Introduction: Digital scribes are increasingly used in healthcare for clinical documentation. Using natural language processing and generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology, digital scribes utilise automatic speech recognition to transcribe a clinician-patient conversation and summarise the transcript into relevant documentation templates. Whilst it is widely discussed that the use of digital scribes in clinical practice can help reduce documentation burden and improve clinicians’ workload, there is limited evidence on whether these intended benefits are realised when adopted in clinical settings. With more digital scribe products being commercially available, there is a need to better understand the barriers and facilitators of adopting digital scribes, and the impacts of digital scribes on patients, clinicians, and health organisations.
Aim: This scoping review aims to survey and summarise recent literature published on the factors impacting the adoption of digital scribes and the impact of using digital scribes on patients, clinicians, and health organisations.
Methods: Relevant literature will be searched through five bibliographic databases, and results will be reported following the PRISMA-ScR guideline. The review will include any original research papers or case studies that describe and evaluate the implementation of a digital scribe product in real-life healthcare setting. Literature search has commenced in October 2024 and results will be available by December 2024.
Expected contribution: Results from this scoping review will inform health organisations and clinicians whether digital scribes should be used in clinical practices. Additionally, these findings will guide future research evaluating the implementation and clinical utility of digital scribes."