Rhode Island doctors adopt AI to reclaim time lost to paperwork
Hundreds of physicians across Rhode Island are using artificial intelligence to handle the administrative work that has long consumed their appointments: summarizing patient visits, drafting clinical notes, and managing records.
The shift addresses a persistent problem in modern medicine. Doctors spend nearly twice as much time on electronic health records as they do with patients, research shows. The computer in the exam room creates what physicians call the "doctor-patient-computer triangle"-a dynamic where doctors divide attention between listening and typing.
Care New England, which operates Kent Hospital, Women & Infants, and Butler Hospital, has deployed an AI tool to roughly 150 doctors. The software, integrated into Epic's electronic health records system, summarizes patient histories and drafts discharge notes.
Tomas Gregorio, chief digital information officer at Care New England, said doctors are responding positively. "They love it. They can't get enough of it," he said.
Brown University Health, the state's largest health system, has rolled out the same tool to 500 primary care and emergency doctors. Adam Landman, Brown Health's chief digital information officer and an emergency physician, said the technology allows clinicians to focus on patients rather than data entry.
"We want to focus on the patient and be focused on listening and observing the patient and thinking through the problems at hand, not on typing furiously trying to capture every piece of data," Landman said.
A cautious approach to clinical AI
Both health systems emphasize they are not rushing to deploy AI for diagnostic work or medical imaging interpretation. Gregorio said Care New England wants AI tools to be "bulletproof, battle-ready" before using them for clinical decisions.
The current focus is narrower: automating the clerical burden that keeps doctors from practicing medicine. Gregorio recalled a physician who said he would have continued practicing if this technology had existed earlier.
Brown Health is also exploring broader uses for AI, including drafting operational emails, brainstorming solutions to administrative problems, and writing grant proposals.
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