last year<\/a>.<\/p>\nCondon says the findings suggest investment in governance, implementation and cultural engagement is helping the country build clinicians\u2019 confidence in the technology.<\/p>\n
New Zealand clinicians\u2019 biggest worry is not a lack of guidance, it\u2019s that the AI will hallucinate or provide false information \u2013 a fear that rates higher than patient privacy, reliance-forming habits and erosion of clinical judgment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Andrew Lensen, an AI expert at Victoria University Wellington, more oversight is needed to ensure the technology is used to the best of its ability. \u201cThe use of AI in healthcare is very promising \u2013 but, equally, very concerning if it is being used without sufficient oversight and assurance,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He also questions how much free and informed consent can be given by patients. \u201cOn balance, I think the use cases I\u2019ve been exposed to are a net positive for my care,\u201d Lensen says, but asks if all patients can make the same judgement calls.<\/p>\n
In either case, some clearer rules would answer these questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In New Zealand, a lack of firm AI policy and a generally sceptical population has not stopped the technology\u2019s rollout. Heidi itself was selected by the Government to be introduced across New Zealand; Health Minister Simeon Brown announced the purchase of 1000 licences in November last year.<\/p>\n
The trial suggested doctors could save up to 10 minutes per patient, reducing paperwork time from up to 17 minutes to just four.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sylvia Boys, national vice president of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, is a Heidi user and vouches for its efficacy. She says it has its issues, but overall saves time \u2013 and wider issues in the health sector\u2019s tech system are a bigger problem.<\/p>\n
Being an ambient scribe (a tool that takes notes from patient-clinician conversations) Boys says Heidi sometimes finds it difficult to tell when a new person enters the room and starts talking about a different patient, confusing its notes. Because it doesn\u2019t train on its recorded data, the Australian-built AI can\u2019t recognise or transcribe many words in te reo M\u0101ori, which is especially problematic for recording place names. It also can\u2019t recognise non-verbal communication like head shakes.<\/p>\n
Boys said it\u2019s even hallucinated in the past, once accidentally noting a patient\u2019s history of rheumatoid fever based on Boys asking if the patient ever remembered being diagnosed with it.<\/p>\n
But these are relatively minor issues, and Boys says the wider tech system in the health sector is no better. Even in the documentation space, the previous software Boys used relied on manual entry and didn\u2019t have the ability to spell check. \u201cSo if you\u2019re quite a dyslexic typist, then that\u2019s a major problem,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Most of the clinicians surveyed in Heidi\u2019s report had gone ahead and used AI without official guidance, and Boys says this was true for her colleagues here in New Zealand. When the 1000 Heidi licences were rolled out, the official direction was just \u201cgive it a try and see how it goes\u201d, says Boys.<\/p>\n
All things considered, \u201cfor a product that we\u2019re just trying how it goes, it\u2019s generally worked quite well\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n
Boys does not want to see regulation or guidance on how and when to use the technology coming from the government; she thinks it\u2019s something clinicians can sort out for themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hate to see central government get involved with guidance \u2013 they are just too removed from the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reality of the situation, she says, is an IT infrastructure nightmare. Systems aren\u2019t joined up to seamlessly communicate, patient records are sometimes fragmented across different platforms, and staff are stuck with outdated hardware.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even something new like Heidi relies on these systems. Boys says if a hospital doesn\u2019t have enough computers, or if their computers are slow, staff aren\u2019t able to sync Heidi to the laptop they work on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Boys says they have to manually email Heidi\u2019s notes to themselves, then log in to a work station, and cut and paste that email into the patient\u2019s notes. \u201cIn that clunky process, you start to lose a lot of the time savings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Survey data suggests nearly four out of five clinicians in New Zealand have started to use AI tools…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,1184,527,111,43,7439,139,69,135,145],"class_list":["post-536273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-science","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newsroom-pro","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}