Microsoft's Nuance Communications announced a new clinical documentation tool that uses the latest version of OpenAI's artificial intelligence language model, GPT-4.

The company said Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Express drafts clinical notes within seconds from conversations with patients conducted through telehealth or in person. The product builds off its DAX documentation product that launched in 2020. 

Microsoft, which completed its acquisition of Nuance for about $16 billion last year, has also made significant investments in OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT and its successor GPT-4. ChatGPT launched in late November and Swiss bank UBS estimated the AI chatbot reached 100 million active users within two months. OpenAI revealed the latest iteration, GPT-4, last week. 

Nuance said DAX Express will be available in private preview this summer.

"Nuance and Microsoft came together with the goal of helping to digitally transform healthcare, and today we are marking the next step forward in the ongoing evolution of AI-powered solutions for overburdened care providers," Mark Benjamin, CEO of Nuance, said in a statement. "We've taken the power and advanced reasoning capabilities of GPT-4 and integrated it into our proven outcomes-focused AI technologies in a tested and responsible way. Our state-of-the-art blend of conversational, ambient and generative AI will accelerate the advancement of the care delivery ecosystem beyond what Nuance or Microsoft could have achieved separately – expanding our comprehensive portfolio of solutions that fulfill our vision to improve care quality and support enhanced outcomes for generations to come."

THE LARGER TREND

Nuance is pitching the latest AI documentation tool as a way to lessen the burden on the already strained healthcare provider workforce. Physician burnout spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, and clinicians have sometimes pointed to EHR usability as a key driver of frustration. 

Other digital health companies and tech giants have focused on building tools to improve clinicians' experiences with documentation. Google, which just rolled out its own chatbot competitor dubbed Bard, has also launched tools that aim to create summaries of a patient's condition and surface relevant information. 

Abridge, a startup that uses AI to record and summarize conversations between providers and patients, raised $12.5 million in Series A-1 funding this summer. The company recently partnered with the University of Kansas Health System to use its tools with the health system's clinicians.

Dr. Vin Gupta will offer more detail during his HIMSS23 session "Keynote: Healthcare Disruption: Accelerated Opportunities for Care Delivery Alternatives." It is scheduled for Wednesday, April 19, at 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. CT at the West Building, Level 3, in the Skyline Ballroom, room W375.