University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) have awarded a £1.9 million contract to Accurx for the provision of its Ambient Voice Technology solution.
The award follows a competitive procurement that saw a total of five tenders evaluated, according to the trusts, seeking to find a supplier capable of implementing and deploying AVT to support both clinical and non-clinical documentation across multiple hospital sites.
The solution will be used to capture consultations and draft documents such as clinical notes, summaries, and letters, to be reviewed by clinicians for accuracy before being sent out to patients.
Jeremy Tong, CMIO at UHL, voiced hopes that the technology will benefit patients by allowing clinicians to dedicate more time and energy to patient care, adding: “Following our successful pilot, clinicians told us AVT enabled them to use their time more effectively to focus on patient care, so they could complete referrals or carry out telephone appointments in the knowledge that information would be sent to patients more quickly. It also gave them more confidence when speaking with a patient, because they knew the AVT was capturing key information.”
Outcomes from the pilot demonstrated an eight minute time saving per patient on post-clinic documentation and a saving of on average one hour of admin time per day, according to the trusts, with clinicians reporting spending less time completing notes at home outside of working hours and experiencing a reduced cognitive load.
UHL and UHN’s award is based on three weighted criteria: qualitative (60 percent), social value (10 percent), and cost (30 percent). An initial term of three years has been assigned, with the potential to extend for a further 12 months.
Speaking to HTN last year, UHL and UHN group CDIO Will Monaghan noted the trusts’ work trialling ambient AI scribes, describing the group’s then approach to “working with four different partners and doing an evaluation to see what the strengths and weaknesses are before picking the right one for us”. AVT is just one of the ways the trusts are looking to reduce the administrative burden on colleagues across trust sites, he added.
Wider trend: ambient voice
HTN was joined by a panel of experts from across the health sector for a focused webinar on the use of ambient scribe technology in NHS trusts. Panellists included Lauren Riddle, transformation programme manager at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare (HIoW); Ynez Symonds, CNIO at HIoW; Dom Pimenta, co-founder and CEO at Tortus AI; and Stuart Kyle, consultant rheumatologist and clinical lead for outpatient transformation at Royal Devon University Hospital. Our panel discussed the practicalities and considerations for ambient scribe implementations, from operating procedures and policies, integration and functionality, through to best practices around patient-practitioner interactions.
NHS England’s Transformation Directorate has published a list of 19 suppliers who have evidenced the criteria required to be part of its self-certified Ambient Voice Technology registry – “a national capability to support safe and effective scaling and adoption of AVT across the health and care system”. The 19 suppliers include 33n, Accurx, Anathem, Aprobrium (Lexacom), Beam Up, Corti, Dictate IT, eConsult, HealthOrbit AI, Heidi Health, Lyrebird Health, Microsoft Dragon, Optum (EMIS), Pungo t/a Joy, Scribetech, Tandem, Tortus, T-Pro, and X-On Health.
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has shared outcomes from its pilot of ambient voice technology (AVT), noting it shows “real promise” in helping clinicians save time, reducing stress, and allowing more of a focus on patient care. Taking to LinkedIn, the trust highlights that almost 90 percent of clinicians reported reduced documentation time, also noting that feedback mentioned improved wellbeing and reduced administrative burden. 99.7 percent of patients had consented to the use of AVT, and “found the process efficient and helpful”, it states.
