Note-taking AI could increase patient-doctor time, says Fredericton physician

A Fredericton family physician has started using an AI note-taking software that he says allows him to spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork.

Dr. Will Stymiest  is using a tool called Tali and, so far, he's pleased.

"Every, kind of, five minutes I save at the end of the day makes a big difference," said Stymiest.

According to the Tali website, the product combines an AI scribe — a program that records and transcribes a conversation — with medical search and dictation.

The tool filters out any non-important information, said Stymiest, such as small talk about the weather at the beginning of an appointment and can then generate a patient note. He goes through the note afterward to add or subtract information.

Before using Tali, he would spend five to 15 minutes per patient to finish note-taking or filling out paperwork, though not directly after an appointment.

"That happens at the end of the day, that happens over lunch while I'm eating, that happens after the kids go to bed at night or on the weekend or what have you," Stymiest said, adding that note-taking can add an extra 30 to 90 minutes to each day.

"That's an hour and a half of patient-care time — or potential patient-care time — that's spent on paperwork. I mean, not all of that's going to go away with using an AI scribe, but at least a significant portion of it can."

One of his colleagues was in the computer science industry before medical school, he said, so he was the first in the office to start using the software, and the New Brunswick Medical Society has been conducting trials with AI tools to get feedback from doctors, he said.

Stymiest said he hasn't had any issues so far with patients reacting poorly to him asking to use the AI tool, but he said he understands some people may have concerns about where the recording is stored and their privacy. 

It complies with the New Brunswick College of Physicians and Surgeons guidelines and Health Canada regulations in respect to privacy, he said.

"The information's safe, the recording is not kept, the transcript is not kept once I delete it, either. So really what's left is the note in the chart, which is … what's been happening for decades," Stymiest said.

"Scribes are not new in health care, but they were human scribes. … In many specialist offices, for instance, they'll dictate a note into a [dictaphone], the admin assistant in the office will transcribe that and format it, but that takes a lot of time.

"That people-power can be better used to do other things."