What the studies tell us about AI scribes so far

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As hospitals publish on their experiences with ambient scribe technologies from vendors like Abridge and Nabla, I've been struck by two findings: Clinicians seem to love the tech! But also the time savings on clinical notes can be highly variable and sometimes quite small — often under a minute per note.

The recent publication of randomized control trials from experiences at UCLA and the University of Wisconsin offer the most rigorous evidence yet that these tools are helping clinicians, but also reinforced some of the mystery. At UCLA, Nabla saved about 23 seconds per note compared to control. At Wisconsin, time reductions looked better, with 22 minutes per day saved on notes. In that study, clinicians using scribes saw a meaningful reduction in a measure of work exhaustion.

In a new story with Brittany Trang, we asked researchers what they thought of the findings so far. They offered numerous explanations for the divide between time savings and burnout improvement, and they underscored the need to better understand what it is about scribes that makes clinicians happy. If you know what works you can do more of it.

Read the story here. The image above is based on a chart in Brittany's AI Prognosis newsletter that includes some additional perspective on the new studies.

startups

Clinical trials tech fundraises

Couple of interesting updates on tech to improve how clinical trials work

Paradigm Health announced $77 million in new funding from investors including ARCH and General Catalyst, and it has acquired a business from Flatiron Health. As Matthew Herper reports, the company believes it can use artificial intelligence to make trials for new drugs less expensive, faster, and more fair.
Trial Library, a startup that helps match patients from care settings to clinical trials, raised $10 million led by SemperVirens Venture Capital and Next Ventures, with participation by Sanofi Ventures, Lux Capital, Civilization Ventures.

Health tech news roundup

The Federal Trade Commission approved an order against telehealth provider NextMed after alleging the company misled consumers about the benefits of GLP-1 drugs with fake testimonials, charged undisclosed fees, and distorted customer reviews. The company's founders are required to pay $150,000, and the order also stipulates that NextMed must not do all the bad stuff FTC alleges they were doing before.
The docket on Food and Drug Administration's request for information on "Measuring and Evaluating AI-enabled Medical Device Performance in the Real-World" closed on December 1. We didn't spot anything shocking on an initial scan, but if there is something we should be aware of, please let me know. Elsewhere, the docket on the FDA's Digital Health Advisory Committee meeting on generative AI-enabled mental health devices is open until December 8th. The meeting already happened, but there is still time to tell regulators what you think should happen.
Elevance is expected to announce that it's the latest insurer to offer members a conversational virtual assistant to help them navigate their benefits. The product will be able to answer questions about coverage and health care costs.
Reema Health, a company hoping to improve care for "hard-to-reach members" on Medicaid announced it raised $19 million led by LRVHealth and Optum Ventures.