Newswise — A new, multi-site study led by Yale School of Medicine researchers finds that use of ambient artificial intelligence (AI) scribes in ambulatory care clinics (outpatient medical care centers) significantly reduces physician burnout and administrative burden, while improving patient care.
Published in JAMA Network Open, the study evaluated 263 physicians and advanced practice practitioners across six U.S. health systems who used an AI scribe for 30 days. Results showed that the proportion of clinicians experiencing burnout dropped from 51.9% to 38.8%, with participants reporting less time spent documenting after hours, lower cognitive load, and greater ability to focus attention on patients.
These findings suggest that AI scribes may offer a promising way to reduce the crushing administrative demands that drive burnout, while freeing clinicians to focus on what matters most—caring for patients. There was a significant change in burnout scores that most interventions that attempt to reduce burnout are unsuccessful, said senior author Lee H. Schwamm, MD, associate dean of digital transformation at Yale School of Medicine (YSM), and senior vice president and chief digital health officer at Yale New Haven Health. Dr. Schwamm is also a professor of Neurology and Biomedical Informatics & Data Science at YSM. “As a result, providers could spend more time giving their undivided attention to patients during visits, something that benefits both patients and providers,” he said.
The study highlights potential applications of AI to address widespread clinician dissatisfaction with electronic health record documentation, a leading factor contributing to workforce attrition in healthcare.
Funding/Disclosures: The Abridge ambient AI intervention was funded by the individual participating institutions. Abridge AI facilitated data collection and provided pooled deidentified survey data to the analysis team at Yale but had no role in study design, data analysis, manuscript preparation, or publication decisions.
Article citation:
Olson KD, Meeker D, Troup M, Barker TD, Nguyen VH, Manders JB, Stults CD, Jones VG, Shah SD, Shah T, Schwamm LH. Use of Ambient AI Scribes to Reduce Administrative Burden and Professional Burnout. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(10):e2534976. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.34976
