HARTFORD HEALTHCARE AND K HEALTH LAUNCH PATIENTGPT A NEW 24/7 AI BRIDGE TO THE CLINICAL CARE TEAM

A New AI System Embedded Inside a Healthcare Network Answers Questions in Real Time, Bridging Electronic Medical Records and Clinician Access

HARTFORD, Conn., March 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- More and more Americans are turning to consumer AI platforms for medical information. Until now, those educational conversations with AI have taken place outside of the healthcare system. Without access to the user's private and secure medical information, educational information provided by the AI tool may not be as meaningful to the user.

Today, Harford HealthCare and K Health announced the launch of PatientGPT, a new AI system with the ability to securely access the user's medical record and link to a virtual visit upon request. PatientGPT, accessible right within the Hartford HealthCare patient portal and app, is rolling out as a beta version for a limited number of patients to try.

PatientGPT is an AI tool available 24 hours per day, and designed to provide personalized education and guidance grounded in each user's personal health data, empowering people with clear, trusted answers for basic health questions and a seamless pathway to care –when and if they choose– within one continuous experience. 

Unlike health information available through consumer-focused AI tools that operate outside of a healthcare system, PatientGPT can make things more efficient for the patient's established care team. According to K Health, PatientGPT is powered by a coordinated system of specialized AI agents embedded within secure infrastructure. It provides patients the option to connect directly to Hartford HealthCare clinicians through HHC 24/7 virtual care, or schedule in-person primary-care or specialty appointment. HHC hopes the combination of targeted education and access to telehealth or in-person care will eliminate the "dead end" experience often associated with standalone chatbots.

"We're on a mission to be the most consumer centric health system in the country," said Jeff Flaks, President & CEO of Hartford HealthCare. "So much of healthcare has traditionally been organized around the provider, but it's clear we have to meet people where they are and where they desire to be met. With PatientGPT we are introducing a new tool that supports your health and provides access to a 24/7 care team, while protecting the human relationships at the heart of care."

A New Category of AI That Can Support the Care Team

Developed by K Health over nearly a decade of research, K Health points out they designed the system to understand the language of medicine – including symptoms, medications, treatment pathways, and the ambiguity inherent in real-world conditions. K Health developed PatientGPT to educate patients within defined clinical guardrails, and built the tool to ask clarifying questions, surface relevant medical context, and includes functionality intended to support access to immediate care when appropriate.

"We are at an inflection point in healthcare," said Allon Bloch, CEO and Co-Founder of K Health. "Demand is accelerating, and patients are already using AI to navigate their lives. The question isn't whether AI will shape healthcare, it's about how we do it in a safe, transparent way, inside a health system that connects to your medical records and your care team. PatientGPT represents that turning point."

How PatientGPT Supports Patients and Clinicians

Accessible through a link within Hartford HealthCare patient portal, PatientGPT enables patients to:

• Better understand lab results in plain language
• Ask health-related questions within the context of their medical record
• Identify potential medication interactions
• Access conversation summaries  that the user can copy-and-paste as in-basket messages to their provider
• Connect to virtual care or allow the patient to schedule an in-person visit if they choose

For clinicians, summaries of chats are available for review, providing additional context before visits and helping streamline routine informational exchanges. By organizing patient concerns in advance and addressing non-urgent informational needs, PatientGPT enables licensed members of care teams to focus more of their time on diagnosis, decision-making, and direct patient engagement.

Validation, Governance, and Safety

In partnership with Hartford HealthCare's clinical teams, PatientGPT is being introduced through a phased rollout that, in its limited beta phase, includes oversight by licensed providers, structured feedback, and quality monitoring. K Health developed the system to operate as an auditable, multi-agent system, with independent review agents that assess responses against pre-loaded clinical guidance to mitigate model drift and reinforce safety. PatientGPT does not diagnose, prescribe treatment, or operate autonomously; it will only be available to patients 18 and older in the State of Connecticut and is designed to escalate to human clinicians whenever ambiguity or risk persists, or if a patient chooses to see or communicate directly with a licensed provider.

• This clinical AI system operates within Hartford HealthCare's HIPAA-compliant infrastructure. Patient health data is not used to train external AI models. All interactions are subject to the same privacy, security, and audit protections that apply to existing electronic medical records.

About Hartford HealthCare:
With over 48,000 dedicated colleagues and a bold vision for the future, Hartford HealthCare is transforming healthcare across Connecticut and beyond — enhancing access, affordability, health equity, and excellence. Spanning more than 500 locations across 185 towns and cities, our comprehensive care-delivery system is built to serve every community, every day.

From world-class hospitals—including two tertiary-level teaching hospitals, an acute-care community teaching hospital, an acute-care hospital and trauma center, and four community hospitals—to an expansive network of behavioral health services, multispecialty physician groups, urgent and virtual care, surgery centers, home care, senior care, rehabilitation, and mobile neighborhood health programs, Hartford HealthCare is there when and where it matters most.

Hartford HealthCare touches the lives of more than 28,000 people every single day, delivering unparalleled care through its unique Institute Model — bringing together leading experts in neuroscience, cancer, digestive health, heart and vascular care, orthopedics, and urology and kidney health to provide a unified, high standard of care at the most affordable cost.

Recognized nationally for patient safety and clinical excellence, Hartford HealthCare was the only health system in the country awarded the prestigious Quest for Quality Prize from the American Hospital Association and boasts Leapfrog A-ratings across all its hospitals — making Hartford HealthCare one of the safest healthcare systems in the country.

Join us on our journey to redefine healthcare. Visit www.HartfordHealthCare.org and stay connected through our newsletters and social media.

About K Health:
K Health is the leading clinical AI company in primary care. Its suite of clinical AI agents enable both online and brick-and-mortar primary care delivery. K Health partners with Cedars-Sinai, Hackensack Meridian Health, Hartford HealthCare, and other leading systems to create 24/7 access to high-quality primary care. K Health was founded in 2016, has raised over $400M from leading investors, and is headquartered in New York City. Notable investors include Valor Equity Partners, Claure Group, Mangrove Capital Partners, 14W, Notable Capital, Lerer Hippeau, Primary Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures, PICO Venture Partners, Max Ventures, and other strategic healthcare partners. Hartford HealthCare holds an equity interest in K Health. For more information, please visit www.khealth.com.

SOURCE Hartford HealthCare & K Health