AI reduces clinician burnout at Mass General Brigham, Emory: Study

The use of ambient AI scribes led to a sharp drop in burnout and an increase in well-being among clinicians at Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham and Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare, a new study found.

The health systems surveyed over 1,400 physicians and advanced practice providers who were piloting ambient documenting technology in 2023 and 2024. Adoption of the AI was associated with a 21% decline in burnout prevalence at Mass General Brigham and a 30.7% rise in documentation-related wellbeing at Emory, according to the research published Aug. 21 in JAMA Network Open.

“Given the work that we’ve done and others have done, [ambient AI] is looked at as one of the most significant interventions on clinician burnout that has ever come to fruition — technology or otherwise,” Rebecca Mishruis, MD, vice president and chief medical information officer at Mass General Brigham, told Becker’s. “The significant reduction in burnout we’re seeing from ambient documentation is really unlike any of the other interventions that have been put forward in the past.”

Those include in-person and virtual scribes and dictation programs, which have also been more financially and logistically challenging, said the study’s lead author, Jacqueline You, MD, digital clinical lead at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“About half of physicians in the U.S. are burned out,” she said. “Being able to intervene on burnout has implications on everything from the mental health of our clinicians, the care they are able to deliver, and being focused and patient-centered in the things they do. Patient safety also is impacted when you are able to impact burnout. It has so many downstream effects, which is why being able to address burnout by addressing documentation burden … is monumentally important.”

Drs. Mishuris and You said this is believed to be the largest study of its kind to specifically examine ambient AI’s effects on burnout. Mass General Brigham uses Abridge and Microsoft’s Nuance for the technology, while Emory employs Abridge (Mass General Brigham has also invested in Abridge).

A study limitation included the relatively small number of providers who responded to the pre- and postsurveys (Emory had an 11% response rate, while Mass General Brigham had response rates of 30% at 42 days and 22% at 84 days). Dr. Mishuris said she would also like to research the exact mechanisms that cause burnout to lessen from AI.

“This is a very exciting space and exciting time for ambient documentation and being able to use generative AI technology to impact clinician experience,” Dr. You said. “Ultimately, we’re hoping with future work to look at areas like patient experience to really understand the broader impact of a very exciting technology that is already transforming the way we do medicine and, I think, will also transform a lot more clinical workflows.”

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