AI Tech for the ER

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thegenius

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I don't think we have a dedicated threat about this.

How are people's experiences using AI apps for generating ER notes. I generally think they are kind of crappy, in that they are extraordinarily verbose. Even in the "concise" mode. Anyone happy with a particular app?

I've tried Abridge and Speke

Here is a Speke MDM, compared to mine

Speke:
The patient, a female with a history of hysterectomy, presented with hematuria, fatigue, nausea, and persistent abdominal pain. She reported episodes of red urine and significant fatigue, nausea, and abdominal pain that have persisted. The initial differential diagnosis included urinary tract infection, nephrolithiasis, and hepatobiliary pathology. The patient denied any history of bladder infections or UTIs and reported no pain during urination. She is on medications including insulin, dapagliflozin, and metformin for diabetes management.

An abdominal ultrasound was performed, revealing acute cholecystitis with a normal common bile duct. Laboratory tests showed elevated liver enzymes (ALT 804 IU/L, AST 156 IU/L, Alk Phos 209 IU/L), elevated bilirubin levels (Total 1.8 mg/dL, Direct 0.90 mg/dL), and a low albumin level (3.3 Gm/dl). The patient's sodium level was slightly low at 135 mEq/L, and CO2 was low at 19.0 mEq/L. The patient's hemoglobin and hematocrit were elevated (Hgb 16.4 Gm/dl, Hct 48.6%). The patient's glucose level was normal at 94 mg/dL.

The treatment plan included initiating IV fluids and administering antiemetic medication for nausea. The patient was advised to follow up with a gastroenterologist for further evaluation and management of acute cholecystitis. Given the elevated liver enzymes and bilirubin, further hepatobiliary imaging and possible surgical consultation may be warranted. The patient was instructed to monitor her symptoms and return to the ED if her condition worsens.


Mine (that I put in the same note):

referred for RUQ abd pain, workup shows cholecystitis. d/w surgery and will admit..



So not only is the AI generated MDM incredibly verbose and 90% useless, it didn't even get it correct. I didn't discharge her. I admitted the patient. Who in the world wants to read these AI notes?

The problem is, as I see it, are the software engineers who write these apps are not doctors. Even if they have doctors consulting, the end product is just way too lengthy.
 
Only Chuds use these things.

Modern Slang Usage:

  • "Chud" is primarily a derogatory slang term used online, especially in U.S. internet culture, to describe people perceived as unpleasant, gross, or socially abnormal235.
  • More specifically, it is often used to insult individuals—usually men—who hold reactionary, regressive, or bigoted sociopolitical views, particularly those associated with the far right or "manosphere" communities1357.
  • The term is frequently deployed by critics on the political left to mock or dismiss individuals they see as embodying toxic or extremist attitudes, often combining accusations of racism, sexism, conspiracy theorizing, and a sense of superiority


you must be particularly spicy today, Dr. RF.
 
I don't think we have a dedicated threat about this.

How are people's experiences using AI apps for generating ER notes. I generally think they are kind of crappy, in that they are extraordinarily verbose. Even in the "concise" mode. Anyone happy with a particular app?

I've tried Abridge and Speke

Here is a Speke MDM, compared to mine

Speke:
The patient, a female with a history of hysterectomy, presented with hematuria, fatigue, nausea, and persistent abdominal pain. She reported episodes of red urine and significant fatigue, nausea, and abdominal pain that have persisted. The initial differential diagnosis included urinary tract infection, nephrolithiasis, and hepatobiliary pathology. The patient denied any history of bladder infections or UTIs and reported no pain during urination. She is on medications including insulin, dapagliflozin, and metformin for diabetes management.

An abdominal ultrasound was performed, revealing acute cholecystitis with a normal common bile duct. Laboratory tests showed elevated liver enzymes (ALT 804 IU/L, AST 156 IU/L, Alk Phos 209 IU/L), elevated bilirubin levels (Total 1.8 mg/dL, Direct 0.90 mg/dL), and a low albumin level (3.3 Gm/dl). The patient's sodium level was slightly low at 135 mEq/L, and CO2 was low at 19.0 mEq/L. The patient's hemoglobin and hematocrit were elevated (Hgb 16.4 Gm/dl, Hct 48.6%). The patient's glucose level was normal at 94 mg/dL.

The treatment plan included initiating IV fluids and administering antiemetic medication for nausea. The patient was advised to follow up with a gastroenterologist for further evaluation and management of acute cholecystitis. Given the elevated liver enzymes and bilirubin, further hepatobiliary imaging and possible surgical consultation may be warranted. The patient was instructed to monitor her symptoms and return to the ED if her condition worsens.


Mine (that I put in the same note):

referred for RUQ abd pain, workup shows cholecystitis. d/w surgery and will admit..



So not only is the AI generated MDM incredibly verbose and 90% useless, it didn't even get it correct. I didn't discharge her. I admitted the patient. Who in the world wants to read these AI notes?

The problem is, as I see it, are the software engineers who write these apps are not doctors. Even if they have doctors consulting, the end product is just way too lengthy.
I just want the bare minimum documentation to bill for the work I did. Until a robot does that, I'm not touching it.
 
I kind of feel that way. EIther the AI bot should
- significantly reduce time creating AND editing a note;
- increase average RVU/note
- reduce medmal liability risk

or it's not worth using.

Another problem is these AI bots are generally made for linear encounters. You see one pt, leave the room and that's it. ED is the exact opposite.
 
