What You Should Know
- The News: Nextech has launched Cora Scribe, an AI clinical assistant designed specifically for specialty practices, starting with ophthalmology.
- The Differentiator: Unlike generic “bolt-on” scribes that generate a summary PDF, Cora Scribe is embedded in the EHR. It streams discrete clinical data directly into specific chart fields in real-time.
- The Impact: By maintaining a “two-way conversation” with the patient chart, the tool reduces documentation time for both physicians and technicians, with early pilots showing savings of ~30 minutes per clinic day.
Nextech’s Cora Scribe Brings Deep AI Integration to Ophthalmology
With the launch of Cora Scribe, the specialty-specific technology partner is introducing a new paradigm: the “embedded” AI assistant. Unlike third-party applications that sit on top of an Electronic Health Record (EHR), Cora Scribe lives inside it. This allows it to do something generic models cannot: stream discrete clinical findings directly into the correct database fields in near real-time.
“Being truly helpful in the exam room demands more than simple note-taking,” said Rusty Frantz, CEO of Nextech. “It requires alignment with clinical workflows, and that’s what sets Cora apart.”
The “Discrete Data” Advantage
The distinction between a “note” and “data” is the holy grail of health tech. Most current AI scribes produce a block of text that a doctor must then copy-paste or manually parse.
Cora Scribe utilizes a “two-way conversation” with the patient chart. It listens to the natural conversation, understands the context of an eye exam, and populates the structured fields (e.g., visual acuity, intraocular pressure) automatically. It leverages the Nextech knowledge base to match findings to the specific configuration of that practice.
- No Copy-Paste: The data lands where it belongs.
- De-Duplication: It automatically reviews existing records to avoid creating conflicting information for returning patients.
Expanding the “Care Team” Definition
Uniquely, Nextech is positioning this tool not just for the physician, but for the ophthalmic technician. In specialty care, technicians often shoulder the bulk of the initial data entry burden.
“Cora helps me move more efficiently with patients… so I’m not staying late to catch up,” said Ross Sherman, an Ophthalmic Technician at Sight360 in Florida, who noted saving around 30 minutes per day during the pilot phase.
By alleviating burnout for the support staff, Nextech is addressing a critical operational bottleneck that physician-centric tools often overlook.
Built for Specialties, Not Generality
The launch focuses first on ophthalmology, a field notorious for complex workflows and specialized terminology that trips up generalist LLMs (Large Language Models). By training the AI specifically on ophthalmology workflows and thousands of patient charts, Nextech aims to deliver “ready-to-use” accuracy from day one.
Dr. Neel S. Vaidya, CIO at Chicago Cornea Consultants, emphasized the difference between a tech demo and a clinical tool: “It was clear the technology was being built thoughtfully and with real clinical input… creating a revolutionary product that is going to fundamentally change how we interact with the EMR.”
