Physicians have been saving time and seeing more patients at health systems that have been early adopters of artificial intelligence-powered clinical documentation tools, the Association of American Medical Colleges reported.
Health systems using the DAX co-pilot tool from Microsoft subsidiary Nuance include Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health, Durham, N.C.-based Duke Health, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care and Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health, according to the Jan. 30 story.
"We're not at a place where I would say you should absolutely give this to every doctor," Patricia Garcia, MD, associate chief medical information officer for ambulatory healthcare at Stanford Health Care, told AAMC. "If I had to describe it in one word, I would say, 'Hopeful.'"
For one, the technology still needs to improve its note-taking accuracy and brevity, while privacy and cybersecurity concerns have to be addressed, according to the article. Nuance says physicians deploying DAX are spending two to seven minutes less on each appointment and half the time on documentation, adding five more patient visits to the average day.
"We have to focus on burden reduction for our clinicians," David McSwain, MD, chief medical informatics officer at UNC Health, told AAMC. "If we only use this technology to improve revenue, that would be an extremely negative outcome of this innovation."
Similar tools include an Epic-based version of DAX, the Oracle Digital Assistant, an emergency room app from Meditech and Google, and an eClinicalWorks platform with sunoh.ai, according to the article.