Wolters Kluwer Health Partners with Abridge to Integrate UpToDate in AI-Based Medical Scribe

This collaboration aims to enhance clinical workflows by combining trusted, evidence-based resources with AI-driven documentation, ultimately reducing administrative tasks for physicians.

Wolters Kluwer Health has partnered with Abridge, an AI-powered medical note-taking startup, to integrate its well-known clinical decision support tool, UpToDate, into Abridge’s generative AI medical scribe platform. 

This collaboration aims to enhance clinical workflows by combining trusted, evidence-based resources with AI-driven documentation, ultimately reducing administrative tasks for physicians.

Abridge, founded in 2018 by Dr Shiv Rao, utilizes artificial intelligence to convert patient-clinician conversations into structured clinical notes in real time. 

The platform's new integration with UpToDate will allow healthcare professionals to access the latest medical evidence directly within their clinical notes, providing faster and more informed decision-making during patient care.

Streamlined Documentation for Informed Care Decisions

With the integration, Abridge’s AI-generated notes will now include direct links to UpToDate’s evidence-based recommendations. 

This move allows clinicians to make well-informed decisions during consultations without interrupting the workflow. The primary objective is to reduce the burden of clerical tasks, enabling doctors to spend more time focusing on their patients.

Speaking about the partnership, Dr Shiv Rao emphasized the importance of integrating AI with trusted medical resources. 

“Every time I've seen patients since medical school, UpToDate has been my source for trusted medical information. What’s incredibly exciting is that generative AI can unburden clinicians from clerical work. Being able to connect the dots between what AI can do and trusted sources like UpToDate is where we perceive a lot of magic to be," he said.

The collaboration between Abridge and Wolters Kluwer Health also highlights a shift in the healthcare industry as more physicians adopt generative AI tools to assist with note-taking and decision-making.

Greg Samios, President and CEO of Clinical Effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer Health, underscored the potential of AI in relieving physicians of the burden of administrative tasks. 

“Abridge has a solution through their ambient platform to reduce clinician burden through automation. We're the leader in clinical decision support, and the more we can integrate and reduce friction, the better. Abridge’s AI-generated note drafts will now be bolstered by UpToDate’s evidence-based resources, relied upon by millions of clinicians," he stated.

Samios added that this partnership will transform clinical workflows, improving both the documentation process and patient experiences. 

The use of generative AI in healthcare has been increasing steadily. According to a survey conducted by Fierce Healthcare in collaboration with physician social network Sermo, 76% of doctors reported using general-purpose AI models like ChatGPT for clinical decision-making. 

However, concerns about the reliability of non-medical AI tools remain prevalent. The same survey showed that 91% of physicians feel the need for AI models to be trained using medical data created by experts.

Expanding AI’s Role in Healthcare

Wolters Kluwer Health’s survey aligns with these findings, showing a growing optimism among doctors regarding the use of AI in clinical care. 

However, trust in the data sources remains crucial. Samios explained that the integration with Abridge is part of a broader strategy to introduce AI into clinical workflows responsibly and seamlessly.

Dr Rao highlighted future opportunities in areas like medical coding and revenue cycle management. 

“This is the front end of capturing clinician data, diagnosis, and treatment information. There are many downstream applications we can see this moving to in terms of a platform," Rao said.

Abridge, which has raised $212.5 million to date, has also partnered with Kaiser Permanente to deploy its AI-powered platform across 40 hospitals, making the tool available to more than 24,000 doctors. 

Additionally, the company is collaborating with Mayo Clinic and Epic Systems to further develop AI documentation workflows.

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