In 2012, a child’s drawing of a doctor’s appointment was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). In the colorful sketch, a young girl sits on an examination table accompanied by her mother and brother. To medical professionals, the most notable figure in the drawing is her doctor, seated at a desk working on a computer with his back to the patient.
This illustration, published with an article titled “The Cost of Technology,” is emblematic of the unintended consequences of medical innovation. As physicians have more tools at their disposal and greater demands on their time, technology can easily become a barrier between clinicians and patients. For example, about 53% of physicians surveyed by Medscape in 2023 reported feeling burned out, and 23% reported feeling depressed. Loss of work-life balance due to long hours, bureaucratic demands, and administrative requirements are the main causes. Our mission has always been to help clinicians change their attitudes by providing the support they need to focus their attention entirely on providing care.
Fast forward to today, and we’ve made that goal a reality. After establishing the ambient technology category, we introduced the first generative AI voice-enabled solution, DAX Copilot, which became generally available a year ago and has seen impressive momentum. Part of a proven, extensible platform, DAX Copilot leverages the health system’s existing investment in the trusted Dragon Medical family of solutions, used by more than 600,000 clinicians worldwide.
DAX Copilot combines proven conversational and ambient AI with generative AI to automatically transform multi-party conversations into specialty-specific, standardized draft clinical summaries that integrate into existing workflows. DAX Copilot is the first ambient solution integrated into Epic electronic health record (EHR) workflows, empowering clinicians to seamlessly document patient encounters directly within the EHR. Over 400 organizations nationwide have already adopted its innovative capabilities to streamline administrative tasks and reduce documentation workload for clinicians.
This year of transformation has highlighted the many efforts we are making to support today’s healthcare teams and bring the joy of medicine back to thousands of clinicians.
Improving access to care and improving documentation quality
DAX Copilot is helping improve access to care for patients at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. Physicians use the solution for at least 50% of patient encounters and, on average, see 11.3 additional patients per month. DAX Copilot users at Northwestern Medicine report an average of 24% reduction in time spent on notes and a 17% reduction in late-night “pajama time” working on administrative tasks.
“Northwestern Medicine is committed to providing a great work environment that promotes wellness, and implementing DAX Copilot will enable our physicians to focus on patient needs instead of paperwork and data entry, allowing them to spend more quality time with their patients,” said Gaurava Agarwal, MD, chief wellness officer at Northwestern Medicine.
Overlake Medical Center & Clinics in Bellevue, WA deployed DAX Copilot to reduce off-hours documentation time and provide clinicians with the tools to keep up with growing demand. A pilot with 30 Overlake clinicians saw a significant reduction in off-hours note-taking time. Users also reported other significant benefits: 81% said DAX Copilot reduced cognitive burden, and 77% said the solution improved the quality of their documentation.
At Atrium Health, “DAX Copilot is improving the experience for our clinicians,” said Matthew Anderson, MD, senior medical director of primary care at Atrium Health. “Most surveyed users reported a positive impact on their daily schedule, allowing them to see more patients and spend more time with them.”
Improving clinician well-being
Atrium Health isn’t the only one to see the documentation time savings that DAX Copilot is making a positive impact on clinicians’ quality of life. “I’ve finally gotten my weekends back,” says Dr. Christy Chan, a family medicine physician at Overlake. “Before, I was always worried I’d have to go back and log back in to the EMR, and now I actually get my weekends back.”
Novant Health clinicians are seeing similar benefits. “DAX Copilot has delivered amazing results for the physicians and clinicians who are currently using it,” said Aram Alexanian, MD, family medicine physician at Novant Health. “Nothing is more satisfying than knowing the impact DAX is having on our clinicians when I hear comments like, ‘I can now do things with my daughter in the evenings and on weekends that I wasn’t able to do before.'”
Community Health Network is focused on clinician wellness, and the implementation of DAX Copilot has had a significant impact on clinicians’ ability to close out their notes before leaving for the day. “Since implementing DAX Copilot, no one has left the clinic without closing out their notes,” said Dr. Patrick McGill, Chief Transformation Officer at Community Health Network. “We’ve seen improved access, increased patient volumes, and overall, improved clinician satisfaction. In a nutshell, DAX Copilot is transformative. It transforms how care is delivered and how it is documented. It also transforms the patient experience.”
“DAX Copilot has made my job easier, and my patients benefit from using Nuance DAX during appointments because it allows me to be with them and not have to frantically take notes. I can’t thank them enough,” said Anita M. Kelsey, MD, Duke Health.
Transforming the Patient Experience
Dr. Dominic Lanzo, orthopedic surgeon at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, agrees. “Since implementing the DAX Copilot program, our patients’ experience has been completely transformed. We’ve found it to be incredibly accurate when it comes to current medical histories and physical exams,” he says. “It’s made my practice much more efficient. I’m able to see more patients, my notes are more accurate, and they’re completed in a timely manner by the end of the afternoon.”
For Allison Pomykala, MD, an internal medicine specialist at Baptist Medical Group, the integration of DAX Copilot with the Epic EHR has been especially valuable. “What I like most about DAX Copilot being integrated into the Epic workflow is that it allows me to focus more on the patient and spend less time typing on the computer in the exam room,” she says.
“I think the Epic interface is great, and it’s great to see the notes pop up in near real time in the Epic system. This has also helped with other things like referrals, insurance pre-authorizations, imaging studies, or preparing complete notes for patients to send to the hospital.”
“The integration of DAX Copilot has revolutionized patient care at our academic health system,” said Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli, co-president and CEO of Cooper University Medical Center. “Automating clinical documentation through ambient voice technology has significantly reduced administrative workload, allowing physicians to focus on real-time patient interactions, improving outcomes and increasing job satisfaction. DAX Copilot has not only increased efficiency, it has also enabled our teams to spend more time doing what matters most: caring for patients.”
It’s an honor to see this industry-leading solution make a difference for the clinicians who are already on board, but the work is never done. The Microsoft healthcare team is determined to continue solving some of the industry’s most complex challenges, and we’ll do so by harnessing the power and potential of AI. We’ll continue to be leaders in innovation, working together across our ecosystem of amazing customers, partners and Microsoft researchers to make a real impact in clinical practice.
DAX Copilot is an innovative solution that goes beyond document creation, offering unique capabilities such as ordering, problem-based charting, and pre-charting capabilities. For example, recent updates to DAX Copilot include a robust set of features, including the ability to customize document style and formatting, and the ability to automatically create referral letters, diagnostic evidence, post-consultation summaries, and consultation summaries. The solution now also offers AI coaching to help users improve the quality and completeness of their notes. And the new summarized evidence feature helps clinicians validate their notes by combining insights beyond evidence links, providing a comprehensive and sophisticated approach to enable clinicians to validate and trust their note output.
Importantly, we believe that when creating technology that has the potential to change the world, organizations must ensure that the technology is used responsibly. Microsoft is committed to creating responsible AI by design, following a set of foundational principles: fairness, trust and safety, privacy and security, inclusion, transparency, and accountability.
DAX Copilot helps restore the human connection at the heart of healthcare, and we look forward to promoting the solution and expanding its reach to more clinicians over the next year and beyond.
The solution is currently available in ambulatory care, in-hospital primary care, urgent care, telehealth and emergency medicine, and we are expanding the solution’s availability and capabilities to more care settings, including nursing and community care.
If you would like to learn more about how DAX Copilot can help your organization transform healthcare, please visit the DAX Copilot website.