Novartis exec Reshema Kemps-Polanco touts AI to connect care dots

The panel, sponsored by Novartis and moderated by Fortune's Ellie Austin, framed fragmented midlife care as a systems problem rather than a single-doctor problem. Schneider traced part of it to training: future OB-GYNs receive only about two hours, if that, of medical school education on women's midlife health, which her institute is trying to address through continuing medical education for clinicians and by teaching women what to ask their providers.

Kemps-Polanco extended the point beyond menopause, describing a constellation of symptoms that send women to different specialists who each treat them in isolation, and said records cannot always be counted on to be connected. She recounted typing unexplained symptoms into an AI tool during an emergency room visit, saying she did not know how accurate it was but that it helped her have a conversation.

Barnes added a counterweight, saying care should be backed by clinical evidence and that patients should be able to engage an actual clinician rather than rely on AI alone. Together the remarks suggest the near-term use case is narrowing the gap between scattered visits, not replacing the visit itself.