Another frequent cynic, my colleague John Lynn, seems to have been quite impressed when he began investigating ambient clinical voice technology. I’m not alone in my enthusiasm for this approach. Once the doctor reviews and approves the note it moves into the patient’s medical record. What that means is that rather than having to take notes on their computer as they progress through a virtual visit, the system leverages AI to capture and organize information drawn from the discussion.Īs DAX gathers information from the physician-patient conversation, it adds context from the EHR to create a complete clinical note. Nuance describes DAX as an “ambient clinical intelligence” solution. Let’s look at the substance of what’s going on here. As for the Teams connector, meanwhile, I don’t know if the tool itself does anything extraordinary, but the way Epic is using it is so obviously useful that I’m surprised its competitors haven’t gone there yet. In DAX, for example, we seem to be seeing a nice exemplar of the AI-based hands-free documentation model vendors have working on for the last few years. However, in this case, I think we’re seeing some pretty interesting stuff. Under the terms of the deal, the Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) has been integrated into Microsoft Teams, from which physicians will be able to access the DAX tool.Īs readers who know my work for Healthcare IT Today know, I seldom praise new products, as I believe hard-nosed cynicism is more valuable in a world replete with technology hype. Microsoft has also struck a deal with clinical documentation vendor Nuance which brings automated documentation to telehealth consults. Using this tool, clinicians and patients will have the ability to initiate virtual visits or consults directly from within the Epic platform. The tech giant signed an agreement with Epic under which the EHR vendor would become the first such organization to use the Teams connector function. Microsoft has announced two deals leveraging its Teams tool which could cast a long shadow over the rapidly evolving telehealth sector.