(Radio Iowa) – Artificial Intelligence software is being used to reduce paperwork — and headaches — for healthcare professionals at the University of Iowa, and now a pilot A-I program is being rolled out statewide. Dr. Charles Blum, chief health information officer at U-I Health Care, says some physicians were having to spend two hours doing administrative work for every hour they spent with patients. “Those that have started to use the technology have dramatically reduced the administrative burden that they’ve been faced with,” Blum says. “We’ve gotten lots of emails that have said things like ‘game changing,’ ‘life changing,’ ‘I’ve never been able to be done with my work before I went home, and now I’m able to do that. Thank you,’ so we’ve just got fantastic feedback.”

Excessive paperwork can lead to physician burnout, which can translate to reduced job satisfaction and decreased quality of patient care. One study found 42-percent of clinicians are actively considering leaving the healthcare industry due to burnout. Blum says the U-I started testing the A-I program with a small number of providers and they saw very promising results. “People have seen somewhere in the neighborhood of anywhere from a 50 to 80% reduction in their time spent with paperwork and other administrative burdens associated with documentation in the record,” Blum says. “It’s dramatically reduced the amount of time that people are spending after-hours and what we would call ‘pajama time,’ time at night, where people are sitting there on the computer, trying to wrap up their work for the day.”

U-I-H-C has more than one-hundred offices across Iowa and this new technology is now being offered to professionals in all of them. “The vast majority of our providers are here in Iowa City, but we have clinics throughout the state, and it’s available to not just doctors, but our advanced practitioners, our dietitians, our physical therapists, our nurses, it’s available to everyone,” Blum says. “Ultimately, I think that number of people that are using this technology is going to be well above 3,000.” With every encounter, Blum says patients are asked if they’re comfortable with the use of the technology. Of some 65-hundred patents so far, he says only one refused.

“We’re very happy to accommodate whatever the patient’s wishes may be in terms of using this technology,” Blum says. “I think it’s indicative of the fact that our patients in Iowa have really embraced technology, much more than I think they get credit for, and are willing to use things that are going to help their providers lead better lives and provide better care.” Anyone using the software is forced to do a full review of the report before it’s finalized, which Blum says should help improve accuracy. The A-I is referred to as Ambient Listening and it’s being developed by a company called Nabla.