It seems we'll look back on 2024 as the year ambient AI scribing started to boom throughout healthcare, with more clinical groups considering or acquiring AI medical scribe tools. This is just the beginning: One analyst report considers AI scribes a high-value tool of rapid adoption, projected to be in just about every medical practice within five years.
Clinicians currently have a selection of available options – a healthy market makes for many players. However, it's crucial to know what an ambient AI platform – and ambient AI vendor – truly delivers, especially for specialty care practices.
"In specialty care, the nuances of each field demand more than a one-size-fits-all AI solution. Your ambient AI should speak your language." - Dean Dalili, Chief Medical Officer, DeepScribe
What do they offer today? What do they plan to offer in the next one, two, five years? How does their technology fit within your organization's current needs and future vision? Knowing the answers to those questions is critical when assessing new technology, but it’s equally important to know what to avoid.
We have found this to be a crucial part of the process for specialty and multi-specialty groups, especially those dealing with chronic care patients. For these groups and their clinical teams, the idea of a general “one-size-fits-all” AI solution, can create more problems than benefits.
If your practice or group delivers specialty care, here are four problems to watch out for - signs of an "off the shelf" offering that may hinder rather than help your practice.
1. Workflows that aren't specific to your specialty
The conversation and cognitive demand that takes place during an orthopedics visit isn't the same as an oncology visit, which isn't the same as a cardiology visit. Sound obvious? Of course, but if your ambient AI model lacks a particular understanding of your specialty's specific workflow, the resulting note won't reflect those details and will demand additional work from the clinician. For instance, an orthopedic surgeon needs an AI that understands the nuances of documenting range of motion assessments, while an oncologist requires an AI that can accurately capture complex treatment plans and side effect discussions.
2. Medical AI with a subpar understanding of your terms, diagnoses, and medications
Some medication names are a mouthful or mispronounced - never mind spelling them correctly when charting. Yet, accuracy in the patient chart is key for a multitude of reasons (none the least of which is avoiding clinical errors). If your ambient AI scribe is well-versed in the drugs used in your line of specialty care (and the LLM, or large language model, is well-trained), it will understand what's being said, and spell it correctly.
Drug names are just one example of how critical it is for ambient AI scribing to get the terminology and nomenclature of each specialty right. The intelligence for your specialty should go beyond just terminology: If your documentation depends on patient anecdotes, like in orthopedics – for care and compliance – your AI has to translate what a patient says into a clinical output worthy of a pre-authorization. For example, a patient saying "my knee buckles when I climb stairs" should be translated into clinically relevant terms about instability and functional limitations.
“The best ambient AI doesn’t just listen – it learns your unique style and preferences, understands patient context, and empowers you to practice at the top of your license.” - Matthew Ko, Chief Executive Officer, DeepScribe
3. An inability to customize and personalize note details
Every clinician has their own nuances in the way they practice medicine, speak with patients, and deliver care. Those personal preferences also include how they chart patient visits. Every clinician should have the ability to adjust the note output so that AI-generated notes sound and read as if they wrote them themselves.
Not only is this more efficient, but it's also more comfortable for each clinician than a generic template, driving up adoption rates at healthcare organizations. Customization might include preferred order of note sections, specific phrases, or inclusion of particular data points relevant to the clinician's decision-making process.
4. A lack of collaboration with the AI vendor
As a specialty group, you'll want – and need – more than the typical software implementation. You should demand input as to what shows up in your clinical team's workflow and notes, especially as it pertains to best serving your specialty and meeting compliance. A level of collaboration with the ambient AI vendor is part of ensuring your needs are being met, even before your clinicians approve their first AI-generated note.
Look and ask about the following:
- Creating and adjusting a custom AI model for your specialty or specialties
- Customized workflows for your specialty or organization
- Being able to achieve specific goals for alternate payment models or quality programs
A "one-size-fits-all" ambient AI solution that can't address the above issues can leave your clinicians doing additional work to review, edit, and correct an AI-generated note. It can also demand more time from your billing team to ask about note specifics (and then wait for the clinicians to respond). This defeats the purpose of implementing AI in the first place – to save time and improve efficiency.
Conclusion
The benefits of ambient AI in healthcare are exciting, and the relatively early adopters are already reaping the rewards. However, specialty care providers must be discerning in their choice of solutions. The right AI partner for specialists should offer more than just technology; they should provide a deep understanding of your specialty, flexibility in customization, and a commitment to ongoing collaboration.
By choosing an AI solution tailored to your specific needs, you can truly harness the power of ambient AI to enhance patient care, improve clinician satisfaction, and drive practice efficiency.
As you evaluate ambient AI options for your specialty group, remember that the goal is ultimately to enhance your ability to provide exceptional, specialized care. Look for a solution that speaks your language, adapts to your workflow, and grows with your practice. By avoiding the perils and pitfalls of more generic ambient AI solutions, you can focus on patient care with the confidence that your documentation accurately reflects your expertise and meets the highest standards of your specialty.
