From paper charts to AI scribes: The EHR revolution in family medicine

By Sara Pastoor, MD, MHA 

As family physicians, we've witnessed a dramatic evolution in health technology. Now, we stand at the precipice of yet another transformation as we usher in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

The evolution of medical records: From paper to EHR

Many of us remember the meticulous care we put into patient summaries in paper records. These "left-hand" pages were the cornerstone of comprehensive, longitudinal care, providing instant context for a patient's health. That context mattered.

While electronic health records (EHRs) brought undeniable benefits and, like it or not, became central to our workflows, the initial promise of efficiency often felt elusive. Despite the challenges, the patient summary, now digitized, remains as vital as ever for understanding a patient's health journey. Our EHRs have truly become our "living room" — the central hub where we store, curate, and comprehend the best information we know about our patients.

The dawn of AI: A new frontier

Today, we're on the cusp of an AI revolution with the potential to fundamentally change how we practice. The promise of AI is not just to free us from the keyboard but to enhance our ability to deliver high-quality, patient-centered care.

One of the most immediate applications gaining traction is AI-powered ambient scribes. These tools aim to transform clinician-patient discussions into accurate, structured notes, potentially saving physicians hours each day and freeing them to focus on the patient instead of the computer during encounters. 

The power of context: Why AI belongs inside the EHR

However, there's a crucial consideration beyond cost-effectiveness. Human scribes work within the EHR, accessing the patient's entire chronological history, medication lists, lab results, and that essential patient summary. Standalone AI scribes, without this rich contextual access, are often left to guess.

This highlights a critical point: AI's true power is unleashed when it's baked directly into the EHR experience. Imagine AI functioning as a personal assistant in your living room — the EHR — with access to all that invaluable longitudinal patient data. This integration could transform AI from a standalone tool into an incredibly impactful co-pilot, leveraging the sacred patient summary and mountains of existing data to truly augment clinical excellence.

An opportunity to reimagine care

The industry is seeing a proliferation of standalone AI solutions, an approach that risks fragmenting workflows, duplicating data, and adding to the complexity of care. We have an unprecedented opportunity to instead ensure AI truly benefits family physicians and their patients.

The AI-powered EHR can harness the richness of the longitudinal patient record, enhance clinical effectiveness, and create efficiencies that give us back more time for patient relationships at the heart of family medicine. Let's not repeat the past mistakes of disjointed technology sitting outside the EHR while we spend most of our time inside it. Instead, let's invite AI into the living room and allow it to truly transform medicine for the better.