AI Ambient Scribes
AI Ambient Scribes are companies that use AI to ambiently capture clinical encounters and generate notes and/or transcripts. Notably we do not include simple dictation tools or virtual/remote scribes here, but we do include platforms that integrate AI scribing with human oversight, where the human element typically acts as a verification layer before the clinical note reaches the physician-user for approval. AI Ambient Scribe core capabilities are to:
Ambiently capture both patient consultations and clinicians’ dictation
Convert these audio recordings into written transcripts through speech-to-text technology
Synthesize a clinical note from the transcript by employing artificial intelligence, notably a large language model (LLM) specifically tuned for this application
Additionally, Ambient Scribes are increasingly building additional capabilities, including prompts to address care gaps or coding suggestions.
Product Usage: Heidi is mainly used for chart building during office visits, especially for automated History of Present Illness (HPI) and Assessment and planning, increasing patient interaction without distraction of EHR documentation.
Strengths: The technology excellently captures specific urology terminologies and is helpful for organizing patient information, such as lab data, chronologically along with timestamps.
Weaknesses: Issues were noted with template’s unpredictable behavior that requires manual correction and the changes don’t seem to influence the user’s overarching profile.
Overall Judgment: Despite few issues with template behavior, Heidi has largely been favourable, promising standardized notes and efficiencies in documentation, and there’s optimism for its integration into regular practice.
Product Usage: Heidi Health is used to record patient consultations along with creating summary emails detailing treatment plans; the software is employed during acute care visits, yearly physicals, mental health assessments, and phone consultations.
Strengths: Heidi Health demonstrates a high degree of accuracy in capturing medical details, ability to differentiate between medical and casual conversation, personalizes to individual’s writing style, and includes features like AI bar for quick searches and document creation.
Weaknesses: The software lacks direct integration with EHR systems, spells certain medications incorrectly, and occasionally experiences system glitches during the transcription process.
Overall Judgment: Despite some minor weaknesses, the tool is considered a valuable asset to the practice, given its primary strength of significantly reducing the administrative burden, thereby effectively giving back time to the physicians.