Modern Slang Usage:

  • "Chud" is primarily a derogatory slang term used online, especially in U.S. internet culture, to describe people perceived as unpleasant, gross, or socially abnormal235.
  • More specifically, it is often used to insult individuals—usually men—who hold reactionary, regressive, or bigoted sociopolitical views, particularly those associated with the far right or "manosphere" communities1357.
  • The term is frequently deployed by critics on the political left to mock or dismiss individuals they see as embodying toxic or extremist attitudes, often combining accusations of racism, sexism, conspiracy theorizing, and a sense of superiority


you must be particularly spicy today, Dr. RF.

What I'm really going for here are the chronically online types (Chuds) regardless of politics (because it's all theater now anyways, but that's a different rant) who want a bot or an app to do everything for them.

Taking pride in masculine self reliance and a DIY-ethos with accountability needs to come back.
 
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The 2 I have tried and liked are Sayvant which has an MDM / med mal piece which I will admit I havent used but did see demoed and Time by Dr.H who is an EM doc. Both can be customized to your specific needs

They can all be trained on EM billing standards. I think the issue with off the shelf stuff is that it is really all made for clinics and not ED encounters. AFAIK both of these are made for EM and are trying to now make more generalizable versions for the masses.
 
I’ve played with Heidi and I think it has a role as a scribe replacement. It will listen to the HPI and output a reasonable text version, and can be coached into variations in form, brevity, etc

My main issue is 1/3 of patients have such quick HPI that I don’t want to futz with an AI scribe app (i twisted my ankle on the stairs), and 1/3 of patients are so altered, demented, or involve complex interpreter scenarios that I don’t think the AI app will have anything to do.

It worked great when I went in a room with a complex undifferentiated intelligent older woman with her involved daughter who brought a copy of her out of state recent hospitalization records and could rapidly answer every question I had about her complex recent health issues.

I don’t see a lot of those patients per shift.
 
I’ve played with Heidi and I think it has a role as a scribe replacement. It will listen to the HPI and output a reasonable text version, and can be coached into variations in form, brevity, etc

My main issue is 1/3 of patients have such quick HPI that I don’t want to futz with an AI scribe app (i twisted my ankle on the stairs), and 1/3 of patients are so altered, demented, or involve complex interpreter scenarios that I don’t think the AI app will have anything to do.

It worked great when I went in a room with a complex undifferentiated intelligent older woman with her involved daughter who brought a copy of her out of state recent hospitalization records and could rapidly answer every question I had about her complex recent health issues.

I don’t see a lot of those patients per shift.
I use an AI scribe in a clinic setting and this is the exact scenario where I find it helpful. Most of the rest of the time it just lets me not sit there typing in the room.
 
From what I’ve heard from others it doesn’t seem like most AI products are quite good enough yet for charting, but I think it will get there. AI needs to integrate with the EMR. I think Epic and Cerner will do that. We waste so much time typing and dictating. I think AI is the answer to this and will completely replace dictating sometime in the next 5-10 years. Not sure how I feel about a significant change mid career, but it can’t be worse. At least I hope, or I might be end career.
 
From what I’ve heard from others it doesn’t seem like most AI products are quite good enough yet for charting, but I think it will get there. AI needs to integrate with the EMR. I think Epic and Cerner will do that. We waste so much time typing and dictating. I think AI is the answer to this and will completely replace dictating sometime in the next 5-10 years. Not sure how I feel about a significant change mid career, but it can’t be worse. At least I hope, or I might be end career.
Politely disagree; we can dissect it out if you want. Later, though.
 
If AI wrote down everything that the patient and I discussed, every patient would be CBC/CMP/UA/PT/INR/Mg/Lactic/Culturesx2/Lipase/TSH/Trop/BNP/UDS/Tylenol level/Aspirin level/ETOH/Osmol/ABG/VBG/EKG/Chest X-ray/CT head/MRI brain/CT c-spine/CTA chest/CT abdomen-pelvis/US gallbladder/US DVT both extremities/MRI lumbar spine/Vitamin B level/Iron panel/PTH/FSH/Strep/Covid/Flu/RSV (all ages)/Ddimer

+/- preg test (even if age 85)

The patients have no filter and AI certainly cannot filter the patient. It takes me 3-5 mins to see the average patient, and 2-3 mins to document. Why do I need AI?
 
If AI wrote down everything that the patient and I discussed, every patient would be CBC/CMP/UA/PT/INR/Mg/Lactic/Culturesx2/Lipase/TSH/Trop/BNP/UDS/Tylenol level/Aspirin level/ETOH/Osmol/ABG/VBG/EKG/Chest X-ray/CT head/MRI brain/CT c-spine/CTA chest/CT abdomen-pelvis/US gallbladder/US DVT both extremities/MRI lumbar spine/Vitamin B level/Iron panel/PTH/FSH/Strep/Covid/Flu/RSV (all ages)/Ddimer

+/- preg test (even if age 85)

The patients have no filter and AI certainly cannot filter the patient. It takes me 3-5 mins to see the average patient, and 2-3 mins to document. Why do I need AI?
Think of it this way: once you see a full department, the AI driven workups will take 12+ hours each, you can write your notes and go to lunch.
 
The error is thinking that AI can’t encounter a million patients and equate those with the end results filtering out the noise.
 
The error is thinking that AI can’t encounter a million patients and equate those with the end results filtering out the noise.

Will the lawyers let the AI filter out the noise?

Honest question.

Separate but related thought: We are flirting with every patient encounter with full audio and video backup forever.

Will AI be called to testify?

“The patient said she had chest pain. Why didn’t you put it in the note?”
 
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