Writing the note of a consultation

The software listens to the consultation and writes the draft, which is a change of who faces the screen while a patient is talking. A follow up in NEJM Catalyst covers about 2.5 million encounters between October 2023 and December 2024 and estimates roughly 15 800 hours of documentation time saved. The physician still edits the note and signs it, and the signature is what carries the clinical and legal weight, which is why the same organisation set up a quality assurance programme around the drafts. The occupation being displaced is not the physician but the human medical scribe, who sat in the room and typed. Deciding what the visit meant, and being answerable for the record, did not move.