Want more face time with your doctor? Atrium Health has a solution — AI

Atrium Health is using artificial intelligence assistance to give doctors more one-on-one time with their patients.

What’s more, Atrium is the first health system in the country to use the new artificial intelligence tool. It aims to free up time for doctors to have more interaction with patients instead of being bogged down by administrative workload in electronic documentation.

Since June, 125 Atrium primary care providers across the Southeast have been testing Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience Copilot, or DAX Copilot. The AI assistant records conversations between doctor and patient, then creates automated clinical documentation.

Based in Charlotte, Atrium is part of Advocate Health, the third-largest nonprofit health system in the U.S. Charlotte physicians were among the health care providers who tested the new AI. Atrium is not disclosing how much it is investing in the new technology.

“There’s a lot of things in medicine (where) technology has created challenges,” Dr. Matt Anderson, medical director of virtual health for Advocate Health and Atrium’s senior medical director for primary care, told The Charlotte Observer in an exclusive interview.

For instance, administrative duties, like electronic health care documentation, take doctors’ focus off patients during visits and requires more time afterward to finish the report.

That’s where the new AI app comes in.

In early trials, Atrium said, the tool has been shown to save physicians 30 to 40 minutes per day, allowing them to put a greater focus on patient interaction.

Atrium Health and DAX Copilot creator Nuance, a Microsoft company, unveiled the AI tool and initial findings about its usage at a Las Vegas health and wellness conference focused on healthcare innovation that ran from Sunday through Tuesday.

How the AI healthcare app works

Physicians’ download the application on their mobile phones. Patients — in the office and during telehealth visits — must provide consent for recording and use, Atrium and Nuance officials said.

DAX Copilot allows doctors to create draft clinical summaries automatically and securely in seconds from the exams or telehealth conversations for immediate review by physicians.

After the visit, the doctor hits unrecord and within about 15 seconds, the AI assistant generates documentation.

“I’m now able to go back and edit that note as needed with any electronic health record, which significantly speeds up the efficiency with which I’m able to do my work,” Anderson said.

The AI assistant excludes pleasantries in conversations and remains focused on medical clinical information.

“It’s not just a straight transcript,” Anderson said, “but it’s actually taking useful information that is pertinent to the clinical documentation needed and putting that into the note for me.”

The AI is trained on over 14 million clinical encounters over the last four years before being used by Atrium Health, Kenneth Harper, vice president of of Dragon Ambient eXperience at Nuance, told the Observer.

During a conversation, the AI uses context of what’s being discussed to pull out the necessary information such as a diagnosis, why the patient came in that day, what the patient says about their symptoms and what the clinician is saying about the diagnosis and treatment plan.

All that documentation, Harper said, happens within seconds.

How AI helps doctors and patients

Earlier this year, the American Medical Association called physician burnout an epidemic in the U.S. health care system. The AMA cited data showing nearly 63% of physicians reported signs of burnout such as emotional exhaustion at least once a week.

The biggest reason for burnout and frustration? Administrative burdens, according to the AMA.

Primary care providers have been disproportionately impacted by electronic health records and other technologies that have created burdensome challenges. “We’ve been aggressively looking for ways that we can improve that,” Anderson said.

DAX Copilot frees up clinicians, he said, by reducing administrative workloads, improving efficiency and most importantly, helping patients. “Patients are going to benefit from an increased engagement and connectivity.”

That also will go a long way in helping the medical professionals at Atrium Health. It has about 11,000 doctors and 22,000 nurses at 40 hospitals and hundreds of care locations across North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

What Atrium doctors say about DAX Copilot

In a survey, Atrium clinicians who used DAX Copilot said that it’s easy to use, improves documentation and enhances their experience providing care to patients. The majority of physicians said they’d be disappointed if they no longer had access to it.

“We’ve been really excited about what this has been able to do for those providers within our network,” Anderson said.

The AI documentation assistant started with primary care providers, he said, but eventually could be expanded to other medical areas such as nursing triage. The tech also can be used for virtual appointments. “The beauty of this is (the) technology is able on the phone, with the clinician, wherever they are,” Anderson said.

A survey of patients after doctor visits that used DAX Copilot found 80% reported their clinician was “more personable” and “trustworthy,” Harper said. “They’re getting much more attention and focus that just wasn’t possible before this type of technology.”

While today DAX Copilot application is focused on clinical documentation, “that’s just the beginning,” Harper said.

“We’re capturing a signal that represents what a clinician is doing with the patient while the patient is sitting down in the exam room,” he said. “It opens up a world of possibility on how we can use that signal to bring all the information that a clinician might need to know or take into consideration on how best to treat that patient while the patient is still there.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2023 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Want more face time with your doctor? Atrium Health has a solution — AI."