Health IT Vendor Integrates Generative AI Tool into Epic EHR

Health IT vendor Suki has integrated its generative AI-based voice assistant with Epic EHR software using Epic’s ambient APIs.

Suki recently announced new features to its voice assistant tool. Now, in addition to helping clinicians complete administrative tasks by voice, the tool can generate clinical notes from ambiently listening to a patient-clinician conversation.

The feature uses generative AI to listen to clinical interactions and auto-generate notes in real-time. Clinicians can then review and accept, reject, or edit content suggestions to ensure clinical documentation accuracy. Once notes are complete, they sync back to Epic, streamlining EHR documentation workflows.

“Ambient documentation holds great promise for reducing administrative burden and clinician burnout, and we are delighted to work with Epic to deliver a sophisticated, easy-to-use solution to its client base,” Punit Soni, CEO of Suki, said in a press release. “Suki Assistant represents the future of AI-powered voice assistants, and we are thrilled that it is integrated with Epic through its ambient APIs.”

Suki Assistant’s ambient note-generation feature is currently available for beta testing.

According to a March 2023 KLAS research report, the healthcare market is moving towards front-end speech recognition as the go-to clinical documentation platform.

Interviewed healthcare organizations that leverage ambient speech recognition tools noted that the technology has improved over the last few years. Organizations noted advances in accuracy and ability to detect accents to the point that it is on par with the precision of transcription services.

The report found that another selling point for speech recognition technology is the variety of platform types. Often, providers can use their mobile phones to capture dictation and review notes.

The biggest challenge with front-end speech recognition may be its price, the report authors noted. Respondents mentioned nickel-and-diming on top of what is already considered an expensive system.