What you need to know
- Nuance, which is owned by Microsoft, just announced a new AI tool for healthcare professionals.
- Dragon Ambient eXperience Express automates clinical documentation by using conversational AI and OpenAI’s GPT-4.
- The tool can draft clinical notes within seconds, which can then be reviewed by a medical professional.
Microsoft just announced a new AI tool by Nuance, a company which it purchased in 2022 for $19.7 billion. The solution is called Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Express, or DAX Express for short. It brings together conversation AI and OpenAI’s GPT-4 to automate clinical documentation.
The goal of the tool is to reduce the burden on medical professionals created by recording patient data accurately. The medical field requires a massive amount of notes and documentation to ensure proper care, and automating some of those notes should reduce burnout, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft outlined five outcomes that it believes will come as a result of today’s announcement:
- Relieving workforce burnout – Our solutions are proven to lead the industry in addressing this seemingly intractable problem – with physicians reporting up to 70% reduction in feelings of burnout and fatigue.
- Supporting specialty workflows – From surgeons to radiologists, our solutions analyze vast amounts of patient data, deliver workflow automation, facilitate reporting and communication, and provide AI insights that support more informed decision-making, planning and treatment—improving radiologist efficiency by 50% and reducing time-to-intervention by 74%.
- Improving adherence – By analyzing data to uncover findings, simplifying patient and physician communication, and providing comprehensive care plan tracking, our solutions deliver a 52% improvement in follow-up adherence.
- Increasing access to care – Our automated clinical documentation solutions give back time to clinicians who often choose to see more patients, adding five appointments per average clinic day – enabling clinicians to provide their best care to more people.
- Enhancing patient engagement – AI-powered chatbots are just one example of how AI is providing patients with quick and accessible information using built-in medical knowledge bases and triage protocols, which can trigger seamless handoff from bot interaction to a doctor, nurse or support agent. And, by delivering consistent and contextually relevant patient experiences, healthcare organizations are realizing 30% increases in patient self-service rates and 50% reductions in patient support costs.
Similarly to Copilot, which Microsoft announced earlier this month, DAX Express is a tool that uses AI to help professionals without replacing them. Medical experts can review the notes generated by DAX Express before saving them, which is especially important within a medical environment.
Microsoft’s announcement post for DAX Express (opens in new tab) emphasized that the tool meets the company’s standards for data security and privacy, as well as its AI standards (opens in new tab). Microsoft has received criticism recently for cutting its AI ethics team.
DAX Express will be in private preview in summer 2023.
