The Evolution Of Clinical Documentation: From Paper To AI  

Documentation is an essential heartbeat of clinical care. Like an EKG tracing illustrating the rhythm and health of a heart, clinical documentation captures the intricate narrative of a patient’s health journey. However crucial, documenting clinical care is a cumbersome task, contributing significantly to the burnout of healthcare professionals.  As we are witnessing global shortages in the numbers of medical professionals, streamlining and/or automating unpopular documentation tasks seems a very logical next step. It doesn’t really require the qualification of a trained nurse or doctor, so it is a great way to free up their capacities for more meaningful tasks.  Despite the clear goals, this task is not easy. On one hand, proper documentation ensures patient safety, seamless care transition, and serves as a foundational pillar for medical research and quality assurance. On the other hand, the administrative demands surrounding it can divert attention from the core patient care, leading to frustration and emotional exhaustion.  The evolution of clinical documentation, thus, must be seen as an intricate issue – one that balances the responsibility of maintaining patient health records with the need for physician well-being. This evolution, it’s important to note, isn’t linear. Progress is influenced by a myriad of external factors, such as regulatory environments, technological advances and available tools, financial assets,...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: TMF Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Healthcare Design clinical documentation AI in clinical documentation Source Type: blogs