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Using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate notes to document patient visits was linked to improvements in clinician burnout, as published in JAMA Network Open. Researchers surveyed 1,430 clinicians from 2 different health systems who used ambient documentation technology. They found physicians at Mass General Brigham reported a 21.2% absolute reduction in burnout with the tools, as the proportion of clinicians reporting burnout decreased from 50.6% to 29.4% at 42 days and from 52.6% to 30.7% at 84 days. Separately, those participating from Emory Healthcare showed a 30.7% absolute increase in well-being related to positive impact on their documentation practice. At Mass General Brigham, 84 (9.6%) participants were urgent care or emergency medicine clinicians, and at Emory, 100 (18.0%) of its participants were urgent care or emergency medicine clinicians.
So far, so good: Ambient documentation technology listens to clinician-patient interactions and drafts structured notes using generative AI such as AI scribes. In the survey’s qualitative free-text comments, clinicians said the technology was “exceptionally helpful,” and that it has the potential to “fundamentally change the experience of being a physician,” even if they are “not ready to hand my documentation over to AI yet.”