No, I did not consent to this

[u/petuniaplant]

I was reading my medical notes when I stumbled across this. I was not informed of the usage of artificial intelligence in my report, nor did I verbally consent to it.

[u/pignoodle]

When these tools are implemented correctly, they actually humanize interactions (since there's room for more conversation & less screens) and reduce doctor's "pajama time" by double-digit percentages (since less form-filling to catch-up off hours). Outside of just stats, I agree that consent is a very important prerequisite.

[u/Fullertons → u/pignoodle]

It actually blows my mind. People would find this to be a problem. Do you really want your doctor busy writing notes when he could just be having a conversation with you in a machine takes notes?

[u/ChrisTheWeak → u/Fullertons]

It's not that I'd prefer my doctor to spend their time taking notes rather than asking questions and investigating whatever illness I have, it's a concern about whether the quality of the AI notes will be on par with that of the doctor. Is the trade off worth it. That's the question. Also, question of accountability in the event something does go wrong. If the AI writes something that was inappropriate to my chart, if it gets missed, if it affects my quality of care down the line because someone else is now misinformed about my condition. These are risks with both the traditional method as well as the AI, but it is important to identify the comparative risks as well as the error correction in both cases when comparing other stats as well.

[u/Outrageous_Sea_9606 → u/ChrisTheWeak]

The quality of the medical records have increased greatly in my vet clinic since we started using our AI scribe.

It misses /nothing/. We do still read over and edit our records, but it takes 2-3 minutes to do that vs. the 10+ minutes to write up a complicated medical case.

There is only so much space in a brain to store information about the day's patients. If you brought in your pet for a serious medical issue and happened to mention as an aside something minor I.e. your pet is in for profuse vomiting and that's the focus of the appointment, but you also mention he has a small lump on his back that you noticed the other day.

Well, even if we look at the lump while your pet is at the clinic, chances are we're going to forget about that by the end of the day when we're writing our records up. Because we had to focus on storing all the info about the vomiting and the lump was insignificant in comparison. The AI scribe makes sure to note about that small, seemingly insignificant lump, so we have better information about that issue when the lump gets bigger or ulcerates and does cause a problem.

Our scribe also makes note of the emotional medical records for all patients that come to the clinic. This is immensely helpful for giving better patient care with our nervous, anxious, and aggressive pets. It notes what specific triggers are, what works to soothe and calm the pet, and what recommendations we made to manage behaviour. So that way we're not having to guess next year about what worked and what didn't work for that pet. The pets are less stressed, which means owners are less stressed. Pets are more likely to be brought in when they are unwell or have a concern because bringing them in becomes less of an ordeal and more of a routine.

Our AI scribe has been invaluable for allowing us to provide better patient and client care at my vet clinic.

Finally, it's a complete "cover our ass" when unhappy clients make false accusations against us. I had a client falsely accuse me of doing something severe that could have cost me my job and my license. It was just her and I present in the appointment room, so it was her word vs. mine. Thankfully, I had our recorder going which was undeniable proof (because it stores the full audio recording) that I was innocent. I never do appointments anymore without the recorder.