Ontario family doctor says new AI notetaking saved her job

From the article:

The AI Scribe program — which is run by OntarioMD, the digital technology arm of the Ontario Medical Association — allows doctors to choose from a handful of tools that act as a note-taking assistant during a patient visit.

Patients who give consent have a routine conversation about their ailment with the physician, while the doctor verbalizes their thoughts during the physical exam. The AI Scribe software is able to create and process a real-time transcript during the appointment.

Lall said the true benefit comes after the appointment when the AI Scribe compiles the information into a so-called SOAP note, a standard requirement for family physicians as prescribed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

Artificial intelligence technology separates the information it hears into subjective information, as relayed by the patient, objective information, as relayed by the doctor, assessment information, as verbalized by the physician during a physical exam, and a plan of action for patient care. The four areas — subjective, objective, assessment and plan — make up the acronym SOAP.

Lall said it takes minutes for AI Scribe to collate the information, allowing her to move on to other patients while the SOAP note is being created in the background.

If the physician is unhappy with the note, Lall said, they can ask the AI model to regenerate the information or add more detail to any one of the categories. While the tool has some imperfections, she said, the improvements have been noticeable over the 10 months since she began using it.

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The Ford government has been so impressed with the technology that it announced a pilot program to allow 150 family physicians to use AI Scribe as part of their practices. The health minister said the early signs were promising but stressed the government would proceed carefully.