ATLANTA — Georgia hospitals are turning to AI to help with care and fight doctor burnout as patients ask what this means for their privacy.

Channel 2 Action News investigative reporter Ashli Lincoln went inside a hospital to see this new ambient listening technology in person.

“It keeps key details that you might not have remembered,” said Emory Health emergency room doctor Tricia Smith. “It’s difficult for physicians to deliver care and also keep an accurate record.”

This new technology is changing that. Smith has used the technology for more than six months and says it significantly reduces time spent working on patient documentation.

The technology works by recording and organizing a summary of the visit, sitting in the room with you and your doctor to take notes on your visit. Then, doctors review and edit the AI-generated notes to guard against mistakes.

Several North Georgia hospital systems have adopted the technology, including Emory Health, Northeast Georgia Health System and Piedmont Hospital. Across the industry, healthcare research firm KLAS found 79% of healthcare organizations now use some form of AI technology.

Doctors say patients are often open to allowing their doctor use it to support their work.

“I’ve been amazed,” said Northeast Georgia Health System doctor Margaret Schutte. “The majority of older folks say, ‘Girl, if it helps you, I love it. Let’s do it.’”

Schutte said she received little pushback from patients since the technology rolled out.

But some Georgia patients, like Stephanie Johnson, prefer their doctor’s human ear.

“I would opt out,” Johnson said. “Because he can read my emotions and my expression and inflection in my voice, whereas AI would not be able to do so.”

Other patients are more willing to try the technology.

“I am open to using new technology,” Sojourner Grimmett said. “I liked that my doctor stayed engaged. She didn’t have to take notes while trying to give me eye contact.”

But both say privacy remains a major concern.

“Data breaches are common,” Johnson said. “I’d be concerned.”

But Matthew Zimmie, Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Northeast Georgia Health System, says they tested the technology for a year and that they have extensive cyber protections in place to keep data secure.

Still, cybersecurity researcher Willis McDonald says he understands patients’ concerns. While HIPAA rules still apply to AI technology, meaning everything stays within the hospital rather than on a doctor’s smart phone, he points to a wave of breaches caused by hospital hacks in the past year.

And according to the HIPAA Journal, 2024 was the worst year for hospital data breaches, with hacking leading the way as the most common cause. Fourteen breaches each involved more than one million lost personal medical records.

Still, when those breaches happen, there are often steep fines attached to encourage compliance with industry best practices.

“They’re charged per record lost,” McDonald said. “There’s a lot of preparation and legal work behind implementing these systems.”

And that legal landscape is shifting. Georgia lawmakers are trying to stay ahead of the AI curve by introducing two bills in the Georgia state House of Representatives.

One would prohibit making healthcare decisions based only on AI. The other gives the Georgia Technology Authority power to shape statewide policies.

All of this to put the guardrails in place to make AI a tool that doctors and patients can trust and rely on.

“I really put some kind of trust into companies and to my doctor, right?” Grimmett said. “Hoping that hey, it’ll be okay, and this tool will be helpful for both of us.”

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