Ambient clinical intelligence

Ambient clinical intelligence technology addresses priority concerns for physicians

Scalable ambient clinical intelligence technology addresses priority concerns for clinician well-being while improving patient experiences, cutting costs for traditional scribing and attracting top talent to the major South Jersey health system.

When COVID-19 struck the state of New Jersey in March of 2020, Cooper University Health Care, a leading academic health system in southern New Jersey, wanted to attract top medical talent and maintain services while protecting patients and hospital staff. One immediate option was limiting the number of people in exam rooms, including the in-person scribes who had been assisting physicians with clinical documentation. But hospital executives did not want to trade one problem for another by placing the burden of documentation on physicians already stretched by the urgent demands of the pandemic.

Adding to the challenge was the need for a scalable solution – Cooper University Health Care serves more than two million patients annually with a 650-plus physician staff practicing in 75 specialties at more than 100 convenient medical offices and three urgent care centers.

The health system chose to solve for those factors and achieve its goals while reducing costs and improving physician and patient experiences using an ambient AI solution from Nuance Communications. The voice-enabled Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) solution securely and unobtrusively captures and contextualizes both telehealth and in-person clinician-patient encounters as they happen. Nuance DAX then creates accurate clinical documentation automatically and efficiently for the physician to review.

“As the leading healthcare provider and academic health system in South Jersey, we put our patients first by providing our physicians with cutting-edge technology that enables them to deliver the highest quality patient care, ” said Anthony Mazzarelli, Co-President, and CEO of Cooper University Health Care.

“Nuance DAX empowers physicians to do what they love – care for patients.

Nuance DAX addresses key challenges while delivering multiple benefits. It helps improve clinical documentation quality while cutting the costs of traditonal scribing at a time when revenue from non-urgent care has reduced due to the pandemic. Most importantly, Nuance DAX offloads the burden of electronic paperwork from physicians, so they focus on their patients and improve throughput. The increased eye contact and personal touch during the exam improves the overall healthcare experience for both patients and providers.

“The Nuance DAX solution will truly transform how our physicians engage with patients. It addresses the industry-wide problem of physician burnout from administrative overload while increasing both physician and patient satisfaction,” said Snehal V. Gandhi, MD, Medical Director, Division of Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine and VP of Medical Informatics & Care Delivery Innovation, Cooper University Health Care. “Nuance DAX is a true differentiator, and one that we are certain will draw top talent to our organization.”

“Nuance DAX is a true differentiator, and one that we are certain will draw top talent to our organization.”

Snehal V. Gandhi, MD, Medical Director, Division of Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine and VP of Medical Informatics & Care Delivery Innovation, Cooper University Health Care

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing virtually all aspects of everyday living. But the challenges it creates also are driving much needed and timely digital innovation. Just as past health crises resulted in lasting changes for the better, ambient AI solutions today can improve safety, efficiency, and costs, reduce physician burnout, and help people live longer healthier lives.

To learn more about the Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience, please visit: https://www.nuance.com/healthcare/ambient-clinical-intelligence.html

Ambient Clinical Intelligence

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Peter Durlach

About Peter Durlach

Peter Durlach is Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy officer at Nuance Communications, a Microsoft Company. Peter helped establish Nuance’s Healthcare business in 2006, most recently serving as senior vice president of healthcare strategy and new business development, where he drove driving significant growth across the organization, helping to lead the business from $8m in revenue to approximately $1b. He is responsible for advancing Nuance's overall strategic direction and the creation and management of new strategic innovations focused on developing disruptive AI powered solutions in areas such as virtual assistants, ambient computing, imaging AI, and patient engagement. Peter also co-leads the overall Microsoft for Healthcare strategy since the Microsoft acquisition in 2022. Prior to Nuance, Peter served as founder and president of Unveil Technologies, Inc., was the vice president of healthcare marketing and business development at Lernout and Hauspie, and was a founder of Articulate Systems. He also served as an entrepreneur in residence at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Peter holds a BS from the University of Vermont in business administration.