AMA, Nuance Partnership Focuses on Documentation Burden 

Nuance Communications and the American Medical Association (AMA) recently announced a strategic collaboration that will pilot test the combination of each organization’s respective technologies in an effort to reduce documentation burden that distracts from patient care and demoralizes highly trained physicians. 

The collaboration will leverage Nuance’s expertise in ambient clinical intelligence (ACI)—which securely facilitates the transformation of clinical conversations between patients and physicians into reliable medical chart notes—with AMA’s expertise in physician burnout prevention and health care informatics in a shared exploration of innovations to empower clinical decisions, enhance the quality care, and boost physician well-being. 

The organizations’ mutual goal is to assess their respective innovative solutions that work in tandem with EHR systems to prioritize time with patients rather than overload clinicians with data entry tasks. In particular, the collaboration will explore opportunities to optimize Nuance’s ACI solution working in tandem with IHMI’s clinical knowledge graph. 

“Documentation overload interferes with patient care and contributes significantly to physician burnout. Our aim is to explore technology innovation that can reduce this burden and provide physicians more time with patients, not paperwork,” says AMA CEO James L. Madara, MD. “By working together with Nuance to leverage the incredible potential of our combined expertise and resources, we can more effectively address a major contributing factor to physician burnout.” 

“Our collaboration with the AMA is another key step toward solving one of the most difficult and high-priority problems facing all of health care today—the challenge of reducing physician and other caregiver burnout so that providers can refocus on the patient,” says Mark Benjamin, CEO Nuance. “It’s also a great example of how Nuance is continuing to combine AI-powered technical innovation, domain focus, and close collaboration with trusted partners like the AMA, Microsoft, and our EHR partners to deliver solutions from which we can all benefit.” 

The AMA-Nuance collaboration is one of the multiple efforts both organizations are taking to alleviate physician burnout caused by increasing administrative and documentation demands. An energized, engaged, and resilient physician workforce is essential to achieving national health goals and there is a strong economic case for prioritizing physician well-being. A recent study involving AMA experts shows that primary care physicians spend more than one-half of their workday keeping up with data entry administrative tasks, significantly cutting into available time for patients. Another recent study involving AMA researchers reported that physician turnover and reduced clinical hours are attributable to burnout costs of $4.6 billion, or about $7,600 per physician, in the United States each year. 

— Source: American Medical Association and Nuance Communications