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ListenBy Michele Meyer December 2, 2025
The use of AI in healthcare: Abridge links physicians and patients by streamlining visit notes, improving communication, and enhancing clinical efficiency.
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There are many benefits to using PracticeLink as a physician, so here are just some of them.
By Michele Meyer December 2, 2025
Banana. Sunrise. Chair. If you treat elderly patients, you’ve probably asked them to remember three such words, and in order. But on a regular basis, you must recall entire conversations and physical exams for multiple patients—sometimes hours later.
Imagine if your mobile phone or laptop could record each patient interaction, then create an accurate after-visit summary along with further care instructions, referrals and updates for others on the medical team. The use of Ai in hea
No need to imagine. A physician-created AI scribe is here.
As artificial intelligence in medicine gained popularity in the late 2010s, Shiv Rao, MD, longed for a practical alternative to soul-crushing clerical work.
Rao, a cardiologist at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, devised a solution with Zach Lipton, associate professor of machine learning at nearby Carnegie Mellon University, Rao’s alma mater.
They invented an ambient AI scribe that could transcribe medical visits in real time and convert them into clinical notes, lab orders and referrals, as needed. In March 2018 they launched the product: Abridge, named for being a bridge between clinicians and patients.
The AI platform was a hard sell at first but took off in 2021. Today, more than 200 health systems across the nation use it, from Kaiser Permanente to Johns Hopkins Medicine, Rao says.
Abridge can transcribe visits in 100 languages and can translate and convey medical terms correctly. It also transforms patient-clinician conversations into clinical notes and helps with documents needed for patients and insurers.
Akron Children’s Hospital adopted Abridge in June of 2024 “to prevent burnout and improve workflow,” says pediatric gastroenterologist Kevin L. Watson Jr., MD.
“Very few tools are this transformative,” he says of the platform he and 93% of providers chose to keep after a six-month pilot study ended in 2024. “It makes a huge difference.”
He no longer needs to jot down everything on the spot or spend hours later documenting his notes. Instead, after asking a family if he can use Abridge to record, “we just talk, and I can be more interactive and conversational, maintaining eye contact and comforting them.”
Reid Conant, MD, senior physician executive at Abridge, says such human connections are a key component of the platform’s benefits.
“Abridge leverages conversations between patients and clinicians,” says Conant, who was an attending emergency physician until June 2024. “It helps to bring humanity back to healthcare.”
Research at Akron Children’s Hospital supports Conant and Watson. As reported in JAMIA Open Journal’s July 3, 2025 issue, clinicians reported a 15% rise in productivity and an ability to see 9.5% more patients weekly when using digital scribes.
Physicians also reported an 86% drop in note writing, a 90% increase in work satisfaction and a 67% drop in burnout.
The Akron Children’s Hospital survey also found the AI platform adapted to specialties as varied as neurology, dermatology, rheumatology, psychiatry and oncology.
Since mid-2024, 84 Akron Children’s pediatricians and pediatric specialists used the digital scribe for an average of 70% of their clinical encounters, generating more than 75,000 notes, Watson says.
“For providers to be satisfied, they need to trust Abridge,” Conant says.
He says 90% of physicians who start using Abridge continue using it in a meaningful way. “People are happier, and the care is better. It’s fun to work with something so satisfying to clinicians.”
“Hours of inputting can lead to very high levels of burnout,” Conant says. “But now when physicians leave the patient room, we’re done.”
Is Abridge perfect? Not yet—but Conant believes it has advantages over competing ambient scribes due to its founders being practicing clinicians. They continue to mind the gaps. Abridge also seeks and heeds physicians’ feedback. •
