The “ambient scribe” tools listening to and summarising your doctor-patient consultations
New AI tools that record and summarise doctor-patient conversations are becoming increasingly common. But what are they, and can they be trusted? Chris Stokel-Walker reports Heidi is listening. Nearly half a million patients are registered with Modality Partnership, the NHS’s largest GP partnership. Hundreds of doctors across more than 50 sites in England see these patients daily. Since November, Heidi, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool, has been listening to these consultations and transcribing them. Heidi allows GPs to spend less time inputting a patient’s clinical history into a computer, and more time focusing on the patient. “The feedback from colleagues has been very positive,” says Tom Ratcliffe, digital transformation clinical lead at the partnership, who has been overseeing the testing of Heidi. “As a GP, the main thing I’ve noticed is that I’m able to focus entirely on the patient when they’re in the room with me,” says Ratcliffe. Every doctor knows that a lot of patient c
