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Following a multisite pilot with the National Health Service, Oracle Health's clinical artificial intelligence scribe is now available to doctors in the United Kingdom for generating clinical notes, the cloud-based electronic health record vendor said.
Barts Health NHS Trust, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Milton Keynes University Hospital are deploying the AI agent across their organizations.
WHY IT MATTERS
To reduce waiting times and give doctors and nurses time back to focus on patients, the NHS is seeking tools that integrate into clinician workflows, Oracle said in its announcement on Thursday.
The ambient scribe, Clinical Artificial Intelligence Agent, Clinical Note, reduces clinicians' documentation burdens related to patient visits.
It's beneficial for both patient and clinician experiences, according to Sanjay Gautama, chief clinical information officer and Caldicott Guardian at Imperial College Healthcare Trust NHS and North West London Integrated Care Board.
"Our ongoing trial of the clinical AI agent has demonstrated the power that ambient voice technology can bring to the NHS," he said in the statement. "Our clinicians can focus on engaging with the patient, knowing that comprehensive and robust notes will be taken."
Now, patients have their doctors' letters at the end of their visits, and the ambient scribe is enhancing coordinated care, added Robin Kearney, consultant in acute medicine at Milton Keynes University Hospital.
"It's improved the accuracy of my notes and given me a lot of time back," Kearney said. "Plus, if another clinician sees the patient, they can write a note immediately so everyone else in the team will know within a few minutes what the plan is for the patient."
To use it, clinicians download the app on their phone and place it near the patient to record the conversation, explained Sarah Jensen, Barts Health's group chief informatics officer, in the statement.
The AI agent will "strip out any chat that is not relevant to diagnosis or treatment," she noted.
Oracle said it has committed to a $5 billion cloud investment in the UK over the next five years to support the nation's Fit for the Future 10-Year Health Plan.
THE LARGER TREND
Last year, NHS Shared Business Services announced a market agreement to scale AI-driven dictation, speech recognition and outsourced transcription services at National Health Service England and public sector organizations.
The framework runs through September 2027 and could be extended for up to two years. It covers fixed and software-as-a-service platforms and services.
"These technologies form a layered approach to digital transformation, enabling healthcare providers and organizations to match the right tool to the right task whilst maintaining flexibility, accuracy and efficiency across clinical and wider administrative settings," Phillip Wood, the principal category manager of digital workforce and IT transformation at NHS SBS, said at the time.
ON THE RECORD
"The healthcare industry is grappling with workforce shortages and overloaded clinicians on a global scale," said Seema Verma, Oracle Health and Life Sciences executive vice president and general manager, in a statement. "Bringing these innovative capabilities to the NHS is a key part of our commitment to help empower their doctors, so they can deliver exceptional care."
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
