Northwell Health’s chief digital officer on AI and helping clinicians

Over the past year, Northwell Health has been rolling out new AI-powered tools to help reduce stress on doctors.

Northwell has been introducing Abridge’s ambient documentation system, which uses AI technology to record and summarize physician-patient conversations. Abridge’s solution has been adopted by a growing number of hospitals over the past few years.

Kristin Myers, chief digital officer of Northwell Health, told Chief Healthcare Executive® that Northwell began using ambient documentation with a small number of doctors, but the system is rolling it out to more physicians.

The goal is to finish the rollout by 2027, as the health system completes its migration to Epic’s electronic health record system. Based on Long Island, Northwell Health operates 28 hospitals in New York and Connecticut.

“It's about being able to deliver that seamless experience to our physicians and accelerate the adoption, and position Northwell for the continued scalability as the ambient technology evolves and as we grow, also as an organization,” Myers says.

She says the early feedback has been encouraging, and she cites the importance of clear communication with physicians and targeted training. She also notes the importance of understanding changes in workflows and making sure that they can be supported by doctors, so physicians will adopt and embrace the tools.

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In rolling out the ambient documentation tools, Myers cites an important consideration about the need to handle dozens of languages. Northwell operates facilities in and around New York City, and Abridge’s technology supports over 100 languages.

Doctors regularly spend hours documenting patient visits, with many physicians updating records when they’re at home and supposed to be off the clock. The time spent on documentation has been routinely cited as a leading source of physician burnout, even above the stress of caring for patients.

As Northwell rolls out ambient documentation more widely, Myers says she hopes the technology can help reduce the stress on physicians.

“I really want them to get the value of reducing documentation hours and reducing pajama time and burnout,” Myers says. “To me, that's really important.”

Myers said she hopes that AI documentation tools can help improve the retention of doctors in the system.

“We've got to understand how effective the technology is, reducing the administrative burden and enhancing the overall experience,” Myers says. “We saw some of this in the pilots, but again, we really want to see it done at scale.”

Doctors and health systems using ambient documentation tools have also cited the potential to improve the patient experience, since doctors can look at patients face-to-face while having conversations, rather than typing away on a keyboard.

“Rather than having to document on a keyboard, being able to be face to face and have that conversation is so important to that relationship,” Myers says.

As Northwell brings in AI and other technology into the organization, Myers says the health system is trying to be thoughtful in its selection of tech solutions. She stresses the need to solve problems and improve the work experience.

“We're very intentional about the technology that we're rolling out,” Myers says.

“Just rolling out technology or AI, tools that don't necessarily deliver the value to our physicians and nurses or our overall team members, that is not something that we want to propagate,” she explains. “If we're implementing AI or any of the technology tools, it needs to be intentional, and it needs to really support the workflow and be integrated in terms of the workflow.”

Myers also highlights the need for proper training with AI and other technologies as they get introduced into workflows. She says that it’s important to recognize that a one-size-fits-all approach to training isn’t effective.

“Some physicians don't really need a lot of assistance, because they're using AI in, you know, all of their facets of life,” Myers says. But other physicians may need more guidance.

“I think you've got to tailor the training and support based on where the physician is at,” she says.

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