Australian AI scribe appearing in Yukon clinics

WHITEHORSE, Yukon – The Heidi AI scribe is being rolled out across medical clinics in Yukon. Heidi is an artificial intelligence medical scribe produced by Australian developer Heidi Health.

According to the Yukon government, the scribe is used in more than 2 million patient consultations per month across Canada.

Heidi began its deployment in Yukon government-run clinics earlier this summer, said Alethea Stobbe (pictured), director of integrated health services in the Department of Health and Social Services.

The clinics that are part of the implementation are Centre de santé Constellation Health Centre, Dawson City Medical Clinic, Whitehorse Walk-In Clinic, Yukon Healthy Living Program and the Yukon Midwifery Program.

Heidi transcribes conversation between a clinician and a patient in real time, Stobbe said. It also provides a summary for the clinician at the end of the appointment.

The clinician can review both the summary and the transcript. Prior to uploading the information into the patient’s electronic medical record, the clinician will also have to verify that everything is accurate.

Heidi and other medical scribes are meant to assist practitioners with the administrative side of their work, Stobbe said.

“One of the things that we’ve heard from a lot of our practitioners over the past few years is just that there is a significant administrative burden. So, this comes with charting, and this comes with referral form fills,” she said.

Heidi was selected after a scan of medical scribes in use around the country, Stobbe said.

“Heidi really came up as a lot of people’s preferred option because of some of the customizations and the high privacy standards that they have,” Stobbe said.

Stobbe said that the government did a privacy impact assessment to thoroughly consider the implications of introducing Heidi into Yukon healthcare clinics.

Under the Health Information Privacy and Management Act, privacy impact assessments have to take place before the government can launch a new system that processes personal health information. They’re also required when the government changes existing information systems.

Source: Yukon News