LISTEN: AI scribes are changing medical care. Here\u2019s what to know if the technology shows up at your next doctor\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n
Family physician Eric Boose has been using an artificial intelligence tool to get back to what he calls \u201cold-fashioned medicine\u201d \u2014 talking with patients face-to-face, without having to type into a computer at the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can really just sit there and engage and just focus on them and listen,\u201d said\u00a0Boose, who practices at Cleveland Clinic<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Roughly two\u00a0years ago, he started using an AI notetaker app during patient visits. The tool listens while he talks with patients and then automatically generates a visit summary based on the conversation. The summary is usually ready within seconds after the appointment ends.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s taking care of all that tedious work of charting and taking notes during the visit,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just freeing up a lot more time to get that done, and I can get home to my family earlier.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Nearly a third of physician practices are using AI\u00a0scribes\u00a0and others are working to add the tool, in an effort to cut down on administrative work.\u00a0<\/p>\n If your practitioner suggests using an AI scribe at your next appointment,\u00a0here are three things to keep in mind:<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0Clinicians should ask for your permission.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n At the start of an appointment, your doctor might ask something like, \u201cAre you OK if I use an AI scribe to help me take notes during this appointment?\u201d\u00a0A common practice\u00a0is to accept verbal, not written, consent from patients before turning the tool on. However, the legal requirements for getting permission to record a\u00a0patient\u00a0conversation vary by state.\u00a0<\/p>\n Boose said you can ask to pause the AI scribe at any point, especially to discuss something sensitive. And if you decline altogether, your practitioner will\u00a0likely return\u00a0to taking manual notes on a computer.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0AI scribes make mistakes too, so check their work.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Like other AI tools, medical scribes can \u201challucinate,\u201d or spontaneously add errors into a record. AI scribes can also omit\u00a0important information\u00a0or miss context clues within a conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Clinicians are supposed to review and edit the AI-generated visit summaries before adding them to a\u00a0patient\u2019s\u00a0record. As a patient,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a good practice to carefully review your visit summary and contact your health provider if you notice errors.\u00a0<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0Yes, the AI company could use your data, with limitations.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Companies and health systems that offer AI scribe tools have access to medical data and are subject to federal standards about how they use and store patient data, under the\u00a0Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, more commonly known as\u00a0HIPAA.\u00a0<\/p>\n They may use data from your appointment to help improve their software without informing you, said Darius Tahir, who reports on health technology for KFF Health News.\u00a0\u201c\u200aIf\u00a0information is \u2018de-identified,\u2019\u00a0which can mean stripping it of identifiers [and] making sure\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not personally traceable back to people, then it is\u00a0more free\u00a0to be used in more ways,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are way fewer regulatory requirements.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If you want to know how your data is being used, ask either your practitioner or medical system for more information. But you might not get a clear answer,\u00a0Tahir\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n People and Policy<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. health care system will\u00a0likely continue\u00a0to integrate AI technology into patient care. The Trump administration strongly supports the development and use of AI, especially in health care. In early 2025, President Donald Trump issued\u00a0an executive order<\/a>\u00a0reducing existing regulations on AI to help the U.S. \u201cretain global leadership of artificial intelligence.\u201d In December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released\u00a0an\u00a0AI strategy<\/a>\u00a0stating that the department supports \u201cintegrating AI to modernize care and public health infrastructure to improve health at the individual and population levels.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Emily Siner at Nashville Public Radio contributed to this report.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n HealthQ\u00a0is a health series from reporters Cara Anthony and Blake Farmer, approachable guides to an unapproachable health care system.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a collaboration between Nashville Public Radio and KFF Health News.<\/em><\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n