What is Ambient AI? Ultimate Guide for Clinicians

What is Ambient AI?

Ambient artificial intelligence, or ambient AI, is artificial intelligence designed to adapt to and recognize human interactions in the background, in daily settings.

In healthcare, ambient AI means enabling human conversations to flow without interruption with AI assisting clinical workflows. Ambient AI in medical practice generally streamlines such as transcription, note generation, and context provision. However, ambient AI has evolved in usage beyond these.

In this article, we explore the rise of ambient artificial intelligence and how it evolved to become the designated assistive technology trusted by clinicians.

The Rise of Ambient Artificial Intelligence

Uptake of ambient AI in healthcare is occurring at an unprecedented rate, arguably faster than any other new technology in this setting. The vision from its early days stays true to its application today: ambient AI listens to and structures patient conversations so clinicians don’t experience symptoms of burnout.

With this, ambient AI medical scribes have anchored their position in the daily lives of clinicians. Due to its growing utility, ambient AI systems were embedded in care delivery to secure long-term use benefiting both patients and doctors. Factors driving adoption include:

• Burnout - Administration burden is the major contributor to burnout experienced by clinicians. Freeing clinicians from the volume of admin work is one big step in the acceptance of ambient AI scribes.
• Workforce Shortages - The increasing rates of clinicians feeling burnout symptoms affect the workforce at large. To help decrease the delay in appointments and waiting time, ambient AI scribes handle the routine note-taking so clinicians can face more patients in their average day.
• Financial Pressures - According to a Kaufman Hall report, 37% of US hospitals are still experiencing financial difficulties. Consequently, this impacts healthcare finances on a granular level. Elevated demand for physician services drives up compensation costs. Integrating ambient AI scribes is more cost-effective in the long run. 
• Improving Outcomes - Generally, clinical workflows and patient trust have improved as ambient AI helps bridge the gap in patient care continuity.
• Consumer Behavior - Clinicians are more open to accepting and adopting a more flexible, tech-enabled tool that enhances not just their own workflows, but the overall patient experience.

There is no turning back with the level of clinical efficiency and productivity that ambient AI scribes help achieve. Considering these adoption factors, both clients and clinicians have been found to be comfortable and fulfilled with using ambient AI during visits.

For instance, Heidi’s ambient AI assistant for doctors helped improve patient engagement at the Jean Bishop Integrated Care Centre. “I've got no worries at all,” shares David, an 81-year-old patient at the Centre, when asked about Heidi running in the background. Dr. Noble, on the other hand, noted that Heidi “is picking up all the bits of work I would generally have to do after I've seen a patient.”

5 of the Best Ambient AI Tools for Doctors

Healthcare professionals prioritize patient care quality above anything else. To foster relationships with patients, ambient AI tools lessen their workload by listening in the background and taking in clinical information. Thinking broadly, the “always on” concept of ambient AI provides a wide range of use cases in healthcare, including:

1. Ambient AI Transcription and Dictation

Medical transcription is the first and major feature common among ambient AI providers. Hospitals and clinics can now easily reduce human error in documentation by using ambient AI scribes.

An ambient AI scribe, such as Heidi, offers live transcription of patient conversations, capturing speech word-by-word. This transcript is visible in a panel, and Heidi's AI-enabled note generation streamlines your workflow even further.

2. AI-Powered Patient Support 

Ambient AI supports patient care beyond the screen. Use cases of ambient AI in this aspect include identifying patients' social determinants. It also highlights specific needs through medical coding and helps in identifying other patient concerns that might otherwise be overlooked.

After a patient session, whether online or in-person, ambient AI can automatically generate customized summaries and delegate tasks, such as specialist referrals.

3. Ambient Artificial Intelligence Remote Monitoring

Remote monitoring with ambient AI is made possible through devices that automatically collate and analyze medical information.

For an ambulatory setting, ambient AI can be integrated with Bluetooth-enabled devices such as lapel microphones to minimize patient discomfort during conversations. This allows clinicians to move around freely while ambient AI scribes like Heidi run in the background.

4. Automated AI Billing & Insurance

As AI listens during the patient session, it maps spoken language to SNOMED-CT or ICD-10 codes and flags undercoded encounters. The automation behind this also checks eligibility by doing pre-auth during the encounter or pre-visit.

Heidi’s ambient AI removes these manual tasks from clinicians’ backs by generating and suggesting codes within documentation.

5. Ambient AI Practice Management

The future of ambient AI in clinics will handle everything from appointment scheduling to staff coordination and logistics. It will take care of smart staff shifting and recommend available slots with data from clinicians’ AI-assisted notes.

Heidi Calls is a feature in development, and it automates routine phone calls like follow-ups and appointment confirmations so physicians can focus on patients.

Advantages of an Ambient AI Platform vs Traditional Methods

In general, ambient AI platform companies aim to make the manual aspect of work more labor-saving while being economical. Systematic clinical processes are more efficient as they reduce the cognitive load of clinicians without hurting healthcare finances. Below, we outline the main benefits ambient AI platforms offer over traditional documentation methods.

Ambient AI Platform Performance

Compared to manual documentation, using ambient AI for documentation is proven to reduce charting time by 70% and boost ROI by 600%. This exemplifies ambient AI to be a cost-effective solution to high-volume, low-cognition tasks like documentation across any discipline.

Ambient AI Platform Integration

Integrating EHR/EMR/PMS with ambient AI scribes has shown significant clinical time recovery by saving 120,000 minutes in documentation time. Ambient AI reviews also reveal that productivity among Allied Health Practitioners (AHPs) increased by a 5.8% average against a 1-3 month timeline.

Ambient AI Platform Workflow

Because clinical workflows in medical settings are more automated, communication between clinicians and AHPs is more seamless. On top of this, clinicians can work even in remote areas thanks to less interruptions ensured by ambient AI. 

Ambient AI Platform Impact

In comparison to traditional methods, ambient AI has eliminated the need for extensive editing for documentation. In this ambient AI case study, it is found that ambient AI scribes outperformed human output in terms of note quality and accuracy. As its clinical applications continue to evolve, the impact of ambient AI has significantly benefited clinicians.  

Of all potential use-cases, ambient AI medical scribes are the most well-developed. They have already demonstrated safety and efficacy and achieved strong uptake among clinicians.

Processing 2 million+ sessions each week worldwide, Heidi is one of the most trusted ambient AI medical scribes available today.

Try Heidi Health’s Ambient AI Technology for Free

Heidi’s ambient AI has doubtlessly freed clinicians from more admin work, offering them more time dedicated to patient care or personal matters. With Heidi, getting started is easy:

• Create a free account - Heidi offers a free version with core functions of its ambient AI for your convenience.
• Transcribe your first session - Heidi allows you to transform your patient sessions into detailed medical notes, in the clinic or even on the go.
• Enjoy the benefits - Heidi’s ambient AI takes away administrative burden out of your headspace to save you time, money, and effort.

Heidi prioritizes compliance with jurisdiction-specific regulations, guaranteeing customers’ data localization. This includes users in Australia, Canada, the US, the UK, and other regions. Further details on Heidi's commitment to safety and compliance can be found here.

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FAQs About Ambient Artificial Intelligence

How much does a healthcare ambient AI assistant cost?

In the US, human medical scribes cost around $40,000 per annum. This figure is around $95,000 (AUD) in Australia and £24,000 in the UK. On the other hand, healthcare ambient AI assistants generally start at $600 per month, per person. Thankfully, Heidi starts at $0 from which you can benefit for life.

What’s the difference between ambient AI and generative AI?

Generative AI creates or recreates new media forms like text, image, or audio, while ambient AI is a technology focused on fostering a supportive environment for human interactions, minimizing interruptions between them. Both are forms of artificial intelligence, but differ in usage. 

What are some ambient AI platform trends and future possibilities?

AI platform trends include more automated workflows in telehealth which enhances care quality on a broader scale. Existing use cases are also expected to evolve, from minimizing admin load to supporting medical analytics. Therefore, increased use of AI-enabled features in healthcare is a future possibility.

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