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Teladoc, Microsoft Expand AI Collaboration

Analysis  |  By John Commins  
   July 18, 2023

The collaborative hopes to minimize administrative burdens by automating clinical documentation during virtual and in-patient care.

Teladoc Health and Microsoft are expanding their collaboration to include Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Cognitive Services, and the Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) into the Teladoc Health Solo platform, the two companies announced this week.

The goal of the expanded collaboration is to automate clinical documentation during virtual exams to help ease the burden on clinicians while improving the quality of shared medical information and the care it supports.

Teladoc Health Medical Group also plans to use Nuance DAX Express for care visits provided directly by Teladoc Health, the Purchase, NY-based virtual provider says.

“Administrative burden and staff shortages are major reasons why clinicians are leaving the profession,” says Teledoc Health CMO Vidya Raman-Tangella, MD. “We are focused on using AI to reassert and build the doctor-patient relationship at a time when technology frequently does the opposite.”

Rama-Tangella says the expanded collaborative addresses the worsening burnout crisis among physicians that has been the result of increased electronic paperwork.   

Tom McGuinness, corporate vice president, Global Health & Life Sciences, Microsoft, says Teledoc’s integration of  Azure OpenAI Service and Nuance DAX “gives clinicians the tools they need to deliver quality, coordinated care, easing administrative burdens and allowing them to spend more focused time with their patients.”


When used with the Teladoc Health Solo platform, Nuance DAX, an ambient clinical documentation solution, will automatically document patient encounters at the point of care for clinician review and signoff, which gives clinicians more facetime with patients.

The Teladoc Health Medical Group will also use Nuance DAX Express, a workflow-integrated, AI powered clinical documentation application that combines Nuance’s conversational and ambient AI with the new AI model, GPT4, in the Azure OpenAI Service.

The use of Nuance DAX Express will report encounters to other virtual and community-based clinicians to better coordinate care.

Diana Nole, executive vice president and general manager of healthcare at Nuance, says DAC Express “addresses the pressing challenge of reducing clinicians’ administrative workloads in some of the most demanding and dynamic care environments in healthcare.”

Teladoc Health first collaborated with Microsoft in 2021 to streamline the technology and administrative processes associated with providing virtual care, integrating the company’s Solo platform within Microsoft Teams and as a strategic partner expanding virtual health for Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.

“We are focused on using AI to reassert and build the doctor-patient relationship at a time when technology frequently does the opposite.”

John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.


KEY TAKEAWAYS

Nuance DAX will automatically document patient encounters at the point of care for clinician review and signoff, which gives clinicians more facetime with patients.

The Teladoc Health Medical Group will also use Nuance DAX Express, an AI powered clinical documentation application that combines Nuance's ambient AI with the new AI model, GPT4, in the Azure OpenAI Service.

The use of Nuance DAX Express will report encounters to other virtual and community-based clinicians to better coordinate care.


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