A doctor's handwriting is widely agreed to be less comprehensible and only perfectly decoded by a pharmacist. In the age of digitalization, you might prefer these prescriptions, reports and other clinical documents getting the touch of technology. What if we say the medical experts could speak into a software that takes notes and creates clinical documents? Sounds easier than manually typing down the report? Doctors would be certainly interested to know about an AI-based clinical speech recognition technology that would assist them in the documentation procedure.
Mr Rustom Lawyer, Co-Founder & CEO of Augnito, speaks to Swarna Srikanth and tells us more about the Medical Speech Recognition Software aimed to assist health experts and revolutionise the global healthcare market.
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Your thoughts behind launching Augnito?
At 19, when I co-founded and worked towards Scribetech, a company which pioneered clinical documentation services within the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), I learned there was a rampant burnout crisis in healthcare due to documentation of pages and pages of clinical data. Augnito, co-designed by physicians and AI scientists, was then born to ensure a seamless flow of information within a complex global healthcare infrastructure.
What are the key features of this technology?
Our voice-based AI technology is designed to accurately capture and transcribe clinical conversations in real-time, reducing the need for manual data entry and allowing physicians to focus on patient care. Additionally, our technology is adaptable to all popular Electronic medical record (EMR), Hospital Information Systems (HIS), Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), and Radiology Information Systems (RIS) systems – enabling effortless data exchange and streamlining of clinical workflows.
Our latest offering - Ambient Clinical Intelligence (ACI) - is set to be a true game-changer in the healthcare industry. It enables the creation of structured EMR data from an unstructured, natural conversation between a physician and a patient. This innovative technology uses artificial intelligence to transcribe the conversation in real-time, with absolute accuracy, and generates a structured SOAP note that includes chief complaints, medical history, diagnoses, recommended plan of care, prescriptions, and details of the follow-up appointment, among others.
What are some of the doctor's problems that Augnito tries to solve?
Augnito aims to solve several problems faced by doctors, including the burden of manual data entry, errors in clinical documentation, and the lack of time for direct patient interaction.
Is India welcoming this technology?
There is still some skepticism around data privacy and the need for human oversight, but, yes, India is increasingly welcoming AI technology in healthcare and this market is growing rapidly.
Do you see rural India too in these tech approaches in healthcare, or are they being left behind?
While there may be some initial challenges in implementing AI-powered solutions in rural India, I believe that these areas can greatly benefit from our technology. We are working with a few organizations, like the DigiSwasthya Foundation, to develop solutions that can be adapted to rural settings. Also, government telemedicine initiatives are helping bridge the urban-rural divide in this area.
Can you share about one of the hospitals using this Voice AI technology and how it has benefitted it?
We can proudly say that one of Asia's largest healthcare groups, Apollo Hospitals, has successfully implemented Augnito across a network of 37 sites and 25 specialties. The results of a case study conducted over six months were impressive as they suggested most doctors saved nearly 44 hours of time spent (per month) on administrative tasks and saw improved documentation quality where reports were created and sent to the patient at a faster pace. Also, the results showed the technology had not only eased their process but also reflected in an 46% increase in overall productivity.
Apollo Hospitals, MAX, Medanta, Fortis, Breach Candy, and many others are part of our esteemed clientele. Notably, the major hospitals in the country have adopted this technology in some way or the other.
