The next evolution in healthcare: Suki AI’s Expansive role beyond documentation

Suki, an innovative healthcare AI startup, is making waves in the healthcare industry by transforming the way clinicians interact with patient data. The company’s flagship product, Suki AI Assistant, has already been helping doctors streamline clinical documentation.

However, the company has recently expanded its functionality with two new features powered by Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform: patient summary and Q&A features. These developments mark a significant milestone in Suki’s vision to provide a comprehensive, end-to-end AI assistant for clinicians, evolving the platform from a documentation tool to a robust healthcare assistant.

Expanding beyond clinical documentation

Suki’s core product, Suki Assistant, has been a game-changer in reducing clinician burnout by automating the tedious task of clinical documentation. Clinicians can use the tool to record patient visits and convert them into structured clinical notes automatically. This feature alone has proven invaluable, helping reduce the time spent on administrative tasks and allowing doctors to focus more on patient care.

However, Suki’s vision has always been more expansive than just documentation. According to Punit Soni, the founder and CEO of Suki, the company’s goal was never to create a clinical documentation tool alone; it was to build a comprehensive assistant capable of supporting clinicians throughout their entire workflow.

With the integration of new features, such as patient summarization and Q&A, Suki has taken a major step toward fulfilling this goal. These new additions aim to help clinicians quickly access patient data and relevant medical information, further reducing administrative burden and improving efficiency.

Integrating Google Cloud for advanced AI capabilities

At the heart of Suki’s expansion is its collaboration with Google Cloud, leveraging the power of the Vertex AI platform. This fully managed AI development platform allows developers to train, fine-tune, and deploy a variety of AI models. The partnership with Google Cloud has enabled Suki to harness the latest advancements in generative AI, specifically Google’s Gemini model and other open and third-party models.

The integration of Google Cloud technologies makes it possible for Suki to deliver more advanced features, such as the patient summary and Q&A functionalities, which help clinicians make informed decisions faster. Google Cloud’s advanced search and AI capabilities enable the Suki Assistant to search large data sets, pulling relevant information from a patient’s medical history, lab results, and even medical literature.

Google’s powerful search capabilities are particularly beneficial in the healthcare context, where quick access to accurate information can be critical. With Google Cloud’s AI technologies, clinicians can quickly search through vast amounts of data to retrieve the answers they need in real time. These advancements mark a new phase for Suki’s platform, as it transitions from a tool for documentation to a true assistant for clinicians.

Key features: Patient summary and Q&A

The two key features that have been introduced as part of the latest update are the patient summary and Q&A capabilities. These features are designed to further reduce clinician workload and streamline the clinical decision-making process.

Patient summary feature

One of the most significant additions to the Suki AI Assistant is the patient summary feature. This tool allows clinicians to review a concise overview of a patient’s medical history before an appointment. With a single click, doctors can access information such as the patient’s age, chronic conditions, previous prescriptions, and past visit history. This summary helps doctors prepare for patient appointments, saving time and mental energy typically spent on reviewing individual encounter notes.

Clinicians often spend considerable time searching for relevant details about a patient, and this feature addresses that pain point by consolidating essential information in one place. By providing a streamlined snapshot of a patient’s health status, Suki’s patient summary feature enables clinicians to focus more on interacting with the patient rather than searching for medical details.

Q&A feature

The Q&A feature further enhances the functionality of the Suki AI Assistant. With this feature, clinicians can type in specific queries, such as “What was the patient’s last mammogram?” or “How long has the patient been on this medication?” The assistant uses the AI’s ability to pull relevant data from the patient’s medical record and other sources to provide an answer within seconds. This instant access to crucial information allows clinicians to make more informed decisions in real-time.

For example, if a clinician needs to know if two drugs might interact or if a patient has received a specific vaccine, they can quickly ask Suki’s AI Assistant. The platform will provide the requested data in a matter of seconds, significantly improving the efficiency of the clinician’s workflow.

These two features are expected to reduce the administrative time clinicians typically spend gathering information, ultimately allowing more time for patient care. Both features will be available to customers in early 2025, after a testing phase with select healthcare systems.

Impact on healthcare workflows and burnout

The healthcare industry has long struggled with administrative burnout among clinicians. According to studies, U.S. healthcare professionals spend nearly 28 hours per week on administrative tasks, with almost nine of those hours dedicated solely to documentation. This excessive administrative burden is a key factor contributing to clinician burnout, leading to lower job satisfaction and, in some cases, burnout-related departures from the field.

Suki’s mission has been to alleviate this burden by automating and streamlining administrative tasks. The new features—patient summarization and Q&A—are directly aimed at reducing the time spent on administrative work and enhancing the clinician’s ability to make informed decisions quickly. By providing fast, relevant insights, Suki helps clinicians regain valuable time that would otherwise be spent searching for patient information or reviewing individual encounter notes.

Additionally, Suki’s integration with Google Cloud allows for the use of cutting-edge AI tools that improve accuracy and reduce the time needed to complete various tasks. This is part of a larger trend of AI-ification in healthcare, where AI technologies are gradually taking over time-consuming tasks that traditionally burden clinicians.

The future of Suki: What lies ahead

The goal is to stay at the forefront of AI-driven healthcare solutions, with the patient summary and Q&A features serving as just the beginning. The company plans to expand its capabilities by integrating more AI models and enhancing tools for greater clinician support.

A future is envisioned where healthcare professionals can focus more on patient care, reducing administrative tasks through the use of AI and cloud computing to transform healthcare workflows.

Recent milestones, including a $70 million funding round and a tripled customer base in the past year, highlight the growing demand for AI-powered solutions that ease administrative burdens and enhance patient care.

A strong partnership with Google Cloud

The collaboration with Google Cloud has been instrumental in developing these new features. Google Cloud’s advanced AI technologies, including the Gemini model, enable Suki to create tools that quickly search vast datasets and summarize patient information, making data-driven decisions more accessible for clinicians.

Google Cloud’s AI has already transformed other industries, and its application in healthcare is expanding rapidly. The ability to search across diverse data sources and formats is crucial in the medical field, where quick access to accurate, up-to-date information is vital.

Both companies are dedicated to advancing AI in healthcare. As Suki continues to enhance its platform and introduce new features, the potential for improving healthcare delivery and alleviating clinician burnout is significant.

The integration of AI into healthcare workflows promises to enhance efficiency, effectiveness, and patient care. Suki’s new patient summary and Q&A features mark the beginning of this transformation. As technology advances, its impact on both healthcare professionals and patients will be significant.

By alleviating administrative burdens and offering clinicians immediate access to crucial data, Suki’s AI assistant is helping shape the future of healthcare. Through its partnership with Google Cloud, Suki is poised to lead the way in AI-driven healthcare solutions.