Microsoft unveils new voice-activated AI assistant for doctors

Microsoft is giving its health-care artificial intelligence tools a makeover.

The company on Monday unveiled a new voice-activated AI assistant that combines capabilities from its dictation solution, Dragon Medical One, and ambient listening solution, DAX Copilot, into one tool.

“Dragon Copilot” will be able to help doctors quickly pull information from medical sources and automatically draft clinical notes, referral letters, post-visit summaries and more, according to the company. It’s Microsoft’s latest effort to help health-care workers cut down their daunting clerical workloads, which are a major source of burnout in the industry.

Clinicians spend nearly 28 hours a week on administrative tasks like documentation, for instance, according to an October study from Google Cloud.

“Through this technology, clinicians will have the ability to focus on the patient rather than the computer, and this is going to lead to better outcomes and ultimately better health care for all,” Dr. David Rhew, global chief medical officer at Microsoft, said Thursday in a briefing with reporters.

Microsoft acquired Nuance Communications, the company behind Dragon Medical One and DAX Copilot, for about $16 billion in 2021. As a result, Microsoft has become a major player in the fiercely competitive AI scribing market, which has exploded in popularity as health systems have been looking for tools to help address burnout.

AI scribes like DAX Copilot allow doctors to draft clinical notes in real time as they consensually record their visits with patients. DAX Copilot has been used in more than 3 million patient visits across 600 health-care organizations in the last month, Microsoft said.

Other companies like Abridge, which has raised more than $460 million according to PitchBook, and Suki, which has raised nearly $170 million, have developed similar scribing tools. Microsoft’s updated interface could help it stand out from its competitors.

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