OpenNotes & Abridge Launch Study to Enhance Patient Access to AI-Generated Medical Summaries

This study will examine how AI-driven visit summaries can enhance patients’ understanding of their health information, aligning with broader goals to improve healthcare transparency and accessibility.

Health transparency research group OpenNotes, part of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), has partnered with AI healthcare company Abridge to explore the impact of AI-generated medical notes from a patient-centric perspective.

This study will examine how AI-driven visit summaries can enhance patients’ understanding of their health information, aligning with broader goals to improve healthcare transparency and accessibility.

Assessing Patient-Centric AI Solutions

The six-month study will use focus groups to assess the accessibility, clarity, and usefulness of AI-generated medical summaries from Abridge, which captures patient-clinician interactions and translates them into structured visit summaries.

According to OpenNotes, the primary objective is to gauge whether AI can improve patients’ engagement with medical information, as required under the 21st Century Cures Act’s interoperability provisions.

Reflecting on the challenges patients face in comprehending medical jargon and navigating health records, Catherine DesRoches, Executive Director of OpenNotes and a Harvard Medical School associate professor, said, "We were watching what was happening with the rapid integration of generative AI into electronic health records… This isn’t for my patients. The note is full of jargon. It's not useful for patients. A technology like generative AI can help to solve some of those problems.”

DesRoches highlighted the potential of generative AI to make patient information more comprehensible, adding, "Generative AI adds a layer on top…to enable clinicians to meet patients where they are in terms of how they understand their information."

OpenNotes’ First Industry-Sponsored Study

This collaboration with Abridge represents the first time OpenNotes has engaged with a private company in its research, departing from its traditional reliance on federal and foundation grants.

DesRoches noted the shift as timely, observing that private sector innovation is accelerating and could be crucial for adapting healthcare tools to patient needs.

"We feel like there’s just so much innovation happening… that we needed to step out of our traditional comfort zone… that world is moving too slowly for what’s happening on the private side," she remarked.

Shiv Rao, CEO and founder of Abridge emphasized the significance of involving patients in the development process.

"This research collaboration with OpenNotes will harness the power of actual patient conversations to inform the next generation of visit summaries, an invaluable tool in keeping doctors and patients on the same page," Rao said.

Abridge’s AI system is designed to simplify patient information. It generates visit summaries at an accessible reading level, complete with crucial details like diagnoses, prescribed medications, and recommended next steps.

A New Standard for Patient-Friendly AI Documentation

The study, conducted under BIDMC’s OpenNotes Lab, aims to help set standards for responsible AI use in clinical documentation.

Patient advocate and user experience designer Katie McCurdy, who serves on OpenNotes Lab’s Advisory Board, noted, "The potential impact of clearer, more user-friendly visit summaries is huge… OpenNotes and Abridge are the ideal teams to tackle this challenge."

As OpenNotes and Abridge focus on patient-centered data transparency, they seek to adapt AI technology to the specific needs of patients and caregivers, helping to ensure that essential health information is comprehensible, accessible, and truly beneficial for patient engagement.

Stay tuned for more such updates on Digital Health News.