Nuance Communications, Inc., a Microsoft Company, shared its progress in helping radiologists harness the growing potential of generative AI capabilities for radiology reporting built on the foundation of the PowerScribe platform used by more than 80% of radiologists. Mass Gen Brigham and Quantum Radiology are among the leading healthcare organizations using Nuance's fully-integrated Smart Impression capability.
December 1, 2023 —Nuance Communications, Inc., a Microsoft Company, during the 2023 Radiological Society of North America's (RSNA) Annual Meeting shared its progress helping radiologists harness the growing potential of generative AI capabilities for radiology reporting built on the foundation of the PowerScribe platform used by more than 80% of all radiologists. Mass General Brigham and Quantum Radiology are among the healthcare organizations using Nuance's fully integrated Smart Impression capability. In a written statement , the company reports that PowerScribe Smart Impression, its first radiology copilot, offers the capability to streamline workflows, accelerate reporting and increase radiologist efficiencies in a time of significant staffing shortages and clinician burnout.
Physician burnout and radiology staff shortages continue to plague the industry, emphasizing the urgent need to deliver scalable and practical solutions to relieve cognitive burden and improve process efficiency amid growing demand for diagnostic imaging. The Medscape 2023 Physician Burnout & Depression Report reported that 54% of radiologists report feelings of burnout, up from 49% in 2022. Up to 44% report that burnout has strong or severe impacts on their lives and well-being. The most recent 2023 American Society of Radiologic Technologists Staffing and Workplace Survey found that vacancy rates topping 18% are at a 20-year high.
PowerScribe Smart Impression is already delivering efficiency gains for users at health systems and radiology practices across the country, noted the company statement issued ahead of RSNA. It also noted that users cite the natural and accurate wording of draft impressions and how it enhances their speed of interpretation by saving up to a minute per read, quickly adding up over the course of 30-40 cases each day.
"Radiologists must make high-stakes, timely decisions in dozens of cases each day and generate reports that guide their downstream clinical care, and the cognitive burden of increasing workloads can have great consequences," said Bernard Bizzo, MD, PhD, Senior Director, Digital Clinical Research Organization, Mass General Brigham Data Science Office. He added, "Generative AI tools may offer great value to our field by lightening some of the burdens placed on radiologists by automatically drafting impressions the way we are used to, helping avoid common mistakes and reminding of important information to include."
"Based on our experience with auto-impression features from other vendors, PowerScribe Smart Impression effectively redefines what radiologists should expect from AI-powered reporting solutions," said Keirsun Crocket, MD, Quantum Radiology. "We've licensed it for all 83 of our radiologists. It's really helpful because it consistently generates wording that is exactly what I would say," Crocket added.
PowerScribe Smart Impression is the result of continuing the advancement of generative AI innovation by Nuance and Microsoft to reduce clinician burnout and improve clinical efficiency, improving healthcare care costs and supporting better outcomes. The company statement added that this feature strengthens PowerScribe's position as the most widely used reporting solution and the premier platform for integrating a new generation of AI capabilities for radiology.
"Just as we have done with our Dragon Medical portfolio of clinical documentation solutions including the new Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) Copilot, Nuance and Microsoft are accelerating the development of generative AI-powered capabilities for radiology starting with PowerScribe Smart Impression," said Calum Cunningham, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Diagnostic Imaging at Nuance. "It advances the state of the art of radiology reporting and empowers radiologists with fully integrated tools that can produce meaningful improvements in radiology reporting efficiency and physician satisfaction without changes to the platform users have relied on for decades."
At the RSNA 2023 annual meeting held November 26-30 in Chicago, Nuance also showcased an array of Microsoft + Nuance existing and exploratory copilot use cases for radiologists, referring clinicians, and patients. These future workflow-integrated capabilities could unlock meaning from text and pixels to further automate complex workflows and mundane tasks, surface key details, and identify missing information to support patient care.
For more information: www.nuance.com
April 25, 2024 
