Strategies for Hospitals in Integrating Microsoft Dragon Assistant
Microsoft Dragon Copilot, a voice assistant designed specifically for healthcare professionals, is making strides in revolutionising patient rooms by integrating AI assistance into clinical workflows.
This specialized AI tool, also known as Dragon Ambient eXperience or DAX Copilot, focuses on clinical documentation. It transcribes doctor-patient conversations in real-time, generating physician notes, billing codes, referrals, and automating downstream administrative tasks directly within electronic health records (EHRs).
Key Differences from Microsoft Copilot
Unlike Microsoft Copilot, which is a general AI augmentation tool used across Microsoft Office apps for productivity, Dragon Copilot is purpose-built for healthcare clinical workflows with advanced speech-to-text tailored for medical language and context. While traditional Copilot assists in composing and analysing text and data, Dragon Copilot uses ambient voice AI to record and transcribe multi-party patient encounters, automatically creating structured clinical summaries.
Moreover, Dragon Copilot integrates deeply with EHRs and automates additional clinical tasks (prescription renewal, labs, imaging requests), reducing the need for manual entry and support staff, something core Microsoft Copilot does not specialise in.
Benefits in Healthcare
The implementation of Dragon Copilot offers numerous benefits to the healthcare sector. By significantly reducing the administrative burden on clinicians, it improves workflow efficiency and saves around five minutes per patient encounter. This reduction in administrative tasks helps to decrease clinician burnout, reported to have dropped from 53% to 48%, by decreasing time spent on paperwork, thus allowing providers to focus more on patient care.
Patient satisfaction and overall experience improve, with 93% of patients reporting better interactions when clinicians use Dragon Copilot.
While Microsoft Copilot contributes to healthcare productivity by enhancing clinical documentation accuracy and supporting tasks like efficient data analysis, it lacks the voice and real-time ambient documentation capabilities critical to Dragon Copilot's healthcare use case.
Implementation and Integration
Primary care physicians and family care physicians are suggested as a starting point for implementing Dragon Copilot, as they are quicker to adopt. CDW offers readiness assessments, training, and ongoing support for healthcare organisations implementing Dragon Copilot.
Healthcare organisations probably already have the necessary technology to run Dragon Copilot, including a modern electronic health record system, Microsoft 365 infrastructure, and the ability to get clear audio recordings. Special microphones are not required, but a good microphone is important if using Dragon Copilot on a desktop or laptop.
The IT EHR team should be ready for the integration of Dragon Copilot, as it is expected to reduce the time clinicians spend on documentation, primarily in the EHR.
In summary, while both tools use AI to support healthcare workers, Dragon Copilot is specifically tailored to transform clinical workflows through voice-enabled ambient documentation and task automation; Microsoft Copilot serves broader productivity needs including clinical documentation enhancements but lacks the specialized voice and EHR integration features critical to Dragon Copilot's healthcare use case.
This article is part of the HealthTech's MonITor blog series. In the future, Dragon Copilot could potentially be integrated into a contextually aware patient room, where there is no need for a computer, and the room has touch and voice capabilities.
Microsoft acquired Nuance in 2021, which includes the industry standard voice-to-text documentation software, Dragon. The primary use case for Dragon Copilot is meeting transcription, allowing physicians to record conversations with patients and have the software generate notes, billing codes, and referral notes.
However, the use of Dragon Copilot requires a change in workflow, including asking patients for permission to record and reviewing transcriptions for accuracy and completeness. It also offers options for customizing its output to suit a physician's preferred style and note-taking preferences.
Microsoft products, including Dragon Copilot, meet the highest levels of security and adhere to the Responsible AI Standard. Like every Microsoft product, it's designed to be flexible and scalable, and easy to use.
- The implementation of Dragon Copilot, a voice assistant designed for healthcare professionals, not only enhances clinical documentation but also integrates technology into healthcare workflows, revolutionizing patient rooms.
- Unlike general productivity AI tools like Microsoft Copilot, Dragon Copilot, tailored for medical language and context, uses voice AI to record and transcribe multi-party patient encounters, automating clinical tasks and improving health-and-wellness outcomes.
