Large-scale AI scribe study reveals small time savings and inconsistent usage

Mario Aguilar covers technologies in the medical field, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, wearable devices, telemedicine, and digital therapeutics. His stories explore how technology is changing the practice of medicine and the business and policy challenges to realizing technology’s potential. He is also co-author of the free twice-weekly STAT Health Tech newsletter. You can access Mario with the mariojoze.13 signal.

Ambient scribing was proposed as a way to reduce the burden on stressed doctors by automatically recording patient visits. However, new research suggests that clinicians may need guidance to make the most of these artificial intelligence tools.

A large new study of the use of AI scribe by 1,800 clinicians at five academic medical centers from 2023 to 2025 found that physicians who used the technology saved 16 minutes on documentation and spent 13 minutes less on medical records for every eight hours of patient care. This study did not find a significant effect on time spent on electronic medical records outside of work hours. Primary care physicians and female clinicians benefited more than other physicians. Scribe recruits were able to see one additional patient every two weeks.

This discovery provides the most definitive real-world data to support earlier small-scale studies. A STAT review of studies published last year found that scribes saved clinicians less than a minute per clinical note. Surprisingly, despite the modest time savings, other studies have found that scribes significantly improve burnout and other measures of clinician well-being.