The Ontario government is launching an artificial intelligence program they say will help reduce the paperwork burden on family doctors, freeing up about 95,000 hours that could be spent with patients.
The announcement was made by Health Minister Sylvia Jones in Toronto on Wednesday.
“Our government is launching an innovative program called AI scribe for more than 150 primary care providers that safely uses artificial intelligence to automatically summarize or transcribe conversations with patients who consent into electronic medical notes,” she told reporters.
Officials noted that AI scribe will only be used if a patient provides their consent, and that patient information will continue to be protected under the Personal Health Information Protection Act. They cite research that suggests medical scribes reduced the time doctors spent on after-hours documentation by up to 50 per cent.
The province is also replacing the use of fax machines, the digitization of referral and consultation forms, and the use of digital tools to make it more convenient to share forms.
This is a developing news story. More to come.