May 02, 2026

Subject: 🏥 Photon Just Killed the “E” in E-Prescribing

Hello Hospitalogists,

I’m excited to announce the Hospitalogy AI Retreat happening this November in Phoenix! This in-person event fosters off-record conversations on value-based care, AI, healthcare transformation, and more. Apply here if you want to join.

Now, onto a major shift in pharmacy: Photon Health just raised $16M to rewrite the playbook on ambulatory prescriptions — the single highest-frequency consumer touchpoint a health system has. Unlike traditional e-prescribing that benefits prescribers and logistics companies but loses the patient’s consumer experience, Photon rebuilds the entire patient interface. It surfaces pharmacy prices, delivery options, stock availability, and lets patients pick their pharmacy while enabling health systems to capture engagement.

Ambulatory patients fill 12-15 prescriptions per year and generate significant lifetime value (LTV), yet health systems lose $40M–$200M annually by treating pharmacy as a cost center. Photon offers a marketplace where health system pharmacies can compete like Amazon Prime, focusing on trust and consumer engagement rather than mere fulfillment.

Photon’s consumer-first platform is disrupting specialty-dominant pharmacy strategies by emphasizing ambulatory Rx as the LTV engine. Their metrics show 60-70% patient activation with over 90% prescription fill-through rates, rivaling DTC e-commerce engagement.

Challenges remain, including complex enterprise sales cycles and aligning stakeholders like pharmacy, CIO, marketing, and payor teams. Yet Photon’s leadership and scalable consumer product DNA position it well to help IDNs unite pharmacy, patient experience, and population health.

Health systems that treat ambulatory Rx as a high-frequency consumer touchpoint will gain structural advantages as AI-driven prescribing transforms workflows. Photon is ready to help forward-thinking systems lead this change.

Thanks for reading; I’m eager to hear your thoughts. —Blake

Subject: It’s Not Bad Doctors. It’s Bureaucratic Evil.

Dear Reader,

Modern healthcare is increasingly being hampered by rigid bureaucratic systems focused on compliance, checklists, and algorithms. This “bureaucratic evil” limits clinical judgment, causing moral injury and burnout among physicians, leaving many to lose sight of their original purpose.

Recent stories highlight the human side of medicine: a five-hour surgery navigating millimeters from death to save a construction worker, rising violence against senior clinicians emphasizing the need for new safety solutions including AI, and the growing physician shortage worldwide driven by systemic neglect and “brain drain.”

Clear communication remains vital—using absolute risks and consistent denominators helps patients make informed decisions, while policies grounded in trauma-informed care support the mental health needs of long-term care workers.

The future of medicine calls for a more humane, connected, and meaningful approach where technology and data do not overshadow the human element but restore joy and healing in care.

I invite you to reflect on these challenges and the need to reclaim meaning, purpose, and safety in healthcare practice.

Best,

KevinMD Team

Stay Well!