What You Should Know:
– Nabla, the leading ambient AI assistant for clinicians, today announced University of Iowa (UI) Health Care, Iowa’s only comprehensive academic health system, has rolled out Nabla’s ambient AI assistant system-wide following a successful pilot.
– By making advanced ambient AI technology available for all its clinicians, UI Health Care deepens its focus on leveraging advanced technology to improve patient care, clinician well-being, and the future of care delivery.
Nabla AI: Revolutionizing Clinical Documentation and Enhancing Physician Well-Being at UI Health Care
Nabla, the leading ambient AI assistant, is transforming clinical documentation by reducing practitioner stress and improving patient care. This AI tool generates comprehensive clinical notes in seconds, covering a wide range of specialties. Powered by proprietary large language models (LLMs) specifically fine-tuned for medical applications, Nabla’s features include:
– AI-enabled medical coding identification
– Seamless integration with Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems
The growing administrative burden on physicians has made work-life balance increasingly difficult. Managing EHR systems—digital versions of patient charts—creates extensive desk work, consuming valuable time. For every hour physicians spend in face-to-face patient care, it is estimated that nearly two additional hours are spent on EHR and other administrative tasks. In a recent survey, 75% of physicians expressed that reducing this administrative burden would significantly improve their work-life balance.
In response, UI Health Care implemented Nabla’s ambient AI technology as part of its strategy to enhance patient care, physician well-being, and operational efficiency. Nabla’s AI summarizes patient encounters in real-time, producing structured clinical notes that support, rather than replace, the judgment of UI Health Care’s providers.
The five-week pilot program using Nabla at UI Health Care resulted in:
– 100% adoption by participating clinicians
– A 75% week-over-week engagement score
– A 4.3 out of 5 rating for clinical note quality across 2,300 visits
– A 26% reduction in burnout rates among participants
To maintain compliance and patient trust, UI Health Care clinicians using Nabla request verbal permission from patients before using the AI during visits. Conversations are not recorded, and the HIPAA-compliant software only listens using speech-to-text technology to document the encounter for a brief period. The AI generates a draft note, which the clinician reviews, edits, and transfers to the patient’s medical record.
For the system-wide launch at UI Health Care, Nabla was integrated into Epic, allowing clinicians to generate clinical notes with a single click, eliminating the need for manual data transfer. Nabla’s advanced features, including Magic Edit and customizable options, streamline workflows and support efficient adoption across the health system.
Looking ahead, UI Health Care and Nabla will continue collaborating to ensure proper use and adoption of the product by physicians, advanced practice providers (APPs), nurses, and other clinicians. Future development efforts will focus on creating specialized features tailored to the unique clinical documentation processes of nurses and other healthcare professionals.
“We conducted an extensive search for an ambient AI solution that could move the needle with the clinical documentation process and experience,” said James Blum, MD, Chief Health Information Officer and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, University of Iowa Physicians. “As an academic medical center, it is critical for us to continue advancing clinical innovation to provide current care teams with better experiences and shape the medical field to be more attractive for future generations. We found Nabla’s ambient AI technology helps us meet these goals and we look forward to seeing the benefits of rolling out the platform system-wide.”
