According to the calendar of the promoters, very soon the patients of the family doctors of Catalonia will explain their ailments not only to the doctor but also to an invisible entity that will diligently take care of transcribing the conversation, translating the presentation into medical language and incorporating it. to the user's medical history. Relisten, a platform based on artificial intelligence (AI), will take care of this work. The system has convinced those interested and is about to face the final test to be implemented in all Catalan primary care centers.
In a context of shortage of doctors and crowded agendas, AI is presented as a tool capable of assuming part of the bureaucratic burden. According to the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technologies (Cimti), Relisten can reduce the time that doctors spend managing clinical notes by up to 60%, so that the doctor can pay more attention to the patient. “It is a gain for professionals, who save time that has zero or very little value for them,” says Anna Gómez, director of operations at Cimti.
The procedure couldn't be simpler and only requires one physical device: a regular microphone. The doctor will activate the application from the computer, and Relisten will begin to record and interpret the conversation between professional and patient and generate clinical notes structured in medical language. The healthcare provider will only have to validate the artificial intelligence notes so that they are integrated into the medical history, the legal document that collects all the data on the health and healthcare services provided to a person in order to provide them with correct medical care.
The uncomfortable image of the doctor typing while listening to the patient, giving the impression that he or she is not paying adequate attention, may go down in history. The doctor will be able to focus on the patient to obtain more complete data, while, according to preliminary tests, with the reduction of paperwork, the time of a consultation decreases between 15% and 25%. Calculate the Cimti: “If a doctor spends approximately 12 minutes on each consultation, he needs three to enter in the medical history the condition in which the patient arrives, the examination that is performed, the diagnosis and the indicated treatment, with Relisten It will only require one minute to review the clinical notes, saving 67% of the time dedicated to this work and 17% of the total visit.”
Dr. Josep Vidal, one of the professionals who are participating in the development of the platform, believes that Relisten “can give us more time to dedicate to patients.” The new tool, developed by the company Recog, will be presented today at 4YFN, an innovation competition linked to Mobile, and in June it will be subjected to a pilot test in six Catalan primary care centers as a prior step to its release to the market. “We will be testing it for three or four months. We want to do at least 400 minutes to see what happens. We will talk to patients to give us permission to record the visit, we will conduct satisfaction surveys for users and staff and we will evaluate how much time it saves us,” explains Vidal, who is also coordinator of the research and innovation unit of Central Catalonia. of the ICS.
Anna Gómez considers that the benefit for public health is evident, since the savings in care time will translate into a reduction in waits and, finally, the burden on the system will be alleviated. “If everything goes as planned, the will of Cimti and the Fundació TIC Salut Social is that it can be scaled and implemented in all CAPs (346) in Catalonia over the next year,” she announces. The next step would be the extension to hospitals, since the solution is already prepared for twelve specialties.
Vidal emphasizes that the doctor does not lose powers: “You don't have to be afraid of AI, on the contrary. Our medical judgment will always be decisive when validating the interpretation made by technology, so I believe that we do not have to worry about AI replacing us.”
