Mayo Clinic has collaborated with Abridge and healthcare software company Epic to develop an integrated generative AI (GenAI) ambient documentation solution to improve the workflow for nurses.

The development of this solution comes as part of the next phase of collaboration within the Epic Workshop programme, which intends to bring new technologies to the healthcare industry.

The new solution, which will be powered by Epic, will integrate the capabilities of Abridge’s GenAI platform into the existing Epic nursing workflows.

As part of the effort, the three entities will work closely with nurses at Mayo Clinic to prioritise workflows, especially in the areas where the new generative AI platform is projected to make the most significant impact.

Abridge stated that Mayo Clinic nurses are expected to play a key role in designing and testing the generative AI solution, which will be used together with Abridge’s documentation product designed for doctors.

Mayo Clinic chief clinical systems and informatics officer Edwina Bhaskaran said: “The combined efforts and expertise of Abridge’s AI technology, Epic’s development, and Mayo Clinic’s nursing practice expertise will help us rapidly develop and iterate on this technology to meet our nursing workforce and patient’s needs.

“This technology will be shaped using the expertise of nurses who care for patients every single day. Our collective goal is to get a tool into the hands of our nurses before the end of the year.”

According to Abridge, nursing workflows involve a continuous, fast-paced, and diverse range of activities, which often span a large number of patients and hundreds of tasks.

Some of the daily activities can include patient and team communication, data capture as well as clinical notetaking.  

The latest partnership between Mayo Clinic, Abridge, and Epic, aims to pinpoint the most impactful areas for applying this technology to ease the administrative burden on nurses. 

Epic nursing vice president Emily Barey said: “This collaborative work holds the potential to rethink how nurses document in an electronic health record today by bringing the voice of patient and nurse directly into the record. 

“We know that every conversation is crucial to getting best outcomes and we’re excited about our role as a trusted assistant that can turn those conversations into action so that nurses can give care they want to give.”

Recently, Christus Health finalised an enterprise-wide agreement to deploy Abridge’s generative AI clinical documentation platform across its network.