Published on
09/12/2025 – 6:00 GMT+1

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can give doctors more time with patients by slashing the amount of time they spend taking notes, according to new data from a Swedish medical scribe company.

The firm, Tandem Health, said using AI to automate tedious administrative tasks could help alleviate burnout and other health workforce challenges.

The analysis includes more than 375,000 medical notes taken by nearly 1,300 clinicians using the company’s AI medical scribe, which is available in 11 European markets, including Spain, France, and the United Kingdom.

Tandem Health also surveyed 177 health workers to understand how they use the AI tool, which is classified as a medical device in the European Union.

On average, the AI scribe cut the amount of time that clinicians spent on medical notes from 6.69 minutes to 4.71 minutes – a 29 per cent reduction, the analysis found.

The clinicians – including general practitioners (GPs), surgeons, psychologists, and nurses – also reported feeling more present during patient consultations and less stressed from administrative tasks.

That could have ripple effects on clinicians’ wellbeing. Administrative tasks are a key driver of burnout among GPs, according to an international survey published this year.

In the UK, 28 per cent of GPs who experienced burnout said it was primarily because their administrative tasks took up more time than they would like. In Switzerland, that share rose to 65 per cent, the survey found.

“For European healthcare systems facing acute workforce shortages and rising costs, that capacity gain could make a real difference at scale, addressing wait times, clinician burnout, and care access,” Tandem Health CEO Lukas Saari said in a statement.

The company noted that until now, most research on AI medical scribes had focused on health systems in the United States, which differ from European systems.

“As AI scribes mature across Europe, it is essential that we quickly and continuously generate evidence from our own health care systems,” said Dr Artin Entezarjou, head of medical operations at Tandem Health.

The data could help policymakers and health care executives “understand the technology and how it can be applied to address our challenges related to workforce shortages, working conditions, and productivity in our health care systems,” Entezarjou added.