Chances are, artificial intelligence is operating in subtle but significant ways whenever you visit a doctor. While you discuss your ailments, worries or test results, instead of typing on a computer keyboard, your provider may be recording your conversation with a cellphone, tapping an anywhere/anytime app that identifies multiple speakers, translates heavy accents and compiles a concise medical summary — minus any musings about the Red Sox, rain or hot weather. This ambient listening technology, a form of AI, has saved time and labor at the Elliot and Southern New Hampshire health care systems for more than 18 months, providers say.
It’s not the only artificial-intelligence health care technology blooming in New Hampshire. AI is assisting during gastroenterology, radiology and routine office visits. It’s transforming diagnostics and cancer detection, furnishing automated patient reminders, scheduling appointments and playing a role in medical records.
General surgeons at Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth have been using GI Genius to identify colorectal cancer since 2022. Catholic Medical Center has harnessed AI in radiology for roughly a year to help diagnose serious ailments by CT scan, including artery blockages, blood clots in lungs and emerging conditions that have to be watched. “It’s not a diagnosis.
It’s a probability assessment,” said Dr. Robert Sprague, medical director for radiology at CMC. “It’s an additional tool that helps us interpret.
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