A Velib bike is parked in front of Microsoft, the headquarters of the American computer and microcomputing company, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, January 25, 2023.
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microsoftNuance Communications, a speech recognition subsidiary of Nuance, on Monday announced Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Express, an artificial intelligence-powered clinical note-taking application for healthcare professionals.
DAX Express aims to reduce the administrative burden on clinicians by automatically generating draft clinical notes within seconds of a patient’s visit. The technology is powered by a combination of ambient AI, which forms insights from unstructured data such as conversations, and OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-4.
Diana Nole, executive VP of health care at Nuance, told CNBC the company wants to help doctors “get back to the joy of medicine” and treat more patients.
“Our ultimate goal is to reduce this cognitive burden and actually reduce the amount of time we have to spend on these administrative tasks,” she said.
Microsoft will acquire Nuance for around $16 billion in 2021. The company makes money by selling tools to recognize and transcribe speech in clinic visits, customer service calls, and voicemails.
DAX Express complements other existing services Nuance already has on the market.
Nole said the technology is powered by Nuance’s Dragon Medical One speech recognition application, which is used by more than 550,000 doctors. Dragon Medical One is a doctor’s voice-controlled, cloud-based workflow assistant. It allows physicians to navigate clinical systems and quickly access patient information. Clinical notes generated by DAX Express are displayed on the Dragon Medical One desktop.
DAX Express is also based on the original DAX application launched by Nuance in 2020. DAX converts verbal patient consultations into clinical notes and submits them through a human review process to ensure they are accurate and of high quality. The note will appear on your chart within 4 hours of booking.
In contrast, DAX Express generates clinical notes in seconds, so doctors can immediately see an automated summary of patient visits.
“We believe that physicians and clinicians want a combination of all of these because every specialty is different and every patient encounter is different. We need it,” said Nole.
Nuance did not provide CNBC with details about the cost of these applications. The company says pricing for Nuance’s technology will vary depending on the number of users and the size of a particular healthcare system.
DAX Express will first be available in private preview capacity this summer. Nole said Nuance depends on the feedback it receives from the first users, so it’s unclear when the technology will become more widely available.
Patient information is particularly sensitive and regulated by HIPAA and other laws. Alysa Taylor, her vice president of corporate for Microsoft’s Azure group, told CNBC that DAX Express adheres to her Microsoft principles. Responsible AI Framework, all of the company’s AI investments, and the additional safety measures Nuance has in place. Nuance has strict data agreements with its customers, data is fully encrypted and runs in a HIPAA compliant environment.
Nollé added that while AI can help doctors and clinicians do paperwork, experts are still involved at every step. Physicians can edit notes generated by DAX Express and approve them before they are entered into the patient’s electronic medical record.
Ultimately, she said, using DAX Express improves both the patient experience and the physician experience.
“Doctors and patients can face each other and communicate directly,” says Nole. “Patients feel they are being listened to. It’s a very authentic experience.”
