AI note taking

Kawartha Lakes Health Team embraces new technology for local practitioners

Her name is Heidi and she’ll be helping with your patient care. But really, she’s not a ‘her’ at all.

Heidi AI is now being embraced by Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team to better care for patients. The organization started using various artificial intelligence platforms in the fall. Now many healthcare providers are using the AI tool designed specifically for a healthcare setting.

The goal is to reduce the amount of time medical practitioners spend on administrative tasks, often cited by doctors as a reason for burnout or frustration with their work. According to a 2024 study conducted by OntarioMD on the use of AI scribes, family doctors reported spending 70 per cent less time on paperwork and saving three to four hours per week by using this technology.

“Not only does it transcribe conversations, but it can then easily put it into a format that the health practitioner uses. It can rearrange the notes (and) it can highlight keywords,” said Mike Perry, executive director of the City of Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team.

Currently the service is being used to make notes for providers to add into charts, and for those wary about AI it is a secure service that’s on a separate server from medical records. Even if someone’s name is mentioned during a conversation, this AI cannot identify who the patient is as it has no access to medical charts.

Heidi also only provides medical information in the notes it produces. If a patient and provider are having a conversation before getting into the medical issue at hand, Heidi doesn’t include any of that in its notes.

“Heidi is compliant with privacy legislation in Ontario and is also used by many healthcare providers across the province. It has a high level of security for its use,” said Perry, noting that patients are also asked for consent before the system is used. If someone doesn’t consent, notes will be taken how they have been, either by hand or typed on a computer.

Diana Duclos-King, a nurse practitioner at the Bobcaygeon family health team office, jumped at the chance to incorporate AI into her practice when the idea was first proposed last year. “I try to do anything I can to make my job easier,” she said.

Ontario Health investigated the different AI models available and made a list of the approved ones, which included the eventual winner, Heidi.

Heidi works by listening to the conversation between patient and healthcare provider. It listens to the symptoms a patient has, information from any assessment that is done, like blood pressure, and notes what the next steps are that the physician or nurse practitioner recommends. The AI can also make lab requisitions, referrals, and sick notes.

It is not a tool that makes a diagnosis, and everything is reviewed by the healthcare provider to ensure all information is accurate.

Dr. Baldeep Paul, associate lead of the City of Kawartha Lakes Family Health Organization and a practicing doctor in Lindsay, had tried a few different approved platforms, but found none of them were up to the standards she wanted. Heidi felt different.

“It’s old enough, and it’s been around long enough that the data input is high, the output of what it generates is pretty sophisticated compared to other AIs,” she said.

She feels that the level of note taking it makes is on par with a medical student, meaning it’s intelligent and can make sense of medical terminology, but it’s still not quite at the level of a full-time healthcare provider.

Both Paul and Duclos-King use Heidi to produce a SOAP (subjective objective assessment plan) note, which helps to clearly lay out what the plan for a patient is going forward.

Paul has found that almost every patient has agreed to Heidi being used in their appointments and feels the program has increased the quality of communication with her patients. “It’s helpful in allowing me to listen to (patients) more, so that I don’t have to be sitting there taking notes and not hearing everything that they’re saying.”

Perry said that’s the goal of introducing these kinds of programs, to help provide a high level of care while also making the providers jobs easier. “Here at the Family Health Team, people are most important to us, and that personal connection and care with patients will always be the priority.”

Their next step after the appointment is to simply read over what Heidi has provided to ensure everything is accurate, then the note gets put into a patient’s medical chart. For the healthcare provider, the benefit is in saving time allowing them to see more patients.

Duclos-King is optimistic about how AI will continue to be beneficial in her work. “I think there’s a lot of room for growth in the AI industry and how it could apply to help us just take better care of our patients.”