Key Takeaways
- Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust is piloting AI technology to streamline clinical note-taking in paediatric consultations.
- The three-month trial with TORTUS aims to reduce administrative workload, allowing clinicians to spend more time with patients.
- Data handling is secure, with immediate deletion post-documentation, and an independent evaluation will assess the pilot’s impact.
AI Enhancing Paediatric Care at Kent Community Health
Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust has launched a three-month pilot program utilizing an AI assistant developed by the digital health startup TORTUS. The initiative, begun on January 13, 2025, focuses on the trust’s community paediatric service, providing essential care to children with developmental issues such as autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, and muscular dystrophy.
The AI assistant is designed to use ambient voice technology to automatically draft clinic notes and summary letters during patient consultations. This innovation allows healthcare professionals—including paediatricians, nurses, and therapists—to potentially reduce their administrative tasks and dedicate more time to patient interactions.
Ruth Clement, head of children’s therapies at the trust, emphasized the importance of rigorously testing the software’s performance, particularly in learning to recognize different accents and handle noisy environments. Given the nature of pediatric consultations, which often involve background noise and multiple participants, she stressed that the AI is not meant to replace clinicians. Instead, professionals will still review all generated summaries for accuracy before integrating them into patient care. Clement remarked, “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.”
The data processed by TORTUS remains secure, with all information deleted immediately after the necessary documentation is created, ensuring no long-term storage or risk of data breaches.
In a broader effort to evaluate the technology’s impact, Victoria Bakare, the associate medical director at Kent Community Health NHS FT, indicated that an independent evaluation has been commissioned. This evaluation aims to analyze the effectiveness of the software in various healthcare settings across the region and share findings to advance healthcare innovation.
The trial will extend beyond the community paediatric service to include collaborations with the trust’s acute response team, multiple GP surgeries, and adult social care professionals in Kent. Dr Dominic Pimenta, CEO of TORTUS, highlighted that this pilot is particularly focused on addressing the unique challenges present in paediatric consultations, such as the complexities of background sounds and diverse communication needs. He asserted, “Our goal is to ensure that clinicians can spend less time on administration and more time with their patients.”
In addition to this Kent pilot, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is spearheading a parallel pan-London trial evaluating TORTUS’s ambient voice technology across various NHS settings. Funded by NHS frontline digitization initiatives, this London-wide evaluation commenced in June 2024 and is expected to conclude by February 2025.
The advancements in ambient voice technology have gained traction, with TORTUS securing $4.2 million in seed funding from Khosla Ventures back in February 2024. This growing interest in GenAI technology in healthcare seeks to alleviate pressures on the healthcare system while enhancing the overall experience for both clinicians and patients.
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