The Expert APProach: Digital Health, AI, and the Evolving Role of APPs in Urology, with Jennifer Bepple, MD, MMCi

In this episode of The Expert APProach: Conversations in Uro-Oncology, host Joy Maulik, CRNP, sits down with Jennifer Bepple, MD, MMCi—a dual board-certified urologist and informaticist—to explore how digital health, artificial intelligence (AI), and data-driven innovation are reshaping urologic care. Bepple brings a pragmatic, patient-first lens to technology, emphasizing that meaningful innovation starts not with shiny tools, but with real clinical problems that demand better solutions.

Bepple reframes AI as a broad umbrella rather than a single solution, cautioning against buzzwords while highlighting its potential to streamline workflows, restore human connection, and return clinicians’ focus to patients. Rather than replacing providers, she advocates for a “centaur model” of care—where clinicians remain the decision-makers and technology serves as the engine supporting efficiency, access, and safety.

A central theme of the conversation is access to care. Bepple discusses how digital health tools, including telehealth and AI-enabled workflows, can meet patients where they are—geographically, socially, and emotionally—while reducing no-show rates and improving continuity of care. She challenges the notion that technology makes medicine impersonal, arguing instead that it can help clinicians reclaim the relational aspects of care that have been eroded by administrative burden.
The discussion also spotlights the evolving and expanding role of advanced practice providers (APPs). Bepple emphasizes APP subspecialization, leadership development, and inclusion in operational, strategic, and business decisions as essential solutions to workforce shortages and fragmented care. She underscores the importance of maximizing every provider to the top of their license and fostering cultures rooted in mutual respect, autonomy, and shared purpose.

Closing the episode, Bepple offers practical advice for APPs interested in leadership or digital health: start with the problem that keeps you thinking, not the technology itself. She encourages clinicians to stay technologically literate, critically evaluate digital tools for safety, value, and scalability, and expand their professional networks beyond traditional silos.

This episode delivers an empowering, forward-looking conversation on how APPs and physicians alike can lead healthcare transformation—by staying curious, embracing innovation thoughtfully, and keeping patients at the center of every solution.