This year, HCA Healthcare and Google Cloud have expanded their partnership by exploring ways to integrate Google’s generative AI into HCA’s workflows. The most developed project under this initiative is a pilot that began in February in which HCA’s emergency department physicians are testing a voice-enabled medical dictation tool to save them time on clinical documentation.

Amazon recently unveiled HealthScribe, an API that software companies can use to create clinical note generation apps that providers can later adopt. With this approach, Amazon is seeking to collaborate with companies that are building clinical documentation AI apps rather than compete with them. Some think this approach is clever, but others think it does little to facilitate bi-directional EHR integration and create standardization.

Only about half of physicians think their organization’s leaders are transparent, honest and make good decisions for patients and employees, according to a new report. To remedy this problem, the leaders of provider organizations must deploy more transparent communication lines with their physicians, as well as facilitate opportunities for physicians to nurture connections with their teams.

Suki recently announced one of its biggest partnerships to date: it is integrating its voice assistant into Epic’s EHR. The startup’s assistant can be thought of as like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa — but for doctors.

Feedtrail believes healthcare workers become more satisfied in their roles when they’re connected to messages of patient gratitude, so it built technology to deliver that positive feedback to clinicians. The company recently announced the results of a five-month clinician retention workgroup, finding that 77% of clinicians agreed that consistently receiving positive patient messages reinforced their purpose.

In an interview at the Vive conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Craig Richardville, Intermountain’s chief digital and information officer outlined the three areas of priority for Intermountain Health for which technology can be leveraged. But when it comes to a major headache for CIOs, Richardville seems to suggest that a government-led all-hands-on-deck approach is what is needed.

Abridge announced the largest deployment of its technology to date — the University of Kansas Health System will adopt the software for more than 1,500 of its physicians across 140 locations. The startup’s technology listens to visits and creates a near-instant summary that adheres to physicians’ prototypical note structure.

Many large health systems and provider practices continue to be restrictive, routinely assigning  tasks like ordering preventive services such as referrals for annual eye exams or mammograms to overburdened physicians, rather than utilizing nurses who are credentialed for these services. The result is dissatisfied nurses, strained physicians, and frustrated patients.

Millennium Physician Group — an independent care group with more than 800 providers across Florida, Texas, and North Carolina — announced successful results following its adoption of Navina’s AI platform. The organization said that the platform saved time, reduced burnout and gave physicians more confidence about forming care plans with patients.

LG launched the first solution to come from its collaboration with Amwell. The product, called the Carepoint TV Kit 200L, is in beta testing but will soon be sold to hospitals to help clinicians virtually connect to patients’ rooms. Powered by Amwell’s Converge platform, the product is aimed at helping clinicians more easily engage with patients amid healthcare’s workforce shortage crisis.

The pandemic placed an unfathomable burden on the country’s doctors. For years to come, we’ll be dissecting its implications. Here are six ways healthcare providers can lighten the physician’s burden.

No matter how many well-earned bonuses, vacations, massages, or wellness apps are offered to employees, if they step into a damaging environment every day, nothing will meaningfully change. We must definitively and mercilessly confront the oppressive systems and circumstances in which they work.

Job turnover is on the rise among physicians because their desire for flexibility and work-life balance is emboldening them to leave jobs where they feel overworked or underappreciated, according to a new report. It found that 43% of physicians switched jobs during the pandemic, 8% retired, and 3% left medicine to work in a non-clinical career.

Healthcare workers have borne the brunt of pandemic-related stressors. Mental health struggles and burnout have led many to leave the field at a critical time. But having access to virtual behavioral health, especially when in-person treatment options are limited, can help providers and patients cope.

Health systems must seek digital solutions that make the most of existing staff while also prioritizing their wellbeing. A platform that uses sophisticated math and intelligent, continual learning algorithms can unlock value for hospitals, staff and patients.

Technology has the potential to transform healthcare, by reducing the need for HCPs to perform repetitive, tedious administrative tasks such as documentation for regulatory and billing purposes.

This is the time to embrace radical empathy, profound change, and bold ideas. While the pandemic may have put us all on an unexpected path, there is no turning back from here.

We have an incredible opportunity to further streamline processes and workflows like never before. By incorporating practices driven by analytics and emerging technology, healthcare systems can meet the goal of delivering consistent, quality care.

As the Delta variant surges on, we understand trauma for healthcare providers isn’t over, but we are hopeful that technology can make a small impact in lightening the load for our front-line heroes.

This year has shown that being a doctor is no longer just about skill: it’s about resilience, stamina, empathy, flexibility and teamwork. The way we educate medics needs to reflect this new reality; and prepare medics for the myriad challenges and pressures they will face.

Microsoft was wise to acquire Nuance as a way to reach physicians where they are. But is voice the right approach to addressing the shortcomings of EHR systems?

Taking your clinician expertise and applying it to the business world might reduce your sense of burnout and rekindle the love you feel for medicine.

The greatest issue that must be addressed is also the elephant in the room: reducing the administrative burden on physicians.

Rural hospitals are grappling with high rates of chronic disease, lack of broadband access, and workforce shortages that are exacerbated by the low pay and professional isolation that are characteristic of rural settings. It is from within this digital divide that rural hospitals have learned so much they can pass along to their urban peers.

Now that meaningful API-based integration is finally a reality in healthcare, systems of clinical intelligence are emerging to meet physicians’ needs where EHRs have fallen short.

Having been involved in the advancement of speech recognition in the healthcare domain and been witness to its successes and failures, I continue to believe that the next stage in the evolution of this technology would be to free physicians from the tyranny of the screen.

As the industry faces challenges such as an aging population, physician shortages and burnout, AI presents a unique opportunity to alleviate the impacts of some of these issues.

The various stakeholders need to collaborate to design and configure technology that not only meets regulatory, payer, and organizational needs but also satisfies the needs of clinicians, patients, and the general community.

Mount Sinai Health System spinoff Rx.Health launched a new set of tools to prevent physician burnout, starting with voice assistant startup Suki Health.

Augmedix anticipates doubling the number of doctors who use its transcription service, which blends natural language processing and human oversight.