September 6, 2024 | Tsai-Ling Liu, PhD, Timothy C. Hetherington, MS, Casey Stephens, MPH, Andrew McWilliams, MD, MPH; Ajay Dharod, MD; Tracey Carroll, MHA, MBA; Jeffrey A. Cleveland, MD
This nonrandomized clinical trial evaluated the impact of an AI-powered clinical documentation tool, Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Copilot (Nuance), on clinicians' experiences with electronic health records (EHRs). The study recruited 112 family medicine, internal medicine, and general pediatrics clinicians from Atrium Health in North Carolina and Georgia. These clinicians received a 1-hour training session on the AI tool before its implementation. A comparison group of 117 clinicians who did not use the AI tool was also included. A 7-question survey was administered to both groups before and 5 weeks after the intervention to assess changes in EHR experience and time spent on EHR tasks.
The results showed that 47.1% of the intervention group reported decreased time spent on EHR at home, 44.7% reported decreased weekly time outside normal work hours, 43.5% reported decreased time on documentation after visits, and 44.7% reported less frustration with the EHR. In contrast, 18.2% of the control group reported similar changes. The study concluded that while approximately half of the clinicians using the AI tool reported positive outcomes, a significant subset did not find time-saving benefits or improved EHR experience. The study acknowledged potential selection and recall biases and recommended further research to identify areas for improvement and understand the impact on different clinician subsets and health systems.This nonrandomized clinical trial evaluated the impact of an AI-powered clinical documentation tool, Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Copilot (Nuance), on clinicians' experiences with electronic health records (EHRs). The study recruited 112 family medicine, internal medicine, and general pediatrics clinicians from Atrium Health in North Carolina and Georgia. These clinicians received a 1-hour training session on the AI tool before its implementation. A comparison group of 117 clinicians who did not use the AI tool was also included. A 7-question survey was administered to both groups before and 5 weeks after the intervention to assess changes in EHR experience and time spent on EHR tasks.
The results showed that 47.1% of the intervention group reported decreased time spent on EHR at home, 44.7% reported decreased weekly time outside normal work hours, 43.5% reported decreased time on documentation after visits, and 44.7% reported less frustration with the EHR. In contrast, 18.2% of the control group reported similar changes. The study concluded that while approximately half of the clinicians using the AI tool reported positive outcomes, a significant subset did not find time-saving benefits or improved EHR experience. The study acknowledged potential selection and recall biases and recommended further research to identify areas for improvement and understand the impact on different clinician subsets and health systems.