Can big tech partnership make EHRs easier to use?

Allowing doctors to be present with their patients—rather than distracted by EHR documentation—seems to be the goal of a new partnership between Microsoft and Nuance Communications Inc. to bring ambient clinical intelligence (ACI) to exam rooms. The partnership seeks to accelerate development of and deliver this technology to exam rooms allowing ambient sensing and conversation AI to handle burdensome administrative work. The goal is to use technology to create clinical documentation that essentially writes itself rather than taking up hours which can be better spent focusing of the patients, according to an blog post by Microsoft announcing the partnership. While there is still a deal more that must be developed to make this futuristic smart exam room a reality, the companies believe they’ve already built a strong foundation in Nuance’s ACI technology which was unveiled earlier this year and Microsoft’s Project EmpowerMD Intelligent Scribe Service which both use AI to convert conversations between doctors and patients into clinical documentation, the post said. “Physicians got into medicine because they wanted to help and heal people, but they are spending a lot of their time today outside of the care process,” says Joe Petro, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Nuance. “They’re entering in data to make sure the appropriate bill can be generated. They’re capturing insights for population health and quality measures. And although this data is all important, it’s really outside a physician’s core focus on treating that patient.”