Exciting news for the NHS! A new AI assistant called Tortus is revolutionising patient care, allowing staff to spend nearly 25% more time with patients. This groundbreaking technology automatically transcribes consultations and summarises the details for healthcare providers. Highlighting efficiency and connection, Tortus uses advanced speech recognition to capture vital medical information, while cutting through background noise.
Great Ormond Street Hospital led a successful trial across nine NHS sites in London, tracking nearly 17,000 patient interactions. The findings are impressive – Tortus boosted direct patient-clinician interaction by 23.5% and reduced appointment times by 8.2%. It even increased the number of patients seen per shift in A&E by 13.4%!
Health minister Stephen Kinnock praised this innovation, highlighting its potential to solve hospital backlogs and enhance the core human element of healthcare. With plans to expand AI scribe technology across outpatient services, the future looks bright for efficient and patient-focused NHS care.
Dr Shankar Sridharan from Great Ormond Street emphasised the NHS’s leadership role in safely adopting AI and the positive impact it can have at scale. Emergency medicine consultant Dr Ahmed Mahdi from St George’s University Hospital praised the tech for its efficiency in hectic environments, enabling more focus on patient care.
Economic predictions suggest if Tortus is implemented nationwide, it could lead to over 9,000 additional A&E consultations daily and save millions in documentation time. Dr Vin Diwakar from NHS England highlighted the improvement in patient care and the reduction of administrative workload.
The NHS is embracing the future with technology that prioritises both efficiency and the human touch in healthcare. What do you think about AI transforming patient care? Let’s discuss!