Microsoft Unveils AI-Powered Voice Assistant to Alleviate Physician Burnout

Microsoft introduced a new clinical artificial intelligence assistant Monday (March 3) that combines advanced voice dictation and ambient listening with generative AI to alleviate doctors’ workflow burdens.

Called Dragon Copilot, the assistant integrates Microsoft’s Dragon Medical One (DMO) speech capabilities for doctor dictation of medical notes and its DAX Copilot ambient AI listening technology that converts conversations between doctors and patients into clinical summaries that can be integrated into the electronic health record, according to a press release.

The consolidated AI tool aims to minimize clinician burnout by streamlining administrative tasks and bringing forth faster clinical insights, the release said.

One of the top causes of physician burnout is not having enough support staff, according to the American Medical Association (AMA). When this happens, doctors are diverted into doing tasks that take them away from patients. Another cause happens when doctors are burdened by too many administrative tasks.

The burnout rate stood at 45% in the first half of 2024, down from 56% in 2021, 53% in 2022 and 48% in 2023, the AMA said.

“So, things are improving, but we have work to do,” AMA Vice President of Professional Satisfaction Dr. Christine Sinsky said.

AI can help, Joe Petro, corporate vice president of health and life sciences solutions and platforms at Microsoft, said in the release.

“At Microsoft, we have long believed that AI has the incredible potential to free clinicians from much of the administrative burden in healthcare and enable them to refocus on taking care of patients,” Petro said, per the release.

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Microsoft’s DMO and DAX technologies came from the company’s $16 billion acquisition of Nuance Communications, which was finalized on March 4, 2022.

The tech giant faces competition from upstarts. Abridge, a clinical documentation AI startup, raised $250 million in a Series D round last month. Meanwhile, Suki, an AI startup that streamlines administrative tasks for clinicians, raised $70 million in its own Series D round in October.

Although it has rivals, Microsoft said in the release that Dragon Copilot offers more features than AI scribing, making it the “first unified voice AI experience to the market.”

According to the release, Dragon Copilot also:

• Streamlines documentation with multilanguage note creation, automated tasks, personalized formatting, natural language dictation, speech memos, AI prompts and other features.
• Enables medical information searches from trusted sources for clinicians through the embedded AI assistant.
• Automates tasks such as clinical evidence summaries, referral letters, after-visit documentation and others.

Among organizations already using DMO and DAX technologies separately, 70% of clinicians reported reduced feelings of burnout, 62% were less likely to consider leaving their organization, and 93% of patients reported a better overall experience, per the release.

Microsoft built Dragon Copilot on a secure data foundation, incorporating healthcare-specific safeguards, the release said. The platform aligns with the company’s responsible AI principles, focusing on transparency, reliability, safety, fairness, inclusiveness, accountability, privacy and security.

Dragon Copilot will be available in the United States and Canada in May, and subsequent launches are planned for Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Microsoft also plans to enter other key markets, the release said.

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