Physician productivity at Johns Hopkins isn't all just talk. As part of their initiative to reduce physician burnout, the hospital has implemented Nuance's clinical documentation products, including Dragon Medical One and Dragon Medical Advisor.

Dragon's speech recognition software will enable doctors to dictate patient information, cutting down on time spent entering data. Medical Advisor software provides real-time assistance with diagnosis and coding which help speed up and improve the outcomes of the billing process. Both pieces of software are powered by Nuance's conversational artificial intelligence technology.

"Our technology is focused on augmenting the physician's role for an improved experience for both patients and physicians, with the goal of getting physicians as close to a natural workflow as possible," said Michael Clark, senior vice president and general manager, Provider Solutions, Nuance.

WHY IT MATTERS
Doctors can spend hours on clerical tasks such as data entry which can take up more than half of their workday, compared to actually seeing patients. Documentation burden is a major contributor to physician burnout, as practitioners feel swamped by the amount of information they need to enter into EHRs and other health systems.

Indeed, one study has found that doctors are turning into pricey clerical workers and only seeing patients 27 percent of the time. Giving physicians tools to interact with documentation and billing software with the minimum amount of cumbersome data entry helps cut down on rejected billing claims, increase time spent with patients, and of course return joy to the practice of medicine.

THE LARGER TREND
Healthcare systems are increasingly turning to AI in an effort to fight burnout. Leveraging technology to do the work that no doctor wanted to do in the first place - data entry - frees them up to actually speak with and care for patients, as well as enjoy their own lives instead of burning midnight oil to stay abreast of documentation requirements.

Advanced AI dictation and scribe tools are being hailed as a way to enable physicians to concentrate on the more pressing tasks at hand than on worrying about how to document a patient history or on being burned out through the sheer volume of note taking that is increasingly being required.

ON THE RECORD
"Johns Hopkins Medicine is a pioneer in addressing physician satisfaction with their Joy at Johns Hopkins Medicine initiative. The common values shared between our teams has made this initiative even more meaningful, as we both place great importance on the need for solutions that reduce physician burnout and enable physicians to easily capture the full patient story," said Clark.

Benjamin Harris is a Maine-based freelance writer and and former new media producer for HIMSS Media.
Twitter: @BenzoHarris.