In this final episode, we explore how ambient/AI scribe tools, agentic AI and tight EPR integration can remove “grit” from clinical workflows while protecting the cognitive space clinicians need to think.
PODCAST - THE DