AI Makes Medical Notes Easier To Read, But Trust Issues Remain

The new artificial intelligence system enables doctors to ease their workload while providing patients more personalized visit summaries

Dr. Veena Jones, chief medical information officer at Sutter Health, explained to the American Medical Association (AMA) how their health system is using ambient AI to change the way medical records are written.

Sutter Health has partnered with Abridge, an AI company that allows doctors to record conversations with patients (with consent) and then generates a full clinical note and a simpler, patient-friendly summary.

“One really stark difference with ambient AI is this is really powerful and really is alleviating a lot of the burden that our clinicians have felt,” Dr. Jones said to AMA.

The new AI system helps doctors to create detailed notes without requiring them to remember the patient’s conversation or typing it into the system. Dr. Jones explains that this allows Doctors to spend their visit time speaking with patients instead of typing notes.

After clicking “Create Note,” they receive both a professional record and a readable summary for the patient. These summaries are reviewed by the doctor before being sent out.

“We’ve heard anecdotally that our clinicians are overall quite impressed with the output,” Dr. Jones said to AMA. Patients, too, have responded positively, with many feeling more listened to and understood.

Dr. Jones explained to AMA, “The patient was very impressed at the level of detail and really left saying, wow, they really listened to me.”

Over 2,000 clinicians at Sutter Health now use this tool, and expansion to hospital-based and emergency staff is underway. Dr. Jones sees long-term benefits: “I think patients are really uniquely positioned to do those things. And it’s also our obligation to give them information in a way that they can digest it to be those members of their care team. So I think that’s really where the power of AI is in helping us provide easily digestible patient summaries.”

However, it’s not all smooth sailing. A contrasting study by psychologists at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg showed that many patients experience discomfort when they find out their doctors use AI to perform basic tasks.

The study, published last week, showed that patients viewed physicians who disclosed AI use as less competent, trustworthy, and empathetic.

“One possible reason for this finding could be that people are concerned that doctors blindly trust the AI,” the study authors explained, as reported by MedicalExpress.

Even when AI was used only for administrative purposes, respondents were less likely to book appointments with those doctors. The researchers emphasize that these concerns need to be openly addressed by healthcare providers.

“When doctors inform their patients about the use of AI, they should aim to address potential concerns and highlight possible benefits,” they noted to MedicalExpress. “Despite increasing technologization, AI could thereby make our health care even more human,” the authors concluded.