Kent Community Health NHS FT trials AI note-taking technology

  • 29 January 2025
Kent Community Health NHS FT trials AI note-taking technology
Members of the community paediatrics team at Kent Community Health Foundation Trust. Left to right: Mandy Ryan, Samantha Fitzpatrick, Jez Michaels, Lynn Topley, Kate Foggon, Janine Armstrong,  Sunil Bhide and Safeer Ibra Lebbe (Credit: Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust)
  • Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust is piloting an AI-assistant from TORTUS which uses ambient voice technology to listen to consultations and draft clinic notes and summary letters
  • The three-month pilot began in January 2025 in the trust's community paediatric service, which offers appointments to children with developmental conditions
  • It will explore whether the technology can help reduce admin burden and enable clinicians to spend more time on patient care

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust is piloting an AI assistant which uses ambient voice technology to listen to consultations and draft clinic notes and summary letters.

The three-month pilot of the technology from digital health startup TORTUS began on 13 January 2025 in the trust’s community paediatric service, which offers appointments to children with developmental conditions such as autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, and muscular dystrophy.

Clinicians, including paediatricians, nurses and therapists, will use the voice recognition technology to explore whether it can help reduce administrative burden and devote more attention to patients during appointments.

Ruth Clement, head of children’s therapies at Kent Community Health NHS FT, said: “We really want to put the software through its paces, testing its accuracy, how it copes with different accents, multiple people in the room and also background noise.

“When we are working with children, it is naturally going to be noisy, but in testing and training, we’ve already seen how it cleverly filters.

“AI is not about doing the job of the doctor or clinician, they will still review all summaries and letters for accuracy.

“We hope that by using this software the clinicians will be able to focus even more of their attention on the family during an appointment.”

All data processed through TORTUS is handled in secure environments and deleted immediately after documentation is generated, with no long-term retention.

Victoria Bakare, associate medical director at Kent Community Health NHS FT said: “We have commissioned an independent evaluation to truly understand the impact it can have. 

“With our partners, we want to test this in different settings across health and care and we will be sharing the results, to help drive innovation across health and care.”

The pilot will also include trials with the trust’s acute response team; GPs at Northdown Surgery in Margate; Hildenborough and Tonbridge Medical Group and Woodlands Family Practice; clinicians at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, and adult social care workers from Kent County Council.

Dr Dominic Pimenta, chief executive at TORTUS, said: “By initially focusing on the unique challenges of paediatric consultations, including background noise, multiple voices, and diverse accents, this pilot will allow us to refine the technology further.

“Our goal is to ensure that clinicians can spend less time on administration and more time with their patients.

“This study is an important step in demonstrating how GenAI can relieve pressures on the healthcare system while improving both clinician and patient experience.”

Meanwhile, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is leading a pan-London trial of TORTUS, funded by NHS frontline digitisation, with the aim of evaluating the use of ambient voice technology in the NHS at scale.

The London-wide assessment, which began in June 2024 and is due to end in February 2025, will include GP settings, adult hospitals, A&E departments and mental health services.

In February 2024, TORTUS secured $4.2 million in seed funding from Khosla Ventures.

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