Key points from article :
The NHS is trialing a new AI tool, Tortus, designed to help doctors focus on patients by reducing their administrative burden. This tool, introduced at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) in London, leverages ambient voice technology, which combines speech recognition and AI to capture essential medical information while filtering out background noise.
Instead of spending valuable consultation time typing notes and letters, doctors can fully engage with patients, as Tortus drafts clinical documentation and suggests coding. The tool has been especially helpful for complex cases.
Funded by NHS Frontline Digitisation, the trial includes around 5,000 patient assessments across various healthcare facilities in London, from GP surgeries to emergency departments. In early testing, actors attempted to disrupt Tortus by discussing unrelated topics and using varied accents. However, the AI successfully extracted relevant medical information and generated accurate clinical summaries. Tortus was also rigorously evaluated for safety and data security. Once the documentation is complete, all patient data is deleted, ensuring no long-term storage.
Parents participating in the trial, like Anna Peck and her daughter Bea, expressed satisfaction, feeling more directly engaged during appointments without interruptions from note-taking. NHS England’s director of improvement, Martin Machray, highlighted Tortus as a key example of AI’s potential in healthcare, enhancing efficiency and patient care. Hafsa Ahmedi, product manager at Tortus, emphasized the company’s goal to alleviate doctor burnout, focusing on non-clinical tasks to free up time for patient care. Tortus represents a promising step toward a digitally enabled NHS, potentially improving both the quality and efficiency of care across the system.
