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> Not to be antagonistic, but a healthcare CIO in which country? USA. I should have said that. > and stronger consumer protection and privacy laws. No, they may have stricter privacy laws outside of healthcare, but HIPAA is extremely strict and heavily enforced. In 2018 our legal team asked me if we were GDPR compliant if we accepted cash pay clients from Europe. I said from the healthcare side we're already adherent, and the department you'll have problems with is marketing because HIPAA already meets or exceeds GDPR rules. Same for CCPA in California. I've been the legal Data Security and Privacy Officer in 5 healthcare orgs, I'm more scared of OIG and HHS than I am of the EU. > specific motivations of executives endorsing the tools. My job doesn't include profit motives, and I'm extremely strict. Privacy and regulatory compliance trumps profit ideas. Yes, this tool absolutely helps us not have to pay for human scribes, but we weren't going to employ them anyway. Human scribes are EXPENSIVE. Usually the alternative was a microcassette recorder, or a digital recorder that produced digital files. Then we'd have to send those files, securely, to a licensed medical transcriptionist, then ensure the recording is destroyer and the transcript comes back, and then the doctor uses that to chart. These tools mean we skip most of that, so it's faster, cheaper, and more secure. It IS good for business, but frankly, so is good patient care. |
Thesis: every student accepted into medical school must complete 9 months as a medical scribe (financially compensated at some reasonable level) assigned to various medical team(s) prior to their actual entrance into med school.
They are formally trained on the latest and greatest scribing tech (which clinicians probably deprioritize).
They get exposure to what it means to work as part of a medical team. A heads-up before they pursue a medical career.
They get exposed to operational ethics, formality of ops, etc. in a role where they probably aren’t going to kill anyone.
They learn useful operational jargon and the lore of clinical practice to motivate the unending hours they will spend memorizing metabolic pathways and general trivia in med school.
They provide a friendlier, more humane “UI” for clinicians who loathe automated scribing systems, but love the fact they get to actually go home at a reasonable hour instead of charting til the wee hours. They should be actually, visibly and directly making the clinician’s job easier and more pleasant, so will be more likely to be treated with respect, perhaps even be coveted, and ultimately view the experience as a life-affirming one.
They make some decent money, less than a permanent professional scribe but more than flipping burgers, enough to secure decent med school student housing, maybe even pay for their books.
The program fits nicely into the concept of interning already part of medical training, being a sort of “data intern” with no access to the more physically impactful elements of medical practice.