Vim CEO Oron Afek

Artificial Intelligence

PHTI Delivers Mixed Reviews on Ambient Scribes

The Peterson Health Technology Institute’s latest technology review is here, and it had a decidedly mixed report card for the ambient AI scribes sweeping across the industry. 

PHTI’s total count of ambient scribe vendors stands at over 60, but the bulk of its report focuses on the early experiences and lessons learned from the top 10 scribes across leading health systems.

According to PHTI’s conversations with health system execs, the primary driver of ambient scribe adoption has been addressing clinician burnout – and AI’s promise is clear on that front.

• Mass General Brigham reported a 40% reduction in burnout during a six-week pilot.

• MultiCare reported a 63% reduction in burnout and a 64% improvement in work-life balance.

• Another study from the Permanente Medical Group found that 81% of patients felt their physician spent less time looking at their computer when using an ambient scribe.

Despite these drastic improvements, PHTI concludes that the financial returns and efficiency of ambient scribes remain unclear.

• On one hand, enhanced documentation quality “could lead to higher reimbursements, potentially offsetting expenses.”

• On the other hand, the cumulative costs “may be greater than any savings achieved through improved efficiency, reduced administrative burden, or reduced clinician attrition.”

It’s a bold conclusion considering the cost of losing a single provider, let alone the downstream effects of having a burned out workforce. 

PHTI’s advice to health systems? Define the outcomes you’re looking for and then measure ambient AI’s performance and financial impacts against those goals. Bit of a no-brainer, but sound advice nonetheless. 

The Takeaway

Ambient scribes are seeing the fastest adoption of any recent healthcare technology that wasn’t accompanied by a regulatory mandate, and that’s mostly because of magic that’s hard to capture in a spreadsheet. That said, health systems will eventually need to justify these solutions beyond their impact on the clinical experience, and PHTI’s report brings a solid framework and standardized methodologies for bridging that gap.

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The Wire

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• New Breakthrough Devices: STAT updated its list of devices that have received the FDA’s “breakthrough” designation, which added tech from at least 15 manufacturers between December and mid-March. Among the new breakthrough devices on the list was Modella’s PathChat DX generative AI chatbot that was co-developed with Mass General Brigham to help pathologists diagnose cases, as well as a breast cancer test, a breast cancer imaging tool, and a pair of Alzheimer’s blood tests.

• AI Scores Well for Suicidal Ideation: A recent study in JMIR showed that AI performs about as well as mental health professionals when assessing appropriate responses to suicidal patients, but it’s still a ways away from replacing crisis hotlines. After having a trio of LLMs assess the appropriateness of responses to a patient with suicidal thoughts, Claude performed the strongest (even surpassing some scores from studies with psychiatrists), ChatGPT’s score was similar to doctoral students in clinical psychology, and Gemini received the same score as staff at most public schools before receiving suicide intervention training.

• Cylinder Acquires Dieta: Virtual digestive care provider Cylinder Health acquired Dieta Health to add AI-driven insights to its gut health platform. Dieta’s mobile app allows patients to capture stool photos then classifies them with five clinically-validated data points, which will help flag critical shifts in bowel patterns so that Cylinder’s care teams can intervene before complications escalate. The acquisition follows just a few weeks behind Teladoc adding Cylinder to its connected care partner network.

• Ransomware Vulnerabilities: New research from cybersecurity firm Claroty suggests that most healthcare organizations are actively using “the top 1% of riskiest Internet of Medical Things devices,” leaving them exposed to cybersecurity threats. About 9% of IoMT devices contain known exploitable vulnerabilities, and data from 350 healthcare orgs showed that 99% are using at least one of these in their systems. Over three quarters of vulnerable orgs (78%) have also made ransomware payments of $500k or more.

• ProsperityEHR Launch: ProsperityEHR launched to debut an EHR purpose-built for behavioral health practices. By automating key workflows like patient intake, treatment plan reviews, and claims processing, ProsperityEHR is designed to cut the administrative burden preventing behavioral health practices from scaling effectively. The EHR also integrates directly with essential tools like payor verification systems, e-prescribing platforms, and telehealth solutions. 

• Widening Chasm in Physician Satisfaction: Bain’s latest physician survey showed that there’s “a widening chasm in the healthcare workforce,” with physicians at health system-owned practices nearly three times more likely to be dissatisfied than those at physician-owned practices. A quarter of physicians at health system-led practices are contemplating a change in employers (vs. just 14% at physician-led practices), in part because 61% feel they have little autonomy to make referrals outside of their ownership system and 47% report having to adjust treatment options to reduce costs based on practice policies.

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• Medicaid and Hospitals: A great report from KFF broke down the relationship between hospitals and Medicaid. In 2023, Medicaid covered 19% of all hospital spending, or $283B of the $1.5T spent on hospital care. Hospital care accounted for about a third of Medicaid spending (32%), representing a significantly larger share than physician and clinical services (14%) or retail prescription drugs (6%). As a result, KFF says that any substantial reduction in Medicaid spending would have a severe ripple effect on hospital finances.

• Distribution Matters For CGMs: New research in Clinical Diabetes showed that efforts to expand access to continuous glucose monitors by adding the pharmacy as a new distribution channel may be having the opposite of the intended impact. Medicare and MA patients who received a CGM through a durable medical equipment provider were 12% more adherent to prescribed therapies after 12 months than those receiving a CGM through the pharmacy channel, resulting in 35% lower total costs of care over the same time period ($11k for DME vs. $15k for pharmacy).

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The Resource Wire

• How Nabla Transformed Care at Denver Health: As Colorado’s primary safety net health system, Denver Health knows that technology like Nabla’s ambient AI platform plays a vital role in keeping its patients healthy and its clinicians happy. Find out why Denver Health clinicians are calling Nabla “the most transformational technology they’ve seen in their medical practice, ever.”

• Simplify RPM & Maximize Patient Engagement: Engaging patients at critical moments is essential for success. With Withings Health Nudges feature, care teams can send tailored messages to the screen of the blood pressure monitor— offering personalized support when they need it most.

• Abridge Proven to Reduce Burnout, Increase Clinician Satisfaction: Not all ambient AI technologies are the same. Only Abridge has been proven in published scientific research to significantly reduce burnout and cognitive load, while improving clinician experience. Learn why the most rigorous, academic healthcare institutions in the world choose Abridge for clinical notes, patient summaries, coding, revenue cycle, and more. See research results.

The Industry Wire

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