What Patients Should Know About AI Visit Summaries

As artificial intelligence continues to advance in seemingly every aspect of life – including healthcare – experts say it is important for patients to know that AI can be used in their care.

“I think we will see significant advances in AI usage and AI capacity in the next few years,” said Dr. Sian Tsuei, a family physician at Metrotown Urgent and Primary Care Center in Burnaby, B.C

“I think we’re just at the beginning. That’s why I would strongly encourage patients to keep themselves informed, and also doctors.”

Tsuei and other experts recommend that you discuss the following risks and benefits of AI with your doctor.

Ask first

Next time you have an appointment with your primary care doctor, ask them if they use AI.

If so, it is likely that it is an AI writer. Medical colleges and associations, including in Ontario and B.C., have issued guidelines for doctors interested in using the technology to transcribe their conversations with patients rather than manually taking notes themselves.

In a recent Ontario study, doctors using AI scribes spent 70 to 90 percent less time on paperwork, saving an average of three to four hours per week.

“AI scribes not only save time for physicians, but can also improve the quality of patient visits,” said Muhammad Mamdani, vice president of data science and advanced analytics at Unity Health Toronto.

“At your primary care doctor, many of them spend a lot of time not just looking at you, but also staring at their computer screen. They are busy typing up the conversation so that it is recorded,” said Mamdani, who is also the director of training and research in artificial intelligence in medicine at the University of Toronto.

“But that’s a lot of time spent not really listening to you with the attention that maybe they should.”

How secure is my data?

Tsuei said cybersecurity is one of the most important factors as he considers using an AI scribe in his practice.

“To what extent has technology developed appropriate cybersecurity measures? Do we actually understand cybersecurity threats and are we?” [there] appropriate ways to defend against it?”

Some doctors may store patient data on-site, while others may upload it to a cloud server or another location, said Nadia Shaikh-Naeem, vice president of programs at Digital, an “innovation cluster” dedicated to AI development and funded by will be the federal government.

It’s important to ask about “digital residency,” Shaikh-Naeem said, noting that Digital requires its healthcare partner organizations to store data within Canada.

This is because the data should be protected by national data protection laws such as the Personal Data and Electronic Documents Act.

Terry Stepien, CEO of Expeflow — one of Digital’s partner organizations that provides AI services to a psychology practice in Toronto — said it’s important to ask whether your data is encrypted.

If the data is transferred to a cloud server or an external server, “how is it transferred between your location and the end location?” “Are they encrypted at all times during transmission?” he said.

Stepien said it’s also important to know who within the healthcare practice has access to patient data – and to have a protocol that documents all activity in patient records to ensure people have not attempted to access it without permission.

What exactly do I agree to here?

According to Doctors of BC and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, your doctor must get your consent before using an AI scribe to record your conversations.

But it’s also a good idea to ask specifically how the recorded and transcribed information will be used, Shaikh-Naeem said.

“Do I agree to the research? Do I agree to my data being used to train the AI? “Do I consent to them being used internally for diagnostic purposes, my own broader diagnosis?” she said.

If the recording is used solely for documentation in your electronic medical record, the AI ​​model is “closed,” Shaikh-Naeem said.

However, some AI models are “open,” meaning they learn from your data to improve their accuracy in future transcriptions.

Is the information about me transcribed by the AI ​​accurate?

Doctors should review AI transcriptions of patient visits, Unity Health Toronto’s Mamdani said, pointing out that the transcription technology requires a “human in the loop.”

“Basically, the scribes are doing their job, but of course the doctor has to check what the scribe wrote down,” he said.

In its professional guide to AI published online, Doctors of BC notes that not all AI scribes can accurately transcribe the speech of patients with an accent.

“If a significant number of your patients are not native English speakers, it is critical to prefer an AI scribe who is known for their proficiency in various accents or supports multiple languages,” the guidance states.

Experts say the onus is on the healthcare provider to make an informed decision about AI technology and be aware of potential patient concerns.

“As a patient, it is always important to feel empowered about our data and the way our data is used,” said Shaikh-Naeem.

“The physician must be able to answer these questions in order to provide patients with comfort around their data and the use of AI.”