C‘is a snapshot of Italian healthcare that tells much more than a simple digital transition. It was triggered by a new investigation Dataanalysis 2025presented in Milan during the event “NOA: the Next-Gen Doctor”, promoted by My Doctor one year after the launch of NOA Notesthe artificial intelligence-based service dedicated to doctors and patients. And it’s a surprising image: In AI, patients are already two steps ahead of their doctors. A silent revolution, that of digital, which is no longer just about apps and online bookings. It’s about the trustthe expectationsthe cure itself. And, above all, the need to rethink the relationships between professionals and citizens in an era in which algorithms have become health’s traveling companions.
Patients who are more ready than their doctors: the new geography of digital trust
The numbers speak clearly: 79% of patients uses digital tools for health, from booking apps to teleconsultations, up to wearables that monitor vital parameters. And more than half – the 52% – expects AI to profoundly transform the way care is received. On the medical side, the vision is less straightforward. 83% of specialists and 76% of general practitioners believe that AI will change healthcare in the next five years, but adoption is held back by very real obstacles: complex platforms, poor integration with existing systems, insufficient training. In other words: confident patients, prudent doctors. It is a revolution that advances at different speeds.
AI is revolutionizing patient care
«Today the value of digital does not lie in reproducing traditional medicine, but in completing it, improving the quality of care and continuity of care», he explains Giuseppe Recchia, vice-president of Fondazione Tendenze Salute e Sanità and co-founder of the daVi DigitalMedicine startup. Many doctors, both specialists and general practitioners, use AI on the management aspects of the profession, but the real opportunity concerns the provision of assistance itself, which is fundamental at a time when even the most serious illnesses can be made chronic thanks to increasingly better treatments. THE’TO THEintegrated into apps and devices, becomes a multiplier of support possibilities and of personalization of care. It is therefore not just a question of process, but of clinical outcome and real quality of health. 51% of patients believe that theAI will revolutionize carebut it will soon become 100%, because the revolution is already underwayor, it is both enabling and empowering: it allows you to do what was not possible before, keeping the human being at the center. These two concepts, enabling and strengthening – concludes Recchia – make it a necessary tool. We have to just learn how to use itbecause the countries that are doing it are already stronger and more capable of moving forward.”
The missed opportunity (for now) for doctors: complex tools, training gaps, missing time
In the wards and clinics, there is use of technology, but it often stops at the basics: management software for the diary (up to 37% of specialists), communication platforms, digital reporting. Few, however, truly exploit the potential of artificial intelligence. And not out of lack of curiosity, but because the system has not yet been “educated” to do so. The main problems?
Tool complexity (21–22%),
lack of digital skills (18–20%),
poor integration into clinical systems (18%),
high costs.
Obstacles that risk turning an opportunity into a hindrance. «The research – he explains Stefano A. Inglese, health policy expert – in fact gives us a rapidly evolving picture, in which the disruptive growth of digital technologies and AI is perceived for its extraordinary potential, but also as an element of further complexity. THE’lightening of the bureaucratic burden and the simplification of procedures, the generation of clinical documentationthe cremote monitoring of chronic patientsas well as support for decision-making choices, free up doctors’ precious time recovered from the treatment relationship and the clinic. An opportunity for doctors and citizens, which however requires, to be fully seized, that technological innovation is accompanied by the necessary innovation of organizational models, under penalty of under-use or, worse, the risk of nullifying its positive effects”.
“Train the system, not just the software”: why we need an alliance between doctors and citizens
«The value of digital does not lie in replicating traditional medicine, but in completing it» he explains Giuseppe Recchiavice president of Health and Healthcare Trends Foundation. AI, he says, is already much more than a management support: it is a tool that can personalize treatments, monitor remotely, strengthen therapeutic continuity.
«The revolution is underway and has two key words: enablement and empowerment. AI allows us to do what was previously unthinkable, keeping the human being at the center.”
A paradigm shift that requires, first of all, shared training. Doctors and patients, together. Because if citizens are already “digital”, the system must learn to be so.
The other voice of research: technology yes, but with new organizational models
The complexity of this step is also reiterated Stefano A. Inglesehealth policy expert. Technology alone is not enough: «Organizational models must also be innovated. The lightening of the bureaucratic burden, the automatic drafting of clinical documents, the monitoring of chronic patients and the support for clinical choices free up precious time, which can return to the care relationship. But without a profound reorganization we risk nullifying the benefits.”
A transition that requires not only better tools, but above all confidence and skills.
MioDottore and NOA Notes: the challenge of an AI that simplifies, not replaces
For MioDottore, the challenge has already begun. «For ten years we have been working to make healthcare simpler and more humane», he explains Luca PuccioniCEO. «With NOA Notes we have inaugurated a new era of digital healthcare: simplifying the work of doctors, optimizing time, improving the relationship with the patient».
An objective that also intercepts the most widespread concerns: the reliability of diagnoses (23%), the fear of losing decision-making autonomy (21%) and, for 20%, the fear that AI could replace the doctor.
Fears that tell a simple truth: AI only works when it enhances the relationship, not when it replaces it.
The tools to make healthcare more accessible, efficient and humane
«For ten years MioDottore has been working to build a digital ecosystem that simplifies the relationship between doctors and citizens and a year ago, in Milan, we turned the spotlight on NOA Notes, our first service based on artificial intelligence, ushering in a new era in Digital Healthcare – he explains Luca Puccioni, CEO of MioDottore –. An ambitious project, born for revolutionize doctors’ work and simplify processes. It is all they need and what clearly emerges from the Datanalysis survey, which confirms how technology, if well managed, can make healthcare more accessible, efficient and humane.
The challenge is to accompany the change, equipping professionals and patients with the tools and resources skills necessary to govern artificial intelligence, and not suffer from it. With NOA we want to explore the present and future of Artificial Intelligence applied to Healthcare, and show how it is possible simplify daily work, optimize time and improve the doctor-patient relationship».
The patient of the future (who is already the patient of today)
Perhaps the most significant fact is that 55% of patients would willingly accept advanced AI toolsas long as they are simple to use.
And from here a new scenario opens up: a more informed, more involved, more protagonist patient. And therefore more willing to follow the therapy. A healthcare that can become more equitable, more personalized, more continuous. But only if doctors and citizens, together, are accompanied in this transformation. Because AI is not an end: it is a means. And its success depends on how much it manages to keep central the only thing that healthcare really does: the care relationship.