User Blocked by Social Media Platform

The King’s Fund is calling for a national strategy on ambient voice technology (AVT) after analysis found it could transform patient care, improve working conditions for NHS staff and strengthen the UK’s sovereign AI capabilities.

According to the report, ‘Seizing a Rare Opportunity: scaling ambient voice technology in the NHS’, AVT uses AI to listen to clinical conversations and automatically generate outputs such as consultation notes, referral letters and other clinical documentation.

AVT is currently used primarily by doctors, but interest is growing among nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and social care staff.

The report draws on a roundtable involving patient representatives, NHS leaders and industry experts, alongside a review of existing research and interviews with NHS staff, to explore the opportunities and challenges associated with wider deployment.

Participants said AVT had the potential to reduce administrative burden, cut overtime and ease cognitive workload, allowing clinicians to spend more time focusing on patients.

However, the analysis warns that structural barriers could limit the benefits unless adoption is supported by wider digital transformation.

Among the key challenges identified are electronic patient record (EPR) systems that do not integrate effectively with AVT, forcing clinicians to manually transfer information between systems, and a lack of transparent performance metrics to demonstrate the technology’s real-world impact.

Dr Pritesh Mistry, fellow in digital technologies at The King’s Fund, said: “We know there is exceptional excitement about AVT among NHS leaders and the workforce.

As a result, the market is racing ahead. It’s essential to recognise the technology will not stand still, and neither should the system’s ambition for it.

The UK has unique assets with a universal health system, a large workforce, and a growing domestic AI capability.

AVT provides an opportunity for the NHS to shape how AI is used, stimulate a thriving marketplace of AVT suppliers, and build the UK’s competitive capability to develop technologies that improve healthcare.

Considering the rocky foundation of previously unsuccessful NHS technology projects, they must get this right.

The potential benefit of this technology on patient care and the workforce is critical.

A national strategy is needed to avoid fragmented adoption across the NHS, support interoperability and ensure lessons from early adopters are shared nationally.

It recommends a greater focus on value-based procurement, risk-sharing partnerships between the NHS and suppliers, and funding models that support service transformation rather than simply purchasing software.

The analysis also highlights the importance of robust governance as AVT adoption expands.

While acknowledging that errors occur in traditional clinical documentation, AI-powered tools can introduce new risks, including generating inaccurate clinical information or hallucinating medication details.

Closer collaboration between the NHS, regulators and suppliers is necessary, including clearer alignment between AVT safety reporting and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s safety reporting system.

NHS England accelerates the rollout of AI technologies, including integrated AVT, across the health service to help reduce waiting lists and improve patient care.

Other countries will be watching closely as the NHS moves forward with AVT.

They will likely be interested in the potential for this technology to improve healthcare outcomes and reduce administrative burdens.