In an effort to enhance patient care, Community Health NHS Foundation Trust has become the first of several sites across health and social care to pilot an AI assistant by TORTUS.
TORTUS is a UK-based specialist health technology company that has devloped a secure, compliant AI platform that interfaces with electronic health record systems (EHR).
This three-month trial aims to reduce administrative tasks, allowing clinicians to spend more face-to-face time with children and their families during Community Paediatric Service appointments.
Each month, the service offers thousands of appointments to children with developmental conditions such as autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, and muscular dystrophy.
This three-month trial aims to reduce administrative tasks, allowing clinicians to spend more face-to-face time with children and their families
From January, 12 clinicians, including paediatricians, nurses, and therapists, started using TORTUS’s AI-powered voice recognition technology in up to 5,000 consultations to generate comprehensive notes and summary letters.
Dr Dominic Pimenta, Chief Executive at TORTUS, said: “By initially focusing on the unique challenges of paediatric consultations, including background noise, multiple voices, and diverse accents, this pilot will allow us to refine the technology further.
“Our goal is to ensure that clinicians can spend less time on administration and more time with their patients. This study is an important step in demonstrating how GenAI can relieve pressures on the healthcare system while improving both clinician and patient experience.”
Thorough testing has already demonstrated the technology’s ability to filter extraneous noise effectively, offering a promising solution for busy clinical environments.
This study is an important step in demonstrating how GenAI can relieve pressures on the healthcare system
Ruth Clement, KCHFT’s Head of Children’s Therapies, said: “We really want to put the software through its paces, testing its accuracy, how it copes with different accents, multiple people in the room and also background noise. When we are working with children, it is naturally going to be noisy, but in testing and training, we’ve already seen how it cleverly filters.
"AI is not about doing the job of the doctor or clinician, they will still review all summaries and letters for accuracy. We hope that by using this software the clinicians will be able to focus even more of their attention on the family during an appointment.”
The multi-site pilot also includes trials with:
- KCHFT’s Acute Response Team
- GPs at Northdown Surgery in Margate
- Hildenborough and Tonbridge Medical Group
- Woodlands Family Practice
- Clinicians at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
- Adult social care workers from Kent County Council
Furthermore, patient data security is a top priority. All data processed through TORTUS is handled in secure environments and deleted immediately after documentation is generated, with no long-term retention.
Top image: community paediatrics using TORTUS AI