Two major concerns in the health care environment requiring urgent attention are physician burnout and cognitive load. One contributing factor to these two concerns is the significant burden of administrative tasks, which prolong the physicians’ work hours, reduce the time spent interacting with patients, and increase the physician’s workload.
To mitigate this situation, four acute care organizations within the Waterloo-Wellington Region, including Grand River Hospital(GRH), St. Mary’s General Hospital (SMGH), Wellington Health Care Alliance (WHCA), and Cambridge Memorial Hospital (CMH), propose to collaborate on a “Regional Super Edge” project seeking an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scribe solution. The use of the AI Scribe solution is expected to reduce the administrative burden on physicians, prevent burnout and cognitive load and at the same time improve patient care by allowing physicians to spend more time with their patients and less time performing administrative tasks.
CAN Health is posting this Call for Innovation to seek out qualified Canadian companies who can meet the following desired outcomes. Regional Super Edge and Health reserves the right to not move forward with this project at its full discretion and in particular if there are no qualified Canadian companies that can reasonably meet the desired outcomes.
To qualify for a CAN Health project, the company must meet ALL of the following criteria:
- Headquartered in Canada (additional criteria apply for companies not headquartered in Canada)
- Majority ownership of both the company and the solution by Canadians
- Solution at Technology Readiness Level (TRL)>7, indicating actual technology completed and qualified through tests and demonstrations
- All the data and AI models (if applicable) must be hosted in Canada and comply with all the Canadian privacy regulations
- Possess all regulatory approvals required for commercialization, such as Health Canada approval
- Completion of all required clinical validity/unity studies
- No need for policy changes to be widely adopted
- Strong use cases in the Canadian health care system
If the company is not headquartered in Canada or the solution is not majority owned by Canadians, additional criteria apply:
- Independent autonomy over business operations and product development (for subsidiaries, affiliates or distributors)
- High Canadian job creation potential, especially in executive and senior management positions
- Commitment of over 70% of contract value to Canada
During the company selection process, preference is given to companies/solutions fully owned by Canadians, followed by those majority owned by Canadians, and finally international companies with a significant presence and economic impact in Canada.
Problem Statement:
The Regional Super Edge is currently facing challenges of physician burnout and cognitive load. The amount of administrative tasks physicians must complete is one of the key drivers of this issue. It prolongs physicians’ hours of work and directs their time and attention away from patient care.
Objectives:
By implementing an AI Scribe solution, the Regional Super Edge expects to reduce the administrative burden on physicians, prevent burnout and cognitive load, and improve patient care by liberating physicians’ time and attention from administrative tasks. This should be completed without compromising the accuracy of any administrative duties.
Essential (mandatory) outcomes:
Through this Regional Super Edge project, the four acute care organizations will:
- Measure the impact of AI Scribe solution on physician burnout and cognitive load.
- Provide an overview of time spent on performing administrative tasks versus patient care as a result of using an AI Scribe solution.
- Test in a family meeting environment where more than 2 people are participating in a medical discussion.
The expected features and outcomes include:
- Physician Burnout:
- Improved post-trial scores on the Burnout Inventory compared to the baseline score.
- Patient Experience/Satisfaction:
- Patients’ increased connection with physicians who use AI Scribe (eye contact, personalised attention, etc.).
- Satisfaction with the educational tools provided to patients to understand the use of the AI Scribe.
- Time Saving:
- Automated transcription of clinician-patient interactions into a summary note for quick reference.
- Reduced time charting with AI Scribe solution.
- Quality Improvement:
- Improved timeliness of medical notes for decision-making and future reference.
- Maintain quality of charting according to physician’s standards.
Additional notes:
- IT challenges will be assessed based on the selected solution during the planning phase.
- The results from all four organizations and four use cases will be compared.
The maximum duration for a project resulting from this Challenge is: 3 months.
Two major concerns in the health care environment requiring urgent attention are physician burnout and cognitive load. Physician burnout is defined as a long term stress reaction marked by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and the lack of sense of personal accomplishment; cognitive load occurs when the working memory’s limited capacity is exceeded due to excessive information processing. One contributing factor to burnout and cognitive load is the significant burden of administrative tasks on physicians.
