Mayo Clinic Deploys AI Tool Record Time to Summarize Patient Records as Former Director Sues Over Privacy Concerns

Mayo Clinic developed an AI tool called Record Time that generates patient summaries, organizes documents chronologically and makes records searchable, Cnn reported. Internal medicine physician Dr. Alexander Ryu said the tool saves him between five and 30 minutes of preparation time per patient visit.

Mayo Clinic receives tens of millions of pages of external medical records every year. Ryu, who is vice chair of innovation for the Mayo Clinic Department of Medicine, stated that the volume required a new method to locate important information. The hospital is partnering with Microsoft and Scale AI to develop additional AI tools using its patient records and research, Cnn reported.

Approximately 150 AI models are now deployed within Mayo Clinic, according to radiologist Dr. Matthew Callstrom, medical director of the generative AI program. Mayo Clinic’s former Director of Research Operations Traci Tamiko Eto sued the hospital earlier this month, alleging retaliation for raising privacy and oversight concerns around AI systems, Cnn reported.

The clinic stated that its research and clinical innovation are conducted in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Mayo Clinic is running a clinical trial to test whether AI can identify patients at risk of or with early-stage pancreatic cancer.

Patients are often diagnosed only after the disease has spread regionally or metastatically, when the five-year survival rate is around 9 percent, Callstrom said.

The hospital has used AI to analyze patients’ heart rhythms to identify risk of atrial fibrillation. Its nursing team helped develop an AI system that listens and takes notes during patient visits, potentially cutting documentation time in half. Nurses currently spend more than an hour per day typing up patient visits.