AI Is My Copilot

How ambient scribing is changing health care and education

By James Carlson, PhD ’13, MS ’01, PA-C, CHSE-A Photo by Max Thomsen

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A trusty AI-powered assistant embedded in an electronic health record (EHR) or a tablet in the exam room listens in on patient–clinician conversations, effortlessly capturing every detail and turning the conversation into a clinical note. This isn’t just any notetaker; it’s a superpowered HIPAA-compliant copilot that documents the encounter and may even suggest an appropriate differential diagnosis and treatment plan, as well as automate the billing process in seconds. The note is reviewed and signed off on by the clinician to ensure accuracy, but it frees the healthcare team from time-consuming documentation.

This is ambient scribing, and it is making waves in health care and education.

By capturing every important detail of a patient visit, AI creates more accurate, complete clinical notes, reducing the chance of missed information. With these notes in hand, clinicians may be able to make more accurate decisions more efficiently — leading to improved patient outcomes. Ambient scribing more accurately documents the clinical encounter for more informed decision-
making, plus it allows the clinician to spend more time listening and establishing rapport with their patients and families. And with administrative tasks frequently cited as a leading cause of clinician burnout, ambient scribing helps healthcare professionals achieve better work–life balance and focus on what truly matters: spending more time connecting with their patients. As a bonus, ambient scribing improves communication within healthcare teams, ensuring everyone involved in a patient’s care is on the same page and working together seamlessly.

In the classroom, AI can be just as transformative. Picture being a student where your learning is customized, helping you hone your strengths and optimize areas that need improvement. Precision learning at its best. As educators, we are exploring how to integrate training around proper use of AI and ambient tools in a student’s clinical workflow. We are leveraging ambient technologies to personalize learning, tailoring content and feedback to each student’s individual needs. For example, by integrating ambient technologies into training simulations, we are better able to capture and analyze a specific learner’s clinical behaviors, pinpoint areas where they need extra help, and offer more targeted and effective feedback. This AI-based precision-learning approach is like having a personal tutor or copilot guiding students through their growth as clinicians.

With these amazing advancements, there are important ethical considerations — issues such as data privacy, transparency and societal impact need to be considered. It’s crucial that patients and students are fully informed and assured that data gathered is confidential, and that they understand the ethical boundaries around appropriate AI use. These concerns remind us to integrate these tools thoughtfully and responsibly, with the same high level of care and attention we currently devote to our patients and students.

The future of health care and education will, undoubtedly, be deeply affected by AI in many ways we may not even have thought of yet. Ambient scribing is rapidly gaining in usage and clinical decision-support functionality, and it will likely be regularly integrated into the workflow of healthcare teams. It is my hope that AI will continue to free us to do what we do best: build deeper connections with our patients and students.