Average read time: 2 minutes

In this blog, you will learn about:

• How ambient listening enables more connection between patients and providers
• The organizational impacts of ambient listening technology 
• Altera Digital Health’s frame with ambient listening within one of our solutions, TouchWorks Note+

We’re witnessing a pivot point in the relationship between technology and healthcare, a moment when technology begins to truly serve medicine rather than medicine serving technology. I’ll explain.

Imagine a patient and provider interaction. The physician leans forward, maintaining eye contact with her patient as he describes the progression of his symptoms. She nods, asks thoughtful follow-up questions, and never once reaches for a keyboard or clipboard. Later, as the patient leaves the exam room, she spends just two minutes reviewing an already-drafted clinical note that captured their entire conversation. With a few minor edits, she signs and completes the documentation, a task that once consumed hours of her day.

This isn’t some idealized future of healthcare. It’s happening right now in clinics using ambient listening technology, and it represents a fundamental shift in how we think about the relationship between technology, documentation and patient care.

For decades, we’ve accepted the seemingly inevitable challenge of the growing burden of clinical documentation. Physicians now spend nearly two hours on electronic health records for every hour of direct patient care, a ratio that reflects our priorities precisely backward. The promise of electronic records, enhanced communication, better care coordination and improved outcomes has been obscured by the reality of their implementation: they’ve become time-consuming data entry systems that pull clinicians away from their calling.

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What makes ambient listening particularly compelling is how it respects existing clinical workflows rather than demanding wholesale change. In ideal circumstances, the system should also integrate seamlessly with workflows providers already trust in the EHR, enabling providers to shift effortlessly between ambient listening, dictation and traditional keyboard entry depending on the situation. This technology now fades into the background, doing what technology does best, handling repetitive tasks while enabling human connection to return to the foreground.

Healthcare executives will recognize the broader organizational implications here. When documentation becomes more efficient, the entire system improves. Patient throughput increases without sacrificing quality. Billing becomes more accurate as AI-assisted coding captures appropriate complexity. Provider satisfaction improves, potentially reducing costly turnover. And perhaps most importantly, patients receive the full attention of their providers. That irreplaceable human element of medicine that no technology can replicate.

Our frame

TouchWorks® Note+ emerged from a simple question: What if technology could listen and understand a clinical encounter the way a skilled medical scribe would, but with even greater precision and consistency? By combining ambient listening capabilities with artificial intelligence, Note+ has created something that feels simple and easy, while making a huge impact on the patient and provider experience.

And now, with the upcoming TouchWorks Mobile Integration, providers will be able to take this technology to the next level by having the ability to capture patient visits with ambient listening on-the-go, using their mobile devices to seamlessly integrate with TouchWorks Note+.

We also work in lockstep with the product team to ensure full compliance with HTI-1 and other emerging regulations. Meanwhile, the roadmap ahead is filled with promise: dynamic prompt editing, TouchWorks Mobile Integration enhancements and a Virtual Medical Assistant are all on the horizon.

Learn more about Note+ here.