A recent white paper from Nuance, a company under Microsoft, delves into patient attitudes towards integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into clinical consultations to enhance documentation processes like clinical letters. Surveying 13,500 participants across nine European nations, the UK, and Australia, the paper explores patients’ recent interactions with clinicians and their perspectives on AI’s potential to improve their experiences.
Key findings revealed that patients identified five primary challenges contributing to unsatisfactory experiences with clinicians: ineffective communication, lengthy wait times, lack of personalization, inadequate continuity of care, and limited access to healthcare information. Notably, 40% of respondents expressed feeling neglected during consultations due to physicians’ focus on computer screens, with 40% of these individuals experiencing resultant frustration. In the UK, this frustration peaked at 50%.
Interestingly, 34% of respondents, on average, expressed openness to AI assistance in clinical documentation, with variations across countries ranging from 27% in Norway to 48% in Spain. Younger respondents exhibited higher receptivity, with agreement declining with age, from 43% among 18-to-24-year-olds to 26% among those aged 65 and older.
Although respondents lacked personal experience with AI in healthcare, they identified freeing up clinician time as the most compelling reason for its use (45% on average, peaking at 55% among German respondents). However, despite broad support, half of respondents expressed some level of concern about AI in clinical settings, primarily citing regulatory issues (34%), particularly in Germany (46%) and the UK (48%).
In response to these concerns, the white paper emphasized the evolving regulatory landscape and the importance of implementing purpose-built AI tools tailored for clinical environments. Dr. David Rhew, Microsoft’s global chief medical officer, underscored AI’s potential to streamline workflows, personalize care, and enhance patient outcomes while alleviating clinician burdens.
Moreover, the paper highlighted AI’s role in addressing healthcare workforce challenges, citing the EU-funded METEOR Project’s findings on retention issues and the NHS staff survey’s revelations of overwhelming demands on medical and dental staff. Previous research by Nuance indicated a significant time burden on NHS healthcare professionals for generating clinical documentation, with consultants spending the most time at 15.1 hours per week.
In response, the NHS has announced plans to deploy AI software across ten trusts in England to mitigate missed appointments and alleviate clinician workload, aiming to improve patient access and reduce wait times.
- : public
