Post, Jason

Objective Ambient listening with subsequent artificial intelligence enabled medical record documentation is changing how physicians interact with the electronic health record (EHR). We studied primary care physician use, documentation time, and changes in note metrics associated with ambient listening technology. Methods We calculated the percentage of physicians adopting the ambient listening tool, Abridge. Note input contributed by Abridge was determined by the percentage of total characters in generated notes. Using the Epic EHR Signal metrics, we analyzed the change in note documentation time and note length for Abridge users before and after they implemented Abridge in their note generation process. Results The percentage of physicians using Abridge increased from 15% to 50% in 8 weeks. Adoption was also reflected in the percentage of the note attributable to the use of ambient listening technology. Note content generated by Abridge tripled, from 5% to 15% over the same 8 weeks. After Abridge adoption, 332 primary care physicians had a mean time of 4.16 minutes [confidence interval (CI) 95%; 3.86, 4.46] time in notes per note in a paired comparison to 5.11 minutes [CI 95%; 4.75, 5.47] per note prior to Abridge. Mean time saved per note after Abridge was 0.95 minutes [CI 95%; 0.48, 1.42, p < 0.0001], an 18.6% reduction in time. Mean note length for Abridge adopters increased by 238 characters [CI 95%; 89, 387, p < 0.0001] from a pre-implementation mean of 4404 characters per note (+5.4%). Conclusion Ambient listening had rapid uptake and widespread use by physicians in primary care. It was also associated with a significant decrease in time in notes.

Many primary care providers feel uncomfortable discussing end-of-life care. The aim of this intervention was to assess internal medicine residents’ advance care planning (ACP) practices and improve residents’ ACP confidence. Residents participated in a facilitated ACP quality improvement workshop, which included an interactive presentation and chart audit of their own patients. Pre- and postintervention surveys assessed resident ACP-related confidence. Only 24% of the audited patients had an advance directive (AD), and 28% of the ACP-documentation was of no clinical utility. Terminally ill patients (odds ratio 2.8, P < .001) were more likely to have an AD. Patients requiring an interpreter were less likely to have participated in ACP. Residents reported significantly improved confidence with ACP and identified important training gaps. Future studies examining the impact on ACP quality are needed.