A new pilot project is underway at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary to help doctors spend less time on paperwork and more time with their patients. The Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has launched a 60-day trial of new voice-recognition technology designed to automatically transcribe conversations between clinicians and patients.
The technology, known as Microsoft Dragon Copilot, listens to appointments and creates draft clinical notes for doctors to review, edit, and approve. Dr Emren Potinci, an A&E doctor at the hospital, said the system is already making a noticeable difference. According to Dr Potinci, completing patient notes previously took about ten minutes, but with the new system, it now takes just three or four minutes, saving approximately six minutes per patient.
This initiative is one of only two national pilot programmes commissioned by NHS England in partnership with KPMG. The trial is also running at the Cardiology Outpatients department at Calderdale Royal Hospital, and officials will use the findings to determine if the technology should be used more widely across the health service.
Patient participation in the trial is entirely optional. Patients are asked for their consent before the technology is used in any consultation, and clinicians will continue to use their standard note-taking methods if a patient chooses not to take part. The pilot, which runs until the end of June 2026, follows strict national guidelines for clinical safety and data protection, with the technology registered as a medical device.
The trial builds on previous research conducted by Great Ormond Street Hospital, which showed that using this type of artificial intelligence can increase direct time spent with patients by more than 20 per cent and improve the number of patients seen during a shift.
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