Digital Scribe
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of impact of digital scribe technology on general practitioner time use
IRAS ID
352918
Contact name
Niels Peek
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
School of Clinical Medicine
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 30 days
Research summary
Digital scribes are an artificial intelligence technology that can record conversations, convert audio into text, and summarise text. Digital scribes have been adopted by some NHS organisations to aid with completing clinical documentation. However, there is thus far little evidence published on the impact of digital scribes on clinician time, quality of clinical documentation, and healthcare quality and safety. It is highly plausible that digital scribes, or at least some form of AI-based Ambient Voice Technology documentation tool, will be widely deployed in the future. It is therefore important to evaluate them rigorously now, and to do so independently of commercial claims.
This is the task our project will address, with a specific focus on assessing claims of clinician “time saved” and what happens to any time that is released. We will undertake a study of the impact of a commercially available digital scribe on primary care practitioners time, and to refine methodologies for the evaluation of time use and technology in healthcare contexts.
We will address the following research questions:
RQ1: What are the desired outcomes of the use of a digital scribe in terms of staff time (defined as time spent on clinical documentation) and how is it intended to work?
RQ2: Does the use of the technology deliver on its desired outcomes (compared to pre-implementation)?
RQ3: What are the work system design requirements for the optimal use of the technology and the productivity benefits to be realised?
RQ4: Can a methodological framework for studying technological innovation aimed at improving productivity (not clinical practice) be devised? If so, what further work would be required to do this?
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/YH/0078
Date of REC Opinion
24 Apr 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion