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Medical scribes, an integral part of the healthcare industry, have origins dating back to ancient civilizations such as Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. In those times, scribes meticulously documented patients’ medical histories, diagnoses, and treatment plans on clay tablets or papyrus scrolls. As civilizations advanced, these records evolved into illuminated manuscripts during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, preserving medical knowledge for generations.
The landscape of medical documentation took a significant turn in 1996 when the United States passed the HIPAA Compliance Act. This regulation mandated the protection of sensitive healthcare information, accelerating the shift toward Electronic Health Records (EHRs).
However, every transformation comes with its own set of challenges. The transition to digital documentation left physicians grappling with an overwhelming influx of administrative tasks like inputting, maintaining, and tracking patient data, often at the cost of meaningful patient interactions.
To bridge this gap, a mutually beneficial partnership emerged between physicians and medical scribes. A medical scribe is a trained professional who transcribes patient-provider interactions in real-time, ensuring that medical records are structured, accurate, and well-organized. By handling documentation responsibilities, scribes allow physicians to focus on delivering quality care and engaging with their patients.
While human scribes offer flexibility and reliability, they come with higher costs and the risk of errors. AI medical scribes, on the other hand, provide a more efficient, accurate, and cost-effective alternative. Moreover, their advantages extend beyond documentation: speed, scalability, and security make them a compelling choice for modern healthcare practices.
A 2022 study published in the British Journal of Healthcare Management revealed that speech-recognition software reduced documentation time to 5.1 minutes compared to 8.9 minutes for manual entry. Additionally, the study found that AI-assisted documentation had fewer errors per line, 0.15 versus 0.3, demonstrating its potential to enhance accuracy.
Here’s how an AI medical scribe works:
However, not all AI medical scribes are created equal. Some lack contextual understanding and customization capabilities, while others are still in early development and may not exhibit human-like intelligence. That’s why it’s crucial to evaluate the system thoroughly before incorporating them into your clinical workflows.
This write-up will explore some of the best AI medical scribes and their transformative impact on medical documentation. Let’s dive in.
Established in 2001, we at OmniMD have always been at the forefront of healthcare innovation, delivering EHR systems, practice management solutions, and RCM solutions that refine workflows for medical practices. However, as the healthcare ecosystem matured, new challenges surfaced, with documentation overload becoming a critical pain point for our clients. Recognizing this, we sought to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to alleviate this burden. And that’s what gave rise to the OmniMD AI Scribe.
Certainly, this journey hasn’t been an overnight success but the culmination of months of research, technological advancements, and a deep understanding of practitioners’ pain points. The team invested heavily in machine learning algorithms, training the model on vast datasets of medical terminology, patient histories, and clinical conversations to evolve it into a decisive tool.
Here, bringing up the top 5 defining features of our star product:
Pricing: Affordable and flexible
Pros
Cons
Founded in 2017 by former Google and Flipkart executive Punit Soni, Suki AI is specialized in voice solutions.
Boasting deep integration capabilities with all major EHR systems, their flagship product, the Suki Assistant, is an AI-powered, voice-enabled digital assistant offering features such as ambient documentation, dictation, ICD-10, and HCC coding.
Designed to minimize the risk of hallucinations and bias, the company is SOC2 Type 2 certified and HIPAA compliant and claims to ensure all content is clinician-reviewed before being sent to the EHR.
Here are its top 5 features:
Pricing: Around $399/month
Pros
Cons
Abridge was founded in 2018 by Dr. Shiv Rao, a practicing cardiologist who identified that clinicians often spent more time on documentation than with patients.
The company’s AI medical scribe records patient-clinician interactions (with patient consent), transcribes them, and generates summaries formatted for medical records. Currently, the system supports over 50 medical specialties and endorses more than 28 languages.
Carrying forward its spirit, in February 2024, Abridge announced a substantial $150 million investment to accelerate its research and development efforts. The top 5 traits of its medical scribe:
Pricing: Approximately $99/month for non-integrated use; $249/month for integrated use
Pros
Cons
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, and founded in 2022, the inception of Freed was deeply personal for co-founder and CEO, Erez Druk. Observing his wife, Dr. Meckler, a practicing clinician, spend countless hours on patient charting and documentation, Druk was inspired to create a solution that would alleviate this administrative load.
The company focuses on developing AI-powered medical scribe applications designed to assist clinicians by listening, transcribing, and writing medical documentation. Since its launch, the company has experienced significant growth, and as of the latest available data, over 15,000 clinicians have integrated Freed’s AI scribe into their practices.
The top 5 characteristics of its flagship product:
Pricing: $99/month
Pros
Cons:
A pioneering company in the healthcare technology sector, DeepScribe’s mission is to bring the joy of care back to medicine by enabling AI and healthcare professionals to work in harmony.
At the heart of the company’s offerings is its AI Medical Scribe, an ambient intelligence platform designed to capture natural patient-clinician conversations and convert them into accurate, comprehensive clinical notes.
Founded in 2017 by Akhilesh Bapu and Matthew Ko, the entity claims to have trained its technology on one of the world’s largest databases of patient conversations, and it can handle a wide range of medical scenarios and specialties. The software’s top 5 functionalities include:
Pricing: Not publicly listed
Pros
Cons
While it may be unrealistic to find an AI medical scribe that checks every box on your Wishlist, there are a few must-have features you simply can’t overlook.
According to our experts, an AI scribe for doctors must stand out in:
Before we wrap up, here’s a side-by-side look at our expert-selected top 5 AI medical scribes and how they perform in various technological aspects.
Observe. Compare. Reflect. Find Your Best AI Medical Scribe.
| Feature/Parameter | OmniMD | Freed | DeepScribe | Suki AI | Abridge |
| Core Functionality | AI-powered EHR, AI scribe, RCM | AI medical scribe | AI-driven medical scribe | AI voice assistant for documentation | AI-powered medical transcription & patient summaries |
| Target Users | Physicians, Clinics, Hospitals | Physicians, Clinics | Physicians, Clinics | Physicians, Hospitals | Physicians, Patients |
| AI Capabilities | NLP-driven clinical documentation, AI charting, AI summarization | Speech-to-text, medical scribing | AI listens, transcribes, and drafts clinical notes | Voice-to-text AI assistant | AI records, transcribes, and summarizes medical conversations |
| EHR Integration | Seamless EHR integration (OmniMD EHR & 3rd-party) | EHR-agnostic integration | Works with various EHRs | Supports multiple EHRs | EHR integration for structured notes |
| Real-Time Documentation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customizability | Highly customizable for specialties | Limited | Moderate | Moderate | Limited |
| Compliance & Security | HIPAA-compliant, AI-driven compliance checks | HIPAA-compliant | HIPAA-compliant | HIPAA-compliant | HIPAA-compliant |
| Ease of Use | User-friendly, integrated with EHR | Simple UI | Automated note generation | Intuitive voice assistant | Easy-to-use mobile & web interface |
| Specialty Focus | Multi-specialty | Multi-specialty | Primary care, specialists | Multi-specialty | General medicine, patient summaries |
| Voice Recognition | Advanced AI-based voice recognition | High-accuracy transcription | AI-powered speech-to-text | High-accuracy voice commands | Patient & doctor voice capture |
| Pricing Model | Subscription-based | Subscription-based | Subscription-based | Subscription-based | Subscription-based |
| Automation Level | High (AI-driven workflows) | Moderate | High | High | Moderate |
| Mobile App Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Patient Engagement | AI-powered chatbot, automation | Limited | Limited | Limited | Patient-focused summaries |
| Reporting & Analytics | Advanced reporting tools | Basic analytics | Moderate analytics | Moderate analytics | Basic analytics |
| Scalability | Enterprise-grade scalability | Small-to-medium practices | Small-to-medium practices | Small-to-medium practices | Small-to-medium practices |
