Corewell Health, a Michigan-based health system, has announced its partnership with Abridge to implement the use of their artificial intelligence-backed clinical documentation assistant. This innovative tool records conversations between clinicians and patients, generating a clinical note for provider review and drafting visit summaries for patients.
The deployment at Corewell marks one of Abridge’s largest health system partnerships, with the technology being made available to 4,000 employed physicians and advanced practice providers across 21 hospitals and over 300 outpatient and post-acute locations.
Jason Joseph, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Corewell, stated that the documentation tool will be gradually rolled out to providers over the next year. The health system is also exploring the potential expansion of the product to other specialties and workflows, such as nursing or respiratory therapy.
The adoption of AI in clinical documentation comes as a response to the increasing administrative burdens faced by healthcare providers. The use of AI technology is seen as a way to alleviate these burdens, allowing clinicians to spend more time on direct patient care and reducing burnout.
A 90-day pilot at Corewell showed promising results, with clinicians spending less time on after-hours documentation and reporting increased job satisfaction. The use of Abridge also includes generating patient visit summaries written at an eighth-grade reading level to ensure patient understanding and facilitate communication between patients and providers.
While Abridge has seen success in its partnerships with various health systems, there are multiple competitors in the AI documentation market. Leaders in the healthcare sector are advised to be cautious when deploying AI tools, ensuring accuracy and bias are carefully monitored.
Ultimately, the integration of AI documentation tools should prioritize the validation of text by a provider before finalizing, emphasizing the importance of human oversight in the use of AI technology in clinical settings.
