Microsoft unveils healthcare AI assistant to streamline clinical documentation & automate tasks

Microsoft Corp. unveiled Microsoft Dragon Copilot, the first healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that enables clinicians to streamline clinical documentation and automate tasks.

Built on a secure modern architecture that enables organizations to deliver enhanced experiences and outcomes across care settings for providers and patients, Dragon Copilot combines the natural language voice dictation capabilities of Dragon Medical One (DMO) and listening capabilities of DAX Copilot (DAX) with generative AI and healthcare-adapted safeguards, according to Microsoft.

The announcement comes as health systems increasingly adopt AI to streamline administrative processes, enhance care access and enable faster clinical insights to improve healthcare.

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Freeing clinicians from administrative burdens

Microsoft believes that AI has incredible potential to free clinicians from much of the administrative burden in healthcare and enable them to refocus on taking care of patients, said Joe Petro, corporate VP of Microsoft health and life sciences solutions and platforms. “With the launch of our new Dragon Copilot, we are introducing the first unified voice AI experience to the market, drawing on our trusted, decades-long expertise that has consistently enhanced provider wellness and improved clinical and financial outcomes for provider organizations and the patients they serve.”

Dr R. Hal Baker, SVP and chief digital and chief information officer (CIO) at WellSpan Health, commented that Dragon Copilot is about more than enhancing healthcare processes – it offers the opportunity to tap into a Microsoft-powered ecosystem where AI assistance extends across the organization, delivering a consistent and intelligent experience. “It’s this ability to enhance the patient experience while streamlining clinician workflows that makes Dragon Copilot such a game-changer.”

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Streamlining and automating clinical processes

Healthcare organizations have already realized significant benefits from the ambient AI capabilities of DMO and DAX, which Dragon Copilot is combined with, said Microsoft. Clinicians have reported five minutes saved per encounter, with 70 percent of clinicians reporting reduced feelings of burnout and fatigue, 62 percent stating they are less likely to leave their organization while 93 percent of patients have cited a better overall experience.

The key features of Dragon Copilot now allow clinicians and other care providers across specialties to:

Streamline documentation: Clinicians can take advantage of multilanguage ambient note creation, automated tasks and multilanguage support, personalized style and formatting, natural language dictation capabilities, speech memos, editing, customized texts, templates and AI prompts.

Automate tasks: New capabilities allow clinicians to automate key tasks, such as conversational orders, note and clinical evidence summaries, referral letters and after-visit summaries.

The embedded AI assistant functionality also allows clinicians to conduct general-purpose medical information searches from trusted content sources.

“We are aware of the administrative burnout affecting our clinicians, and the need for improved care access for our patients, and the newest evolution of Dragon represents a significant step forward in alleviating this strain,” said Glen Kearns, EVP and CIO at The Ottawa Hospital. “We are thrilled to be one of the first customers in Canada to use Microsoft’s ambient and generative AI technology. The newest evolution of Dragon Copilot could help alleviate documentation burden for our clinical teams.”

Dragon Copilot will be generally available in the US and Canada in May, followed by the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands. 

Microsoft transforms IT operations to support AI success

Microsoft recently revealed how it is transforming its internal IT organization, Microsoft Digital, to help enables the company to succeed in the AI era. Microsoft Digital is the team that powers, protects and transforms the digital employee experience across all devices, applications and hybrid infrastructure at the company.

Using its knowledge and experience in enterprise IT, Microsoft Digital is pivoting to help lead the company’s AI transformation. “The potential for transformation through AI is nearly limitless,” commented Nathalie D’Hers, corporate VP of Microsoft Digital. “We’re evaluating every service in our portfolio to consider how AI can improve outcomes, lower costs and create a sustained competitive advantage for Microsoft and for our customers.”

In alignment with the three core priorities of security, maintaining service fundamentals and supporting corporate functions, Microsoft Digital is investing in, building and testing a wide range of AI-focused approaches to support the wider organization’s innovation. “The future of IT has never been so exciting!” added D’Hers.

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