DAX Express: Nuance Communications, a speech recognition subsidiary of Microsoft, has announced the launch of Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Express, a new clinical notes application for healthcare professionals powered by AI.
The technology aims to reduce administrative burdens on clinicians by automatically generating a draft of a clinical note within seconds after a patient visit. It’s a combination of ambient AI, which creates insights from unstructured data like conversations, and OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-4.
The ultimate goal of DAX Express is to reduce the cognitive burden on physicians and clinicians, allowing them to spend more time taking care of patients and less time on administrative tasks.
The clinical notes generated by the application will appear on the Dragon Medical One desktop, a cloud-based workflow assistant that physicians can operate using their voices, allowing them to navigate clinical systems and access patient information quickly.
DAX Express complements Nuance’s existing services on the market and builds on the original DAX application that the company launched in 2020. The previous version of DAX converted verbal patient visits into clinical notes and sent them through a human review process to ensure accuracy and high quality. The notes appeared in the medical record within four hours of the appointment.
DAX Express, on the other hand, generates clinical notes within seconds, enabling physicians to review automated summaries of their patient visits immediately. The technology will initially be available in a private preview capacity this summer, and the company will rely on feedback from its first users to determine when it will be more widely available.
Patient information is highly sensitive and regulated under HIPAA and other laws. To ensure compliance, DAX Express adheres to Microsoft’s responsible AI framework, which guides all AI investments, as well as additional safety measures that Nuance has in place. The company has strict data agreements with its customers, and the data is fully encrypted and runs in HIPAA-compliant environments.
While AI will help physicians and clinicians carry out administrative tasks, professionals will still be involved every step of the way. Physicians can make edits to the notes generated by DAX Express and sign off on them before they are entered into a patient’s electronic health record.
Overall, the technology is expected to improve both the patient and physician experience. “The physician and the patient can just face one another, they can communicate directly,” said Diana Nole, the executive VP of Nuance’s healthcare division. “The patient feels listened to. It’s a very trusted experience.”
Additionally, the technology is designed to work seamlessly with Nuance’s Dragon Medical One speech recognition application. Dragon Medical One is a cloud-based workflow assistant that doctors can operate using their voice to navigate clinical systems and access patient information quickly. Clinical notes generated by DAX Express will appear on the Dragon Medical One desktop, making it easy for physicians to review and edit the notes.
According to Diana Nole, the executive VP of Nuance’s healthcare division, the goal is to reduce physicians’ cognitive burden and minimize the time they spend on administrative tasks so that they can focus on taking care of more patients. She added that DAX Express will help improve both the patient experience and the physician experience, creating a very trusted experience for patients.
Nuance did not disclose the specific cost of the application, but they noted that the price of Nuance’s technology varies based on the number of users and the size of a particular health system. DAX Express will be available in a private preview capacity this summer, and its widespread availability will depend on the feedback the company receives from its initial users.
With DAX Express, Nuance is demonstrating its commitment to helping healthcare professionals streamline their workflows, reduce administrative burdens, and improve patient care. By leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and speech recognition technology, DAX Express could be a game-changer for physicians and other healthcare professionals.
