How a Minnesota Psychiatrist Uses AI to Support Neuropsychiatric Care

The Challenge: Time and Focus Wasted

Like most physicians, Dr. Gould sees a large number of patients every day, conducting back-to-back examination appointments. His role as a psychiatrist in a rehabilitation facility requires him to synthesize large amounts of information from multiple sources: patient personal histories, prior treatment notes, chart notes of a patient’s other illnesses, behavioral observations, and other structured documentation. He faced several frustrations:

• • Time-intensive recaps: Traditional write-ups are lengthy and time-consuming. Transforming their disorganized information into a succinct, meaningful account of the session was inefficient and burdensome.

• • Accuracy concerns: Traditional charting perpetuates inaccuracies and causes their content to become bland and information-poor. Plus, patients occasionally pointed out misunderstandings and inaccuracies that were introduced by another provider but which get perpetuated endlessly.

• • Growing workload: In addition to his individual work, Dr. Gould understands that complete clinical documentation that is accurate and timely benefits the other physicians using the same medical record for this patient. The ability to capture all interactions, such as discussions of lab results, telephone calls, letters, and emails, adds to the value of the record immensely.  

The Solution: Plaud’s Contextual AI Note-Taker 

Shortly after its introduction two years ago, Dr. Gould began using Plaud as the way to streamline his day-to-day work. He began using Plaud Note and then NotePro to capture live and telemedical visits, academic lectures, and patient-centered literature research reviews, and found he could extract additional insights, and better utilize the information present in the medical record for greater benefits to his patients:

• • Combined note-taking: Dr. Gould prefers to take brief handwritten notes of his thoughts and impressions along with the more complete record of the session contained in Plaud. 

• • Searchable transcripts: With accurate context-rich transcriptions, Dr. Gould can quickly revisit past conversations, ensuring continuity and clarity in patient care. 

• • Wearable convenience: Dr. Gould’s interactions with his patients are generally stationary, so setting the Note or NotePro in one place works well for him. But if he wanted to move around the exam room, he has the option of clipping the NotePin device discreetly to his shirt or jacket, blending into his routine without distraction. 

The Impact: Attention Where It’s Needed

With Plaud, Dr. Gould experienced significant improvements in his work and daily professional life:

• • Time saved with templates: Using Plaud's doctor-patient summary templates. Dr. Gould cut down on repetitive administrative tasks, improved diagnostic accuracy, and kept better organized, more complete patient notes.
    

• • Improved accuracy: Having searchable, detailed transcriptions meant better continuity with fewer ongoing errors and greater confidence in the medical documentation.
    

• • Security and peace of mind. HIPAA-compliant data handling assured Dr. Gould that sensitive Protected Health Information always remains private and secure. 

Looking Ahead

While Plaud is primarily a tool for note-taking, it also opens the door to increasing levels of AI-enhanced clinical information management and improved patient care. AI is capable of finding unsuspected correlations and patterns hidden in the vast amounts of data that health care generates. It can also improve the precision and reliability of patient-reported data, improving its use in diagnostic assessment and medication management. Accessible innovative devices like Plaud enable physicians to do more without requiring major changes in the existing technologies of local healthcare. It is the ideal incremental advancement.