AI scribes in health care raise risks for patients and privacy |
Artificial intelligence tools, including ambient listening devices or AI scribes, are transforming the health-care sector. However, they have also opened a new area of clinical risk in terms of privacy, accuracy and potential bias.
To address this, the Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia released guidelines in January for health-care organizations that have adopted or plan to adopt these tools. At the same time, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario released guidelines for all provincial entities, including the health-care sector, on privacy and AI tools in general.
Since Canada does not have a comprehensive AI regulatory framework in this area after Bill C-27 died in the previous Parliament, health-care providers and their institutions must ensure that their use of these devises does not violate the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, health privacy laws and various other frameworks and guidelines.
What is an AI scribe?
The Ontario Medical Association defines an AI scribe as “a digital tool that’s designed to automate time-consuming tasks, like data entry or note-taking. AI scribe technology uses artificial intelligence to summarize or capture spoken conversations and compile them into electronic and clinically relevant medical notes.”
Physicians then review the AI-generated information before it is added to the patient’s record.
The OMA says a provincial study has shown an average decrease in documentation time of 70 to 90 per cent with AI scribe tools when compared to physicians completing the paperwork on their own.
However, scholars and practitioners such as Rahul Mehta warn that these AI scribes often prioritize conversation flow over clinical nuance and that could........