Microsoft unveils ‘Dragon Copilot’: How safe are AI tools in healthcare

Microsoft has launched a new tool called Dragon Copilot to help doctors and healthcare workers. This tool is designed to make their jobs easier by doing tasks like writing down patient notes, making reports, and finding important medical information quickly. The tool is part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and uses smart voice technology from a company called Nuance, which Microsoft bought in 2021 for $16 billion.

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Dragon Copilot aims to solve the problem of doctors spending too much time on paperwork instead of focusing on patients. Microsoft says this tool will help doctors by doing the routine tasks, allowing them to have more time for patient care. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, said that no one becomes a doctor to do paperwork, but it has become a bigger part of the job.

The Dragon Copilot tool is based on other tools that have already helped doctors in the past, like Dragon Medical One and DAX. These tools have been used to help write down millions of patient records and support many patient conversations. Now, Dragon Copilot will bring all these features together into one easy-to-use tool that can help healthcare workers in their daily tasks.

Dragon Copilot lets doctors use their voice to write notes and reports, search for medical information, and even make tasks like referral letters and patient summaries. It can help doctors save time. A survey showed that doctors using the tool save about five minutes during each patient visit. Many doctors said they felt less tired and overwhelmed, and most patients felt they had a better experience when doctors used Dragon Copilot.

The tool will be available on phones, computers, and web browsers. It will work with different health record systems. Dragon Copilot will first be available in the United States and Canada in May 2024, and later in other countries like the UK, Germany, and France.

But while this tool seems helpful, there are some risks. Sometimes, computer programs like this can make mistakes and give wrong information. This is called "hallucination," which means the tool might make up information that isn’t true. This can be a problem in healthcare, where wrong information could harm patients.

For example, OpenAI’s Whisper tool, which helps transcribe doctor-patient talks, has been known to make up wrong information, including fake medical treatments. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also said that computer tools can make up new diagnoses or mix up patient details, which could be very dangerous.

Microsoft says it has added special safety features to Dragon Copilot to stop this from happening. They say the tool is designed to follow strict rules to make sure it works safely and correctly for doctors and patients.

As more healthcare tools are developed using computers, companies like Microsoft are working hard to make sure these tools help doctors without causing problems. Although this technology can make healthcare work faster and easier, it’s very important to make sure it is safe for patients.