In February, Nuance Communications announced the general availability and accelerated delivery of the Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX),an ambient clinical intelligence (ACI) solution for a wide array of medical specialties. Now the American Medical Association has announced plans to integrate its Integrated Health Model Initiative with Nuance’s ACI solution. The collaboration will pilot the combination of each organization’s respective technologies in an effort to reduce documentation burden that distracts from patient care and demoralizes physicians.
The collaboration will leverage Nuance’s expertise in ambient clinical intelligence (ACI) – which securely facilitates the transformation of clinical conversations between patients and physicians into medical chart notes – with AMA’s expertise in physician burnout prevention and healthcare informatics in a shared exploration of innovations to empower clinical decisions, enhance the quality care, and boost physician well-being. The organizations’ mutual goal is to assess their respective innovative solutions that work in tandem with EHR systems to prioritize time with patients rather than overload clinicians with data entry tasks. In particular, the collaboration will explore opportunities to optimize Burlington, Mass.-based Nuance’s ACI solution working in tandem with IHMI’s clinical knowledge graph.
“Documentation overload interferes with patient care and contributes significantly to physician burnout. Our aim is to explore technology innovation that can reduce this burden and provide physicians more time with patients, not paperwork,” said AMA CEO James L. Madara, M.D., in a statement “By working together with Nuance to leverage the incredible potential of our combined expertise and resources, we can more effectively address a major contributing factor to physician burnout.”
The AMA-Nuance collaboration is one of the multiple efforts both organizations are taking to alleviate physician burnout caused by increasing administrative and documentation demands. One recent study involving AMA experts shows that primary care physicians spend more than half of their workday keeping up with data entry administrative tasks, significantly cutting into available time for patients. Yet another study involving AMA researchers reported that physician turnover and reduced clinical hours are attributable to burnout costs of $4.6 billion, or about $7,600 per physician, in the United States each year.
