PITTSBURGH — For most of her career, Dr. Hannah Osei spent the last hour of every clinic day, and often part of her evening, typing notes about the patients she had seen. Since joining a pilot program this summer, she says that hour has shrunk to about 15 minutes.
Osei is one of about 600 physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants at Allegheny Ridge Health who are testing an artificial intelligence system that listens to exam-room conversations, with patients’ permission, and drafts a clinical note for the clinician to review and sign. “I can actually look at the person in front of me instead of at a screen,” Osei said. “That sounds small, but patients notice. They tell me they feel heard.”
How the tools work
The systems, often called ambient documentation tools, use a smartphone or small microphone in the exam room to record the visit. Software transcribes the conversation, then uses a large language model to organize it into the standard sections of a medical note: symptoms, history, exam findings, assessment and plan.
