AI vs. EHR: Oracle aims to reduce stress on physicians

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Oracle says it’s bringing the power of artificial intelligence to help reduce some stress on doctors and add some convenience for patients.

At the Oracle Health conference, the company said it’s introducing the new Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant. The tech giant says the solution utilizes generative AI to work with Oracle's electronic health records system.

The digital assistant will automatically take notes of doctor’s conversations with patients, allowing physicians to give patients their full attention, the company says. Providers can spend more time looking at their patients and less looking at their screens.

Doctors will also be able to tell Oracle’s digital assistant to perform certain tasks, the company says. Physicians can issue voice commands, such as asking the digital assistant to provide the latest lab results.

“The EHR should be a provider’s best ally in delivering engaging, personalized care to the patients they serve,” Suhas Uliyar, senior vice president of product management, Oracle Health, said in a news release.

“By bringing comprehensive generative AI and voice-first capabilities to our EHR platforms, we are not only helping providers reduce mundane work that leads to burnout, but we are also empowering them to create better interactions with patients that establish trust, build loyalty, and deliver better outcomes,” Uliyar said.

The Oracle Clinical Digital Assistant also offers additional prompts, such as ordering tests or scheduling appointments.

The company is also adding new features for patients in the Oracle Digital Assistant Platform. Patients can use voice commands to schedule appointments or ask questions about what’s going to happen in certain procedures.

Providers will also be able to use web chats to provide information in their patient portal, such as reminding patients what they need for their next appointment.

After completing its $28 billion acquisition of Cerner in June 2022, Oracle has said that health care is a top priority for the company. At the 2022 HLTH Conference, David Feinberg, the chairman of Oracle Health, said the company recognizes that it has to be easier for doctors to use electronic health records.

“They are clunky, non-intuitive and don’t help clinicians,” Feinberg said at HLTH.

“We’ve got to make the EHR usable,” he said. “We can’t have people burning out and quitting medicine because it’s too hard to use.”

In Medscape’s annual survey of physicians and burnout released earlier this year, three out of five physicians (61%) pointed to bureaucratic tasks as the top contributor for burnout.

This article first appeared at www.chiefhealthcareexecutive.com.