Dive Brief:
- Nuance Communications and Epic have teamed up to deliver computer-assisted physician documentation embedded within Epic's electronic health record systems (EHRs).
- The collaboration aims to provide real-time clinical documentation improvement (CDI) feedback to physicians at the point of care.
- Clinicians will get accurate descriptions of the quality of care provided, reflecting accurate patient acuity, by leveraging Nuance’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology on the Epic NoteReader CDI solution and the result should be fewer retrospective coding queries, according to Nuance.
Dive Insight:
Clinicians face new quality measures with the adoption of risk-adjusted payment models. Having accurate and complete clinical documentation that reflects the acuity of their patient populations is critical to high quality scores and the success of their organizations.
Some healthcare organizations are already catching the drift. Last month, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center partnered with AI expert Microsoft to launch a project under the Healthcare Next initiative with the goal of improving clinicians’ workflow.
The nonprofit health system, which operates 25 hospitals and 600 physician offices and outpatient facilities, is bullish on AI and has invested in companies that build AI capabilities, as well as launched its own startups.
AI technologies have allowed providers to focus more on what’s best for the patient, Dr. Rasu Shrestha, UPMC chief innovation officer and executive vice president of UPMC Enterprises, told Healthcare Dive. “This person-centered approach to care is really critical because we believe that’s the best way to drive costs down and improve the quality overall of care,” he said. Shrestha argues clinicians need "actionable insights at the point of decision-making.” The Nuance-Epic collaboration seeks to provide those actionable insights.