By: Lindsey Spellman – Head of Marketing at Abridge
Giving and getting healthcare will always require conversations. How those conversations are documented and recalled by patients or clinicians is intriguing, because medical documentation hasn’t significantly changed much over the last 100 years. Until now.
Today, AI companies are very much in the business of disrupting the status quo of how clinicians document medical encounters. Big benefits are touted: lower clinician burnout, greater job satisfaction, and more time to spend with patients. But do they deliver on these promises? According to Hugh Sims, an individual Abridge user and ENT specialist, the answer is a responding yes: “I can’t tell you how much this program has changed my life! The lack of mental exertion to remember patients is at a 30 year low. I can concentrate on the patient. I can enjoy the charting. I’m a better listener with patients. Overall, my happiness has increased!”
Abridge is building a solution for providers by providers. Through his experience as a cardiologist, Abridge’s co-founder and CEO, Shiv Rao, saw opportunities to improve the gap between medical conversations and what happens next.
Shiv Rao, a Pittsburgh-based cardiologist, and CEO and co-founder of Abridge, a Pittsburgh-based company, was never driven by AI hype, but rather aimed to address the pervasive problem he saw in his own clinic: physician burnout. Every clinician understands the ways in which patient conversations can be overshadowed by the mountain of notes they have to take during, or after, the visit. Founded on Carnegie Mellon University roots, Abridge’s research and proprietary data set of 1.5 million medical encounters culminated in the first-published and first-to-market AI system for generating SOAP note drafts. Today, Abridge’s AI accurately summarizes conversations between doctors and patients, saving clinicians over 2 hours per day on documentation and giving them the autonomy to focus more on the practice of medicine.
Because medical conversations are high-stakes, customer trust is essential. Abridge offers a trustworthy AI experience for healthcare – every output generated by the AI links back to specific moments in a conversation between a clinician and their patient so clinicians can see the source of truth. Building proprietary models in-house and leveraging comprehensive data resources safeguards clinicians & patients by focusing on causality, fairness, and transparency.
Final Thoughts
We barely go a day without seeing new stories about clinician mental health woes or leaving the sector altogether as a result of burnout from the administrative burden of giving care. Like Dr. Sims said, Abridge’s team of clinicians, scientists, and creatives has eased administrative tasks and improved the patient care experience.
Ready to try documentation differently? We invite you to join your fellow ACMS members on August 1st from 6-7pm for a complimentary virtual introduction to Abridge (and the opportunity for a free trial!). This Virtual Town Hall is available exclusively for ACMS members.