“This is practice-changing and life-changing,” says Laura Igarabuza, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Family and Community Medicine, and Assistant Professor at the Center for Health Justice and Bioethics, at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University.
She’s talking about Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Copilot, also known as Dragon Copilot: a Microsoft AI tool Temple Health has acquired that uses ambient voice technology to help physicians dramatically cut down on the time they spend taking clinical notes.
After a patient consents to the use of the tool at the start of their appointment, their physician presses a button on the Epic Haiku app on their phone. DAX starts recording, and the physician then can have a conversation about the patient’s medical history and symptoms without having to focus on typing notes on their computer.
[Dax has] reduced my notetaking time by 60-75%.
Dr. Laura Igarabuza, Temple Health physician
“After the conversation with your patient ends, you press another button in Haiku and say your treatment plan out loud: that you’re going to order a test or an X-ray,” says Benjamin Slovis, MD, Temple University Hospital’s Chief Medical Information Officer.
“You don’t have to be particularly eloquent: you can speak off the cuff, and you don’t have to be exact like you do with dictation. You just speak naturally, like you would with a colleague,” he adds. “Then, when you get back to your workstation and open Epic on your computer, a note will be generated for you in a format you can customize, summarizing the patient encounter with surprising accuracy in appropriate medical terminology.”
At this point, physicians will have the chance to review and amend their notes. According to Temple Health’s data, notes generated using ambient voice technology are highly accurate. In a trial of another technology similar to DAX, Temple physicians made edits to only 15% of each note—which, Dr. Slovis says, is an ideal number.
“That shows they’re actually reading the note, and making a few modifications, but overall, they’re very happy,” he explains. “Our doctors left 85% of what the tool generated, which is great.”
Prioritizing Physician Satisfaction
Why is Temple Health investing in DAX? Our goal, says Esme Singer, MD, MBA, FACP, Chief Medical Officer of Temple Faculty Practice Plan and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, is to improve physician satisfaction.
“As physicians, we tend to be incredibly busy, and a lot of our time is spent on administrative tasks and documentation requirements,” Dr. Singer says. “Many of us write our notes after regular work hours, which can negatively impact our families, our social lives, our energy levels, and our mental health.”
Dr. Slovis articulates his treatment plan after a visit with a patient.
“Because spending too much time on notetaking is such a widespread problem in the physician community, we thought introducing a technology that could cut down on notetaking hours would be an extremely effective way to improve satisfaction,” Dr. Singer continues. “We chose a product that would allow for the same level of excellent documentation, but that would reduce the time we spent charting post-appointment and give us valuable personal time back.”
Physicians who’ve started using DAX have already seen the benefits. “It used to take me at least an hour after each session to close all my notes,” Dr. Igarabuza recalls. “But with DAX, I can close my notes 15-20 minutes after a session ends. It’s reduced my notetaking time by 60-75%."
Focusing on Patient Care
Temple Health is committed to continuing to explore and leverage AI to improve quality of care and physician wellness. “This is just the beginning of our implementation of novel tools for clinicians,” says Dr. Slovis.
This is just the beginning of our implementation of novel tools for clinicians.
Dr. Benjamin Slovis, Chief Medical Information Officer, Temple Health
“It’s such an exciting new frontier in medicine, and one that will have real benefits for both physicians and patients.”
As we pursue more of these opportunities, we’re determined to make DAX accessible to all physicians who want it. “Physicians from multiple specialties are already using DAX, including Temple Faculty Physicians, Temple Physicians, Inc., the Emergency Department, Cardiology, Urology, and Oncology,” says Katie Deschaine, Vice President of Clinical Applications, IT Administration.
“Attending physicians can reach out to our EPOCH team for training so they can start using DAX today,” Deschaine explains. “We’ll also be partnering with physician leadership to give presentations about DAX to specific departments.”
Dr. Slovis reviews the note that DAX generated for him after his patient visit.
Dr. Igarabuza encourages all of her fellow physicians—especially in primary care—to try using DAX. “I think this is an absolute no-brainer,” she says. “Even people who feel like they’ve truly perfected their workflow should at least give it a shot, because they’ll be blown away. I think the faster people adopt this, the happier they’ll be.”
In the end, Dr. Igarabuza stresses, it’s not just about saving time; it’s also about building relationships with her patients.
“I also think it’s made me better at my patient care job, because I can look at people more, I can connect with people more, and I can just think more,” she says. “I didn’t even realize how much mental energy I was spending translating patient conversations into text. Now, I don’t have to do that, and I have the bandwidth to think so much more about the medicine and the patient in front of me.”
