By Laura Hyde |
The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK has implemented a new AI clinical assistant designed to accurately capture conversions, enabling doctors to spend more time listening to patients and less time carrying out administrative tasks.
Microsoft Dragon Copilot records patient-doctor consultations, creating a detailed transcript that includes important details doctors might not otherwise have had the typing speed to note down during the conversation. It then generates clinical summaries and drafts the necessary documents and letters for clinicians to review, edit and sign off.
Dr Rachel Hilton, a consultant nephrologist (kidney specialist) at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London estimates Dragon Copilot is saving about two hours a week in admin, time she can now spend offering her patients and the hospital better quality of service.
AI is giving UK doctors more time with patients
The technology, which is fully compliant with NHS England Ambient Voice Technology standards, is also encouraging doctors and clinicians to be more precise and thorough in their consultations, saying things out loud that might otherwise remain unsaid for the benefit of the recording.
“Dragon Copilot could and should be used by all healthcare professionals – this includes all doctors, not just consultants but nurse practitioners and allied health professionals such as speech therapists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists,” said Dr Simon Wallace, chief clinical information officer at Microsoft UK & Ireland. “We started by using the quill, then the pen, then typing hunched over a keyboard. Now clinicians are being liberated to use their voice as the ‘smart’ tool to record patient interactions and engage with the electronic patient record.”
Read more about how Dragon Copilot is enabling more human healthcare across the NHS on the Microsoft UK Stories website.