AI Scribes in your practice: ensuring patient privacy

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By: Sebastian Paauwe and Christine Wagoner, on behalf of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of Alberta

The adoption of new technologies in health care promises to enhance patient care and reduce the administrative burden on physicians, surgeons and other health care practitioners. One such innovation gaining traction is the use of AI-powered medical scribes (AI scribes), i.e. services that listen, transcribe, summarize and create referral letters, prescriptions and other administrative products, based on patient encounters.

While the benefits of automating administrative tasks are clear, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of Alberta would like to remind practitioners that the integration of these tools into their practices must be compliant with the Health Information Act (HIA). This accountability is undiminished when using a third-party service.

AI scribes commonly function by recording highly sensitive patient-practitioner conversations and transmitting that data to a vendor for processing. This vendor likely acts as an information manager on the custodian’s behalf. The custodian remains accountable for ensuring accuracy and for safeguarding this health information. Before implementing an AI scribe, custodians must undertake rigorous due diligence.

Before using an AI scribe, custodians are required under HIA to submit a privacy impact assessment (PIA) to the OIPC. This process is essential for identifying and addressing the privacy risks associated with a new technology or administrative practice. The use of an AI scribe qualifies as both. A PIA will help assess how patient information is collected, used, stored and secured by the vendor. Custodians must ensure they have policies, procedures and training to support implementation of new systems and administrative practices. As well, custodians should be aware that the policies, procedures and training they have in place to support the implementation of their electronic medical records systems may not be sufficient to support the implementation of AI scribes. The PIA allows custodians to review their administrative processes to ensure any shortcomings in the technology are addressed.

The OIPC has recently become aware of a Canada Health Infoway (CHI) program to fund AI scribes for health care practitioners across Canada. The OIPC has not reviewed any of the vendor products which are part of this program. It is up to the custodian to demonstrate compliance with HIA by submitting a PIA to the OIPC.

The OIPC has developed PIA guidance, which is specific to privacy considerations and risks associated with the use of AI scribes by Alberta custodians. The guidance helps custodians effectively evaluate, through completion of a PIA, whether the use of an AI scribe meets the requirements of HIA.