Healthcare providers are highly trained and valued professionals whose abilities include skills found nowhere else in society. But in certain respects, they are no different from everyone else. Understanding that fact and doing something about it is one of the keys to building a medical system that can meet human needs in an increasingly complex world.
Take clinical documentation, for example, which lies at the heart of any medical practice. Although doctors know far more than most people about medical terminology and the diagnosis and treatment of disease, they get as frustrated as anyone else when the tools of their trade don’t do the things they expect them to do.
That’s why a new generation of AI-powered medical scribes is making such a positive impact on workflows in medical practices of every size and specialty. The virtues of AI medical scribes include speed and accuracy. They take advantage of advances in technology, including natural-language processing and ambient listening. They can document in multiple languages and integrate information into patient records, quickly and seamless.y.
The Power of AI Medical Transcription
With all that going for them, it would be easy to conclude that AI medical scribes are a panacea for practices. Just turn it on, and you’re all set.
It isn’t quite that simple, of course. But understanding how these scribes interact with human thinking can be useful as practices consider adoption and implementation.
In his best-selling 2011 book Thinking, Fast and Slow, psychologist and Nobel Prize recipient Daniel Kahneman laid out a thesis that explores two modes of human thought. Kahneman’s “System 1” refers to the instinctive kind of thinking that involved first impressions and immediate reactions, while his “System 2” refers to the slower, more analytic process that kicks in after we have formed an initial impression.
It’s much like starting a new job. You do some “fast thinking” at first to develop an impression of your new boss and coworkers. Indeed, human beings can’t help but do that. But it is only after you’ve had some time to do the “slow thinking” that comes over the next few days, weeks, and months that you can properly understand your new work environment and adjust to it as needed.
Adopting and implementing AI-powered medical transcription products works in a similar way.
For starters, such products are fast, creating a transcript and draft Progress Note in far less time than a human being requires. They use natural-language processing, machine learning, and advanced algorithms to understand and extract relevant medical information from patient/provider conversations. It amounts to forming a first impression — and often an excellent one.
In that very rapid process of drafting a Progress Note, AI medical scribes are essentially doing what the human brain does in its initial “fast thinking” phase — forming a picture. And while it may be a very accurate and clinically useful picture, its real value lies in what comes next — the “slow thinking” phrase that takes place during review by a clinically trained human.
It is in that second part of the process that the provider applies those qualities of judgment and discernment that constitute the art of medicine:
- Has the draft Progress Note really captured everything?
- Is there a lingering sense that anything is missing?
- What obvious or telltale symptoms might still require further investigation?
While it’s easy for providers frustrated by medical documentation to greet an AI medical scribe with relief, it is vitally important that they remember the respective strengths of computers and humans. Computers are built for speed and accuracy, but the human touch — a combination of pattern recognition, intuition, and old-fashioned caring — remains essential if we are to deliver outstanding healthcare.
Sunoh.ai’s Specialty-Specific AI Scribe
Sunoh’s AI medical scribe is designed to handle the unique documentation needs of various medical specialties, offering customizable templates and workflows for many medical specialties. And Sunoh does much more than create a transcript — it intelligently maps information to the appropriate sections of specialty-specific note formats such as SOAP notes, DAP notes, and procedure notes.
Here are some highlights of what Sunoh offers for various specialties:
Optometry and Ophthalmology
- Handles both optometry exams and ophthalmology surgical notes
- Features a unique “right eye, left eye” grid format for comprehensive eye exams
- Seamlessly switches between exam templates based on visit type
Orthopedics
- Efficiently documents both office visits and surgical procedures
- Captures detailed patient history of present illness (HPI) to provide context
- Generates concise yet comprehensive orthopedic procedure notes
Behavioral and Mental Health
- Supports DAP (Data, Assessment, Plan) notes commonly used in Behavioral Health
- Flexibly handles both SOAP and DAP note formats within the same specialty
- Accurately maps information to the appropriate DAP sections based on the provider’s dictation
Seamless EHR Integration
We’ve covered how Sunoh’s AI-powered medical scribe creates fast and highly accurate drafts and is perfect for all kinds of providers. But there are several other key points that separate great software solutions from merely good ones.
Integration is key. All the information in the world won’t matter if you can’t put it to effective use. Providers who may have thousands of patients simply cannot afford the time needed to look up each record manually and transfer new information into that record. They need integration tools.
Sunoh integrates with leading EHRs, including Epic and Cerner, and is tightly integrated with eClinicalWorks. It imports clinical notes, medications, labs, and images into each patient’s chart, allowing providers to use the EHR of their choice and still benefit from a learning medical scribe.
All that information constitutes a full picture of the patient, amounting, if you will, to a story. And there are few things more appealing to humans than stories.
As Kahneman wrote in Thinking, Fast and Slow: “The confidence that individuals have in their beliefs depends mostly on the quality of the story they can tell about what they see.”
Advanced Features for Enhanced Efficiency
Sunoh is artificial intelligence, but providers who use it regularly might be forgiven for thinking it seems very human-like. That’s because it exhibits the kind of flexibility and range that we admire in humans.
For example, Sunoh:
- Is multilingual, allowing providers to document in English, Portuguese, or any of 20 dialects of Spanish, with more language options under development.
- Can understand and document conversations even when the provider and patient speak different languages or there are more than two speakers in the conversation.
- Offers mobile apps for iOS and Android that enable providers to conduct dictation on the go.
- Generates patient instructions and after-visit summaries to strengthen patient engagement.
Real-World Impact
Sunoh’s AI medical scribe has been adopted by more than 50,000 providers across the U.S., many of whom have reported it saves then two or more hours per provider per day on clinical documentation.
That saving of time helps practices in three major ways:
- Providers and staff who spend less time on documentation and paperwork are better able to focus on direct patient care, getting to know their patients, really listening to what they are saying, and shaping stronger treatment plans that lead to better medical outcomes.
- Some of the time practices save can be used to expand access to care. Simply by seeing more patients in the course of the day — or by offering additional services to them — practices are able to build their reputation in their communities and achieve long-term stability.
- Finally, by reducing administrative burdens commonly associated with physician burnout, practices can offer providers and staff the opportunity to complete their work on time each day and achieve greater job satisfaction and a better work/life balance.
The Future of Clinical Documentation
The future of AI-powered medical transcription is perhaps best thought of as two futures — what happens in the near term and what happens in the long term.
In the near term, it remains true that businesses of all kinds, including healthcare practices, may still want to weigh the pros and cons of human v. AI-powered medical scribes, a process concisely laid out in this spring 2024 article in Forbes.
But as AI medical transcription advances in speed and sophistication, the long-term trends are clear — the pros of machine-based transcription will continue to grow, making the drawbacks of using human scribes all the more obvious.
What made sense just a few years ago — using a mix of human and machine-based scribes — won’t make much or any sense for the overwhelming percentage of healthcare practices, regardless of their size or specialty.
