The DPC Health Tech Space
Author: Sarah Zaheer, MD
What I am excited about right now in the DPC health tech space:
1. Elation’s Note Assist:
The AI scribe that was launched last year was not great but over time it has gotten so much better. I would like to think that it was my feedback that convinced the team to roll out the Actionable Items feature. When I suggested it, I was having trouble keeping track of all the to-dos discussed during office visits. I click on that item and the action can be carried or I can cross it off as done. It keeps track of what I have already done from the list, and I don’t have to manually cross it off. My visits are always on the long side and a lot of different things come up. If I relied on an AI scribe to do the note, I would still have to type up a to-do list and rely on various systems to keep operations running smoothly. This Actionable to-do-list feature got rolled out recently and is a game changer. Enough that I can overlook that the scribing is still evolving.
2. Tab flows:
I first heard about this on the DPC docs group. One doctor mentioned that she was using it. I looked into it and I didn’t really think it would be that exciting. I didn’t think they addressed my pain points. After many months, out of sheer curiosity I finally set up the demo. I was wrong. It is very cool.
If you are using Elation+ Spruce+ Hint and want to optimize how the three systems work with one another, this is it. Even more, there is a common task list for all three that you can access from any screen.
If none of this sounds appealing, but you are using those three platforms, I would still say do the demo and see for yourself. It is hard to describe what it does and so much easier to see it’s value in action.
Some old favorites:
3. Heidi Health:
This is my favorite AI scribe. Love being able to customize the style. Of late, I noticed that it was hallucinating a lot and I actually stopped using it. However, another doctor also on the DPC docs group commented that changing the style from “detailed” to concise, decreased the hallucination. I had set mine to “Super detailed”. Side by side, Heidi is still superior at scribing compared to most, however, I missed having to organize my notes with ICD-10s. I know, I know- some habits are hard to break, but my ICD-10 Diagnosis codes help me organize my thoughts/plans/notes.
This is not a problem anymore, as Heidi now also suggests relevant ICD-10s.
Heidi also works well for writing procedure notes, letters and patient’s handouts.
4. Open Evidence
This is a very useful AI search engine, powered by the New England Journal of Medicine. I think most people are familiar with it. I use it a lot but am also very cognizant of its limitations. This is good for a quick search to jolt your memory perhaps however I have noticed it hallucinates a lot. It does not summarize all the relevant information well. It is not to be used for management plans. UpToDate and DynaMed are much better for those purposes and continue to my go to sources.
While it writes excellent patient handouts and letters and templates, the copy text feature does not work well when it is pasted directly in the Elation visit note or patient letter. You can copy it into a word document though.
