For doctors that are exhausted from long hours typing up patient medical records, it could be game-changing, says Punit Soni, founder and CEO of Suki AI, a virtual assistant app for clinicians. The startup just raised a $20 million Series B round from Flare Capital Partners, First Round Capital, and Venrock, doubling its total funding to $40 million since its 2017 launch. The premise of Suki AI is simple: It's Alexa for doctors. Similar to how people can order Amazon's voice-enabled digital assistant to set a reminder or tell them their schedule, doctors can use Suki to take notes during patient appointments and those notes will automatically fill out electronic health records (EHRs). That's increasingly important as doctors spend more time logging data and less face time with patients.

FRIDAY, Feb. 23, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Artificial intelligence (AI), in which computers can be trained to recognize patterns in large quantities of data, may be able to reduce physicians' burdens, saving them time and energy, according to a report published in Medical Economics. The report notes that more data can be generated than physicians can analyze and that AI can make use of techniques to help with interpretation of the data. For example, AI can identify matching images for X-rays for radiologists, saving time. AI can be used to improve searching tasks and the documentation process, both of which may be reasons for physician burnout. It is used in one hospital for deciding whether patients with liver cancer need chemotherapy or surgery.

The report notes that more data can be generated than physicians can analyze and that AI can make use of techniques to help with interpretation of the data. For example, AI can identify matching images for X-rays for radiologists, saving time. AI can be used to improve searching tasks and the documentation process, both of which may be reasons for physician burnout. It is used in one hospital for deciding whether patients with liver cancer need chemotherapy or surgery. In addition, AI-based scheduling programs are being used, with benefit in places with a large number of physicians and ancillary staff.