Listening In: How Ambient Tech Is Transforming Exam-Room Dynamics

In the exam room, the challenge of multi-tasking often leaves physicians struggling to engage fully with patients as they simultaneously input data into a computer.

This divided attention can disrupt meaningful connections. Ambient listening technology offers a solution by seamlessly capturing provider-patient interactions and converting them into detailed documentation. This allows healthcare providers to stay fully present, free from the distraction of manual note-taking, and even regain valuable time in their day. A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that clinicians may need up to two additional hours of electronic data entry for every hour of direct patient contact. Ambient listening technology aims to change that.

“Having ambient technology listening in the exam room improves the provider-patient experience by capturing the entire conversation, including nuances that might be missed during a busy day,” says Jeremy Dixon, vice president of product development for NextGen Healthcare. In this conversation, Dixon discusses the power of ambient listening technology to transform exam room interactions, improve clinical workflows, and help providers reclaim joy by being more efficient and empathetic.

Q: How do you see AI reshaping the healthcare landscape, particularly in terms of improving patient care and operational efficiency?

Dixon: I like to compare the current state of AI in healthcare to the introduction of the first iPhone. When the iPhone was first released, it was limited—no app store, no 4G or 5G—but everyone could see its potential to revolutionize the digital world. Similarly, AI in healthcare is at an early stage, but it’s already starting to transform how we approach patient care and operational efficiency. Take imaging, for example. AI is now helping providers and radiologists by pinpointing details in scans that might have been missed before. Ambient technology is also advancing to overhaul clinical documentation processes, leading to greater accuracy, more quality time with patients, faster billing processes, and less burnout.

Q: Can you share the vision behind NextGen Ambient Assist and what specific challenges it aims to address in healthcare?

Dixon: Documentation burdens are a significant pain point for providers and clinicians,  exacerbated by government regulations and demand for more detailed records. Many providers find themselves working nights and weekends to stay on top of documentation, which can detract from their personal lives and contribute to burnout. NextGen Ambient Assist aims to alleviate this burden through discreet listening technology that captures conversations during patient exams. The technology then generates a structured note so that when the provider finishes the chart, they're getting a good foundation of what happened in that room. The result is a more interactive discussion between the provider and patient with fewer distractions and a more efficient clinical workflow overall, with some of our providers indicating a 60% reduction in after-hours charting. Additionally, clients have reported up to a 50% reduction in billing process time.

Q: NextGen’s ambient listening technology offers EHR integration—why is that so important?

Dixon: There's much hype around ambient technology with the explosion of vendors in the healthcare space. However, many of them are not integrated with the EHR, which forces providers to move data between different systems. They end up manually copying data from their laptop into specific fields in an EHR browser, losing that efficiency that ambient listening technology promised initially. Producing a note that is relevant to the conversation that happened in the room is just table stakes.

At NextGen Healthcare, we are focused on reducing the number of screens, clicks, and the amount of editing through robust EHR integration. What’s critical today is enabling providers to add data with a single click. We're doing that on the narrative fields and going a step further by integrating into other key clinical workflows that are very click-heavy. For example, our technology can correctly identify and add medications and diagnosis codes directly into the EHR without the provider having to do anything other than accept the  AI-generated suggestion.

Q: What has been the feedback from healthcare providers who are using this technology?

Dixon: Providers are excited to have a tool that helps accurately document the encounter in less time and with more accuracy. When they finish their charting, they have a note that is about 95% accurate. This consistently helps reduce cognitive fatigue because they don’t have to go back and relive all these encounters hours after the fact.

They are also excited about having a better work-life balance. For example, one provider who is an early adopter of ambient listening technology has a lake house she goes to with her family in the summer. Before using this technology, she always took her computer with her to catch up on notes while everyone else was sleeping in. But now, for the first time in years, she’s been able to enjoy that family time. Another provider who uses Ambient Assist said they are seeing as many as five more patients a day while still getting home earlier to be with their family.

Overall, providers report that they are saving five to ten minutes per encounter on EHR documentation time. This tool allows them to spend more time with patients because they can trust the system to document the encounters accurately.