An artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm may be effective at writing physician’s letters, according to a recent study published by Heilmeyer et al in JMIR Medical Informatics.
Background
According to recent surveys, physicians may spend almost 3 hours per day on documentation activities.
“The automation of medical documentation has the potential to save [physicians] valuable time that they can devote directly to their patients. At the Department of Ophthalmology, we already use an AI tool for writing [physician’s] letters on a regular basis,” explained co–study author Daniel Böhringer, MD, a senior physician in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Medical Center–University of Freiburg.
Study Methods and Results
In the recent study, researchers used a total of 90,000 clinical documents from the Department of Ophthalmology at the Medical Center–University of Freiburg to train AI models. Several language models generated physician’s letters on this basis, which were then evaluated by medical professionals.
The researchers noted that the greatest challenge of the study was to ensure the documents generated by the language model met the high standards of medical documentation in German.
“Adapting to specific medical terminology and the structure of clinical reports was a particularly demanding task, as the model had to deliver texts that were both precise and comprehensible,” detailed Dr. Böhringer.
The evaluations demonstrated that with the BLOOM-CLP-German model, 93.1% of the generated documents were suitable for clinical use following minor corrections. In addition to the choice of the appropriate model, the researchers revealed that its adaptation to the respective language area could play a decisive role in its suitability for practical use.
Conclusions
“Our results show that models specially trained for the German language can provide valuable support in the creation of medical reports. This could significantly simplify workflows in everyday clinical practice,” suggested senior study author Christian Haverkamp, MD, Acting Director of the Institute for Digitalization in Medicine at the Medical Center–University of Freiburg.
“The AI [physician’s] letter is an excellent example of how much potential AI applications have in medicine. For such solutions, we need bright minds who are willing to experiment and develop new things. I am delighted that we have created an environment at the Medical Center–[University of] Freiburg that strongly promotes these activities,” concluded Frederik Wenz, MD, Chief Medical Director of the Medical Center–University of Freiburg.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit medinform.jmir.org.
