St. John’s Health Physicians Pilot New Technology in Jackson Hole

St. John's Health (SJH) physicians from Jackson, WY are working with health IT provider Oracle Health on new AI-powered voice recognition technology that is a significant breakthrough for improving the patient experience with clinic visits. What’s more, the new tool promises to ease the administrative and cognitive burden of the electronic health record system (EHR), giving physicians time back for their patients and themselves. Physicians in the SJH outpatient clinics – including Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Oncology, and Physician Specialties – are some of the first physicians in the country to use the new technology, called Clinical AI Agent.

EHR systems, which are federally mandated for health systems including St. John’s Health, typically require doctors to spend significant clinic time at their computer, time they would prefer to spend talking face-to-face with their patients. At SJH, Provider Applications Manager and Informatics Analyst Susan Freeze, RN, is partnering with physicians to address these concerns. "Due to the complexity and increasing regulatory requirements of the EHR, physicians often find themselves working additional hours, including at home after clinic hours, to complete the required computer work," Freeze explained. In fact, documentation burden associated with EHR requirements is frequently cited as a top reason nationally for physician stress and burnout. However, this is changing, according to Freeze and several doctors who've been participating in a pilot of the new Clinical AI Agent technology. “The positive response from our providers is even greater than anticipated,” said Freeze. "It’s been a huge success.”

Freeze explained how the tool works. Simply put, the Clinical AI Agent device allows physicians to navigate tasks in the patient chart with AI and voice command. Once the ambient listening feature is turned on, the tool captures conversation, filters for relevant details, and puts information in a clinical note to be reviewed and approved by the physician. “It allows our providers to do what they do best, which is take care of patients,” said Freeze. Anything irrelevant to the medical chart, such as casual conversation, is not included, and the recorded conversation with the doctor is not stored or archived. Once the clinical notes have been completed by the provider, the content from the app is no longer available.

SJH was selected by Oracle in 2023 as one of the first few beta partners to test the new technology and provide feedback before the product was broadly introduced in the market. “Having top minds from Oracle listening to us and valuing the feedback we’re providing is pretty cool,” Freeze added. St. John’s Health has been a client of Oracle Health (formerly Cerner) since the installation of its EHR system in 2018.

Here’s what the physicians have been saying:

“I’ve had a busy clinic day and for the first time in my career I’m leaving with all of my clinical notes already completed for the day.” Jim Little Jr., MD., Family Medicine

“I’m excited about this solution. It’s a huge step in the right direction.” Kevin Sanville, MD, Family Medicine

Initially made available for testing to a handful of SJH providers, Clinical AI Agent training has now been completed for all outpatient clinic providers interested in participating. “After hearing from their colleagues about the big difference it was making, nearly all of the providers in our medical group jumped on board,” said Freeze. Lending some humor to the feedback, oncologist Melissa Cohen, MD, joked that AI Agent may have saved her marriage! And Cathie Gantner Overmyer, MD, from SJH Internal Medicine- Jackson quipped, “Clinical AI Agent is my favorite thing after my husband and children!” On a more serious note, patients are saying how much they appreciate having more time face-to-face time with their doctors during office visits.

According to Lindsay Love, Chief Medical Group Officer, Clinical AI Agent is just one of many steps underway to improve patient access and the ability of providers to be engaged with their patients during clinic visits. “More technology beta testing is planned, along with other opportunities to mitigate the cognitive burden of the EHR, said Love. “Our Strategic Plan emphasizes our intent to provide new ways to restore to physicians the most rewarding aspects of practicing medicine.”