AI tools that take notes for GPs could miss vital information, study suggests

AI tools that are used to take medical notes from patients could miss vital information and lead to medical staff being deskilled, according to new research.

The tools, called ambient AI scribes, are used by about 40% of GPs in the UK. The scribes listen to conversations between doctors and patients and convert the speech to text, generating written notes and letters.

Academics at University of Edinburgh reviewed cases involving the scribes and found the tech had some positives, such as allowing clinicians to focus on complex tasks.

However, they also said patients could be less forthcoming if they knew they were being recorded and found instances where doctors did not recognise their notes.

The findings are peer-reviewed and have been published in the British Medical Journal's digital health and AI publication.

The report concluded AI scribes can help with administrative work but more research needs to be done to understand how they work in specific healthcare settings and how their design supports both patients and clinicians.

It comes months after the BBC heard from doctors in the West Midlands, who said their workload had been significantly cut by using the transcription tool Heidi.

At one clinic in Dudley, the tool was credited with reducing a backlog of posting patient letters from six months to 14 days.

One of the key findings by the University of Edinburgh was that although AI tools can help capture what patients say, they can sometimes miss important aspects of consultations - such as facial expressions, gestures and emotional state.

The report said AI summaries tend to prioritise clinical information, which can come at the expense of the patients' stories and experiences of their illness.

It was also found that patients may be hesitant to reveal sensitive information - such as substance abuse, domestic abuse or mental health struggles - when they know the consultation is being recorded and processed by AI.

Researchers also highlighted that manual notetaking serves important functions for clinicians in their reasoning and reflection on what the patient has said.

Their report said using AI scribes could result in "cognitive offloading" for clinicians - which means the tools take on some of their mental effort.

This can have benefits, the report said, as clinicians can spent their efforts having more meaningful conversations with patients or concentrating on complex tasks.

However, it also said the tools can reduce memory recall and skill development and highlighted instances where clinicians do not recognise their own notes or remember the patient the next time they see them.

The researchers concluded that in designing these systems, they must preserve the patient's voice rather than overwrite it.

They also said more work needs to be done to understand the medium and long-term use of these AI tools in specific settings and emerging risks, particularly for tools used in countries with different healthcare systems to where the AI tools have been built.

Dr Lucas Seuren, of the University of Edinburgh's centre for biomedicine, self and society, said: "Many clinicians are excited about ambient AI scribes, because they promise to cut down on paperwork.

"But the experiences of patients are poorly considered, and there are real risks that the patients' stories are lost.

"This can further disadvantage people who already face marginalisation in health and social care services."