Third AI scribe launch in under a week

It never rains GP note-taking software but it pours GP note-taking software.

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Yet another new AI-powered note taker aimed at general practice has hit the market, this one from Melbourne-based GP Dr Paul Tescher. 

Dr Tescher developed the browser-based software, mAIscribe, in partnership with his wife, lawyer Chantelle Brott.  

It comes hot on the heels of two other pieces of AI-powered note taking software, both of which have dropped in the space of a week.  

On Monday last week, Victorian GPs Dr Chris Irwin and Dr Umair Masood announced the arrival of Consultnote.ai, which uses OpenAI’s large language model to turn consult recordings into relevant medical notes. 

At the tail end of the week, tech giant Amazon launched AWS HealthScribe.  

It, too, will take recordings of consults and create summaries to upload into electronic health records.  

Graphed, the situation looks like this:  

None of the three are widely available yet – AWS HealthScribe is still being previewed for application in the United States and both Australian-based companies advise potential users to join a waitlist. 

Dr Tescher and Ms Brott estimate that using an AI scribe to take notes will save about three minutes of note taking per consult, which is in line with the claims made by the other software vendors. 

“With our software, GPs can go home at the end of the day rather than staying back writing notes, or they can see additional patients instead of having catch-up slots,” Ms Brott said.  

“It provides freedom.” 

It also allows the GP to look at their patient during the consult rather than at their computer.  

The advantage of mAIscribe over similar software, the couple said, was that it is “more user friendly” given that doctors can log in at multiple practices or on any device.  

Consultnote.ai is currently only advertised as a downloadable app for PC computers, but AWS HealthScribe appears to be cloud-based. 

AI itself is currently under the microscope at a federal level, with both the RACGP and AMA calling for tighter regulation of the nascent technology.  

“While AI has great potential to improve care, we need to be clear about its limitations. What AI can’t do is replace the relationship, trust, and continuity of care that a GP provides, which is what makes people healthier,” RACGP president Dr Nicole Higgins said.  

“Australia’s GPs need to be empowered to adopt AI, which is responsibly developed and regulated, so we can improve our patients lives.” 

The large datasets that are needed to train AI, she said, require patient consent and must accurately represent vulnerable and diverse members of the community in order to promote health equality.  

“GPs are early adopters of technology, and leaders in tech, and it’s no different with AI,” Dr Higgins said.  

“Of course, there must be regulation to keep patients safe, and the RACGP is calling on government to create an oversight body to regulate, oversee and monitor developments in healthcare AI, and GPs need to be at the table.”  

The AMA separately called for a common set of legislative principles to establish a compliance basis for all individuals involved in AI.  

Last month, medical defence organisation Avant Mutual published a blog post urging doctors to be careful with programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT when it comes to data privacy compliance.  

“Doctors’ duty of confidentiality to patients and privacy and security obligations requires them to protect patient information from unauthorised use and disclosure,” Avant general manager of advocacy, education and research Georgie Haysom said. 

“Uploading information to an AI tool can breach these requirements. 

“While patient details such as name or date of birth may not be uploaded, the patient may nevertheless be identifiable from the details of the medical and health information shared with the AI tool.” 

A key piece of information to know, she said, was whether patient information was being sent to an overseas server.  

Ms Haysom’s comments were in relation to a warning from Perth’s South Metropolitan Health Service in May not to use ChatGPT to write consult notes.  

Consultnote.ai does temporarily cache data in overseas servers, but its creators maintain that it only does so within the bounds of Australian data and privacy legislation. 

According to its website, mAIscribe automatically redacts all patient identifiers and augments the audio on completion of a recording.  

It says nothing saved on its servers or sent to a third party contains identifiable patient information.  

AWS HealthScribe users will be able to choose the region in which their content is stored, its website said.