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Great Medicine — and Great IT — Begin with Listening

October 31, 2024

Cartoon Microphone for Sunoh.ai

Focusing on the patient/provider encounter and more

In the fast-moving world of healthcare IT, nothing is more important than developing products and services that meet the needs of providers and patients. But the biggest key to success isn’t found in lines of code, amazing user interfaces, or impactful marketing. It begins much sooner.

It begins with listening, the very same skill that is critical in healthcare itself.

Listening — remaining in the moment and truly focusing on what the other person is saying — is of prime importance in the patient encounter. A 2011 article by Mary T. Shannon in The Permanente Journal notes that, unfortunately, “the trajectory of medicine’s increasingly one-sided focus on science and technology over the humanities has created an ever-widening gap between physicians and patients.”

The importance of doctor/patient communication, teamed with the remarkable advances in today’s ambient listening technologies, explains why the AI-powered medical scribe Sunoh.ai carries that name. Sunoh means “listen” in Hindi, and it’s what Sunoh does best.

Acting on what we have long known

It isn’t enough to create a product that simply captures voice input. Lots of products can do that. The question is how to build a product that can make a positive difference in medicine.

A 1982 New England Journal of Medicine article by Eric Cassell made a critical observation. As summarized this past May in Psychology Today, Cassell’s point was that “Failing to understand the nature of patients’ suffering can lead to medical intervention that not only fails to relieve the individual’s suffering but also becomes a source of it.”

In other words, however dazzling your software may be, if it doesn’t solve the real-world, day-to-day problems that providers and patients face, it won’t succeed.

Leading Sunoh.ai features: Integrations, keywords, and multitasking

Since its introduction last year, Sunoh.ai has emerged as a market leader among AI-powered medical scribes, with key features that are helping providers reduce the time needed to complete daily documentation.

  • Integrated Workflow: Sunoh integrates clinically relevant information directly into a patient’s Progress Note; providers do not need to copy and paste The result is a more complete draft Note that they can more quickly review for accuracy, helping them complete their daily documentation in less time.
  • Multilingual Mastery: Sunoh’s ambient listening capabilities can now accurately capture natural language conversations that include a mix of Spanish and English, including those in which speakers are using Spanglish, a hybrid language that combines terms and loanwords from both languages.
  • Focus on Keywords: Careful listening means discerning, and Sunoh focuses on keywords that matter, while ignoring extraneous information. For example, Sunoh will pick up on key words and phrases such as foot exam, eye exam, depression screening, and A1c, while ignoring non-medical language and the incidental talk about family, sports, or other matters that may be part of a conversation but isn’t relevant for medical purposes.
  • Multitasking: While Sunoh can only record one provider/patient encounter at a time, providers needn’t wait for one visit’s summary to be completed before beginning the next visit. Sunoh can record a new encounter while it is generating a transcript for the previous one, meaning doctors have to endure lag time.

NC24: Meet the new and improved Sunoh.ai

The enhancements to Sunoh.ai unveiled at the recent eClinicalWorks® and healow® National Conference are all — directly or indirectly — focused on the core principle of effective, close listening. Each of the following items builds upon Sunoh’s capacities as the product continues to be refined in response to the needs of users. All will be part of Sunoh’s integration into V12.0.3 of the eClinicalWorks EHR.

Closing gaps, completing forms, and multiple participants

  • Highlight Care Gaps: Providers often prioritize gaps in care, seeking to first address a patient’s most pressing problems. Sunoh highlights care gaps in the provider’s To-Do list, helping ensure gaps are closed.
  • Depression Screening: Providers can ask questions on the PH9 depression screening form in any order. Sunoh places those responses in the appropriate section of the draft Progress Note, offers a comprehensive PH9 summary, and allows providers to view simple, expanded, or detailed versions of that summary.
  • Readback Option: Sunoh’s dictation feature is particularly useful for dental periodontal charting, allowing a hygienist to complete a patient’s charting without the need for a second person. And the feature now has a readback option, which allows the hygienist to hear the numbers and be confident they are being recorded accurately.
  • Multiple Participants: When and where appropriate, Sunoh can accommodate multiple participants in an encounter, including, for example, both the login nurse and the appointment provider with the patient.

Flexibility, security, and learning from feedback

  • Verbalization: Sunoh allows doctors to verbalize the dosages and frequency of medications and places that information in the Orders section of the patient’s record. Sunoh also detects discussions of patients’ allergies and reactions.
  • Asynchronous: Providers and patients don’t always go through the elements of a visit in the same order. With Sunoh, their conversation does not have to be chronological: Sunoh categorizes clinical data in the correct sections of a draft Progress Note, regardless of the order or timing of a discussion.
  • Learning Feedback: With Sunoh, artificial intelligence serves as an adjunct to the knowledge, caring, and empathy of humans. Physicians remain responsible for reviewing the draft Progress Notes that Sunoh creates.
  • Data Security: The transcripts and recordings that Sunoh creates are essential in helping providers complete their documentation to the patient’s permanent record on a daily basis. But for security reasons, those transcripts and recordings are deleted after seven days. 

Learn more about Sunoh.ai’s value

Sunoh.ai offers a free, no-obligation demo that will show you exactly how this AI medical scribe can meet your needs, whether you are a solo practice, part of a large group, a dental office, or specialize in cardiology, rheumatology, orthopedics, pediatrics, OB/GYN, behavioral health, or any other specialty.

And unlike other AI medical scribes, Sunoh.ai offers visit-based pricing beginning at just $1.25 per visit, with no monthly pricing, minimums, or long-term commitments.

Learn more about Sunoh.ai today.

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