Don't worry if you notice that your doctor no longer seems to write down anything he or she tells you during a Zoom video call. Thanks to a new deal between Zoom and AI medical assistant creator Suki, there's an AI assistant on top of everything.
The two companies agreed to incorporate Suki's administrative assistant and AI notetaker into Zoom's telehealth service. That means your doctor can focus on what you're telling them without having to divide their attention by writing notes and possibly leaving out something you've said.
The Suki Platform already handles similar tasks for nearly a million doctors in the US, but is typically deployed for in-person appointments. The AI (with your permission) records your conversation with the doctor and then mines the transcript for important details and plans for follow-up visits. After physician approval and annotation, the notes are added to your electronic medical record. Suki's research shows that this type of AI-based clinical note-taking can reduce the time doctors spend on paperwork by up to 70%, giving them more time and energy for actual care.
Zoom will augment its platform with Suki for appointments to do the same for telehealth visits. The only difference is that the AI will listen during your Zoom call instead of from a recorder in the room with you and the doctor. That could be a big deal considering Zoom's explosive growth in the healthcare industry during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns.
“With more than 140,000 healthcare institutions around the world using the Zoom platform, we feel a great responsibility to harness the power of AI to boost employee productivity and improve patient experiences,” said the director of Zoom products, Smita Hashim. “Working together with Suki to provide critical AI-generated clinical notes functionality to Zoom Workplace for Clinicians will reduce documentation overload for clinicians, allowing them to focus on patients.”
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Of course, Zoom's interest in AI clinical support is not unique. For example, Microsoft recently introduced a new set of AI tools to handle administrative tasks for healthcare providers using technology gained when it acquired Nuance. There's also Amazon, which has brought its AI-powered Bedrock tools, like AWS HealthScribe, to its One Medical subsidiary. There are also many smaller companies competing with Suki to provide AI clinical assistants, including Abridge and Notable.
However, that mostly happens in the background. Just know that when your doctor makes a lot of eye contact with you on your Zoom call, it doesn't mean they have Netflix open in another window and are ignoring you. It actually means they are paying more attention than before and will have help reminding them of what you said if necessary.
“AI is changing the way we interact with the world. Everything from how we communicate to how we use technology and how care is delivered will evolve. Video will be a critical interface in the AI-driven world,” said Suki CEO Punit Soni. “We are delighted to work with Zoom to develop new interaction models and artificial intelligence that advance our mission of making healthcare technology invisible and assistive so doctors can focus on what matters most: their patients.”
