thelancet.com
Clinician as editor: notes in the era of AI scribes
Every clinician has a strategy. Between patients, before going home, late at night—clinical notes must be written. They are essential for recording patient visits, ensuring continuity of care, arriving at accurate diagnoses, and facilitating communication between doctors, as well as providing medico-legal protection and enabling reimbursement. But these notes are increasingly burdensome to write, thanks in part to the electronic health record (EHR). Artificial intelligence (AI) scribes—computational systems that record clinical encounters and produce narrative summaries—promise much-needed help.