Microsoft launches Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Express, an OpenAI tool to make it easier for doctors to take notes

Less than a week after unveiling a new AI office “Copilot” for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Microsoft and its Nuance Communications subsidiary today announced the launch of Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Express, a clinical notes application for healthcare workers that is powered by artificial intelligence.

Powered by a combination of ambient AI and OpenAI’s newest model, GPT-4, the goal of the new DAX Express is to help reduce clinicians’ administrative burdens and paperwork by automatically generating a draft of clinical notes after a patient visit.

In a statement, Diana Nole, the executive VP of Nuance’s healthcare division, told CNBC that the company wants to help physicians “get back to the joy of medicine” so they can take care of more patients.

“Our ultimate goal is to reduce this cognitive burden, to reduce the amount of time that they actually have to spend on these administrative tasks,” she said.

As we reported back in April 2021, Microsoft acquired Nuance for $16 billion to accelerate its industry cloud strategy for healthcare. The Massachusetts-based Nuance provides solutions that understand, analyze, and respond to people – amplifying human intelligence to increase productivity and security. Its revenue comes from selling tools for recognizing and transcribing speech during doctor office visits, customer service calls, and voicemails.

DAX Express complements other existing services that Nuance already has on the market.

Nole said the technology will be enabled through Nuance’s Dragon Medical One speech recognition application, which is used by more than 550,000 physicians. Dragon Medical One is a cloud-based workflow assistant that physicians can operate using their voices, allowing them to navigate clinical systems and access patient information quickly, Clinical notes generated by DAX Express will appear in the Dragon Medical One desktop.

DAX Express is an extension of the DAX application that Nuance released in 2020. DAX works by taking spoken patient visits and turning them into clinical notes. These notes are then checked by humans to make sure they are accurate and of good quality, and they are added to the patient’s medical record within four hours of the appointment.

DAX Express, on the other hand, produces clinical notes almost instantly, allowing doctors to quickly review automated summaries of their patient visits.

“We believe that physicians, clinicians are going to want a combination of all of these because every specialty is different, every patient encounter is different. And you want to have efficient tools for all of these various types of visits,” Nole said.

She also added that ultimately, using DAX Express will help improve both the patient and physician experience and outcomes.

“The physician and the patient can just face one another, they can communicate directly,” Nole said. “The patient feels listened to. It’s a very trusted experience.

Ambient AI, also known as ambient intelligence, refers to a form of artificial intelligence that is integrated seamlessly into the environment and interacts with humans in a natural and unobtrusive manner. It involves the use of sensors, machine learning algorithms, and other technologies to create an intelligent and responsive environment that can anticipate and respond to human needs and preferences.

The goal of ambient AI is to make technology more intuitive and adaptive to human behavior, rather than requiring explicit input or commands from users. This can include smart home devices that adjust lighting and temperature based on user behavior, personalized health and wellness monitoring systems, and intelligent transportation systems that can optimize traffic flow and reduce congestion.

Ambient AI has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of daily life, making technology more intuitive and less disruptive. However, it also raises concerns about privacy and security, as ambient AI systems may collect and analyze large amounts of data about individuals and their behavior. As with any form of AI, it is important to consider the potential benefits and risks of ambient AI and develop appropriate safeguards to protect privacy and security.