It is well to be noted that more than a third of patients happen to be in favor of clinicians that make use of artificial intelligence-AI in consultations in order to improve documentation processes like clinical letters, as per a recent white paper published by the Microsoft company Nuance.
Analyzing the responses of the survey from 13,500 participants spread across nine European nations in addition to the UK and Australia, the white paper explored patients’ updated interactions with clinicians and whether they went on to believe that AI would have gone on to help them enhance their experience.
The responses underscored five major challenges that patients felt would have contributed to an unsatisfactory experience when it came to their clinician, such as ineffective communication, high waiting times, a dearth of customization, continuity of care that’s not up to the mark and limited accessibility so as to enhance healthcare information.
An average of around 40% of respondents went on to feel that they did not receive their physician’s complete attention throughout the consultations as they happened to focus on their computer screens. Of those, 40% opined that all of it led to feelings of frustration. In the UK, this kind of frustration peaked in 50% of the respondents.
So as to improve this interaction, an average of 34% of respondents opined that they felt that making use of AI in order to assist in the clinical documentation process would indeed be a good idea, up from 27% in Norway to 48% in Spain.
When taking into account the age breakdown, respondents from younger age groups happened to be more likely to agree AI would go on to be beneficial. The percentage dipped with each age category, from 43% found in 18-to-24-year-olds to 26% in those aged 65 and above.
Although patients who were surveyed had not yet had any kind of personal experience with AI within the healthcare gamut, respondents went on to opt for freeing up time for clinicians as the most compelling reason behind using AI, with an average of 45% and peaking at 55% when it came to German respondents.
Although the survey respondents broadly went ahead and supported the use of AI, they also happened to raise concerns when it came to the usage of AI in clinical settings, with 50% stating that they were sort of concerned. A further 32% happened to be not very concerned, whereas 10% were not concerned at all.
The major cause pertaining to this concern was a dearth of AI regulation at 34%, which surged to 46% in Germany as well as 48% in the UK. Medical information being recorded was also highlighted, with 17% going on to record this as a matter of concern.
In response to all this, the white paper went on to state that the regulatory aspect of AI happens to be changing all the time, with most of the governing bodies in the surveyed countries working on AI roadmaps as well as specific legislation.
The point is that healthcare organizations should make sure that they implement tools that happen to be purpose-built when it comes to clinical environments in order to guarantee quality as well as safety, and that they neatly go on to communicate the benefits to the clinicians as well as the patients.
Dr. David Rhew, who happens to be the global chief medical officer as well as the vice president of healthcare, at Microsoft, opined while writing in the white paper that, due to AI, they can indeed go on to pull together more information than ever before and get deeper insights within the gamut of patient health as well as treatment options. They can indeed speed up as well as automate the workflows clinicians follow, and hence simplify the tasks that can go on to draw their focus away from the patient. And, interestingly, one can tailor the care pathways as well as treatments to the individual patient’s distinct requirements.
The white paper went on to state that this overall focus on the most meaningful part of the role of working directly with the patients goes on to support clinicians’ professional satisfaction and at the same time reduces the likelihood of burnout.
Earlier in 2024, the EU-funded METEOR Project underscored widespread retention issues across Europe, with 9% of doctors as well as almost 14% of nurses having and, as a matter of fact, declaring the intention to leave their profession, thereby citing low job satisfaction, a rise in depersonalization, and emotional exhaustion as major elements.
The recent NHS staff survey went on to reveal that 65.56% of the medical and dental staff happened to be unable to meet all conflicting demands when it came to their time at work.
One of the previous researches from Nuance in 2022 went on to reveal that NHS healthcare professionals in acute, mental, and community health settings happen to spend an average of 13.5 hours every week generating clinical documentation, which is, by the way, a 25% surge since 2015.
Consultants happened to be found to spend the longest in terms of clinical documentation at 15.1 hours every week.
Another 3.2 hours every week were spent out-of-hours by healthcare professionals on such tasks, as per the research.
Almost 68% of the respondents said they happened to feel it was likely or very likely that their respective notes would happen to be more complete if they got more time in order to complete them. In an endeavor to free up doctors’ time so as to treat more patients and decrease waiting times, the NHS has gone on to recently announced the deployment of AI software across 10 trusts in England that looks to decrease the number of missed appointments.
