see it differently, we’d like to hear why.

A Checklist for Improving Patient Care Through Technology

Dr. Savatta’s test for any tool is simple: does it make care feel continuous to the patient, and does it leave the physician in charge? Here is how the tools from the episode line up against that test.

• Pre-visit website and app → What the patient experiences: Education and a point of contact before the first appointment → What the physician still owns: The relationship and the care plan.
• Condition-specific record “rooms” → What the patient experiences: Results, imaging, and procedure videos in one place → What the physician still owns: Interpreting results and recommending options.
• Ambient documentation → What the patient experiences: A physician who talks with them instead of typing → What the physician still owns: Reviewing and signing the note.
• AI-drafted appeal letters → What the patient experiences: An evidence-backed appeal when coverage is denied → What the physician still owns: Checking the letter before it goes out.

If a tool adds screens, logins, or steps for the patient, it is working in the foreground, not the background. For habits that keep the visit itself centered on the patient, see our 5 ways to demonstrate quality patient care and our guide to improving the exam room experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does technology improve patient care?

Technology improves patient care when it makes care feel continuous, by organizing records, engaging patients before visits, and removing documentation from the exam room so physicians can focus on the conversation.

How do ambient scribes improve the patient experience?

Ambient scribes capture the conversation as it happens, so physicians can talk to patients without worrying about documentation. iScribe delivers a processed note in roughly 30 seconds.

Should AI replace physicians in care decisions?

No. As Dr. Savatta explained, AI works best with guardrails, as an assistant to the physician, not a replacement.

What are examples of technology improving patient care?

In Dr. Savatta’s practice, examples include pre-visit education on his websites, a patient app in development that uses AI to help organize each patient’s history, condition-specific record “rooms,” single-use cystoscopes that produce shareable images, and ambient documentation in the exam room.

Why does continuity of care matter to patients?

Continuity means patients don’t start over at every step. In Dr. Savatta’s kidney stone example, an established patient knows to call him and go to the hospital where he’ll be, instead of landing at a random ER and getting another CT scan.

How can practices make patient records easier to manage?

Organize records around the patient’s conditions instead of one crowded portal. A single, condition-organized view makes record sharing and second opinions easier.

What guardrails should practices put around AI in patient care?

Dr. Savatta’s guardrails start with understanding the tool’s limitations and using the right software the right way. In practice, the physician reviews anything AI drafts, from clinical notes to appeal letters, and the tool should be built to protect patient health information. Our guide to AI medical dictation data security covers what to ask.

About Dr. Domenico Savatta

Dr. Domenico Savatta, MD, FACS, is a board-certified urologic surgeon and the founder of Innovative Urology, with offices in Perth Amboy and Edison, New Jersey. He earned a B.S. in engineering, summa cum laude, from The Cooper Union, received his medical degree from SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine, and completed his urology residency at Indiana University School of Medicine. A Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, he has performed 3,000 robotic surgeries, including 2,000 robotic prostatectomies.

Hear the Full Conversation

Listen to Dr. Domenico Savatta on Truly Integrated, EP 07, “How Technology Can Restore the Human Side of Medicine.”

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