Tech companies are in hot competition to offer tools that can ease the administrative load within healthcare. The latest effort comes from Amazon, which unveiled a new transcription service this week.
Amazon Web Service’s HealthScribe uses artificial intelligence and speech recognition to transcribe patient/doctor visits and conversations. The service can draft notes and highlight key details to enter into health records, Fierce Healthcare reported.
“Imagine a busy day at the clinic, where clinicians spend their day juggling appointments as they try to provide quality care,” AWS spokespersons said in a statement. “Clinicians often spend nearly twice as much time on administrative tasks instead of face-to-face interactions with patients. This creates a struggle between providing compassionate care and maintaining accurate records.”
It’s a description that many long-term care professionals can identify with.
HealthScribe is capable of more than just rote transcriptions, as the AI can identify speakers, delineate between “small talk” and more important discussions, and a post-visit summary, the company stated.
Currently, a preview version of the tool is available, although three software vendors — 3M, ScribeEMR, and Babylon — already are using the service, the company said.
Healthcare providers have shown increased interest in these types of AI-enabled services. The telehealth giant Teladoc recently announced it was partnering with Microsoft AI for a similar clinical documentation tool.
A pilot program at UNC Health also is testing a chatbot that can access reference materials and documents faster than before, as the McKnight’s Tech Daily has reported.
Those kinds of tools demonstrate how AI tech is assisting clinicians rather than replacing them outright. The optimal integration of AI into the healthcare industry involves using it for admin tasks like note-taking, as well as billing and scheduling, studies have shown.
The focus on administrative tasks can help with employee retention during staffing shortages.
