Four in five people say GPs should seek consent when using AI during consultations

Four in five people want health professionals, including GPs, to seek their explicit consent when AI scribes are used during consultations, a survey run by Healthwatch England has found.

The survey of more than 2,700 respondents found 81% wanted health professionals to tell them AI scribes are being used and to ask for their consent before using them during an appointment.

And 11% said they wouldn’t want to give consent before each consultation, but would want to retain the option to opt out of the scribes being used in future.

The poll also found patients who had previously used AI scribes were more likely to say they felt comfortable with the technology, with 74% of this group reporting being comfortable, compared with 43% who had not previously used it. 

Patients also reported a clear preference for switching off the technology when raising sensitive health issues. For example, fewer than a third of people were comfortable to have AI scribing on when discussing sexual health (29%), mental health (28%) or domestic abuse (23%) with a health professional, compared to with routine health checks (48%).

NHS England guidance stated that while health professionals do not need to ask for explicit consent from patients before using AVT, they are obliged to be ‘transparent’ by informing patients they are using it.

Responding to the survey, medical defence organisation the Medical Protection Society (MPS) warned that NHS guidance needs to ‘keep pace’ with AI technology.

MPS deputy medical director Dr Sarah Townley said: ‘Our advice to doctors is that they are responsible for ensuring medical notes produced by transcription software are clear, legible, accurately reflect the consultation and do not omit potentially relevant information.

‘When using AI scribe tools – particularly those requiring the sharing of personal data with a third party – informed consent should be sought from patients before use and this should be documented.’

It comes as NHS England announced it procured Heidi ambient voice technology (AVT) on behalf of all 1,239 GP practices in the Midlands – the first region in England to do so. 

However, the commissioner told Pulse that while this procurement saves GP practices time carrying out governance and compliance, they will still have to fund the tool themselves.

Heidi Healthcare is one of 24 suppliers included in NHS England’s self-certified AVT registry that was published in January. 

The ‘national registry’ of AVT suppliers for use in clinical consultation allows providers to choose and implement the technology ‘safely and effectively’, according to NHS England. 

Responding to the Healthwatch survey’s findings, Heidi’s Europe director Raghav Sharma said: ‘Our scribe is a tool to support clinicians with their documentation, by listening to a consultation and drafting clinical notes – nothing reaches a patient’s record until the clinician has reviewed and approved it.

‘The clinician stays responsible for the record and for the care, as they always have been. Heidi doesn’t diagnose or make clinical judgements, and we actively block prompts that try to push it in that direction.

He also said the notes the technology produces ‘stay inside Heidi’s secure environment, protected to the standards set by GDPR and the Data Protection Act.

He added: ‘Patient identifying information doesn’t leave that environment, and we don’t train our models on patient data. The healthcare organisation keeps control over how long information is held and when it is deleted, so local governance requirements are respected.’

NHS England guidance said that GP practices ‘may still be liable’ for clinical negligence claims arising from the use of AVT.

And the MPS has previously said GPs using AI risk becoming the ‘obvious target for a clinical negligence claim’ if the technology fails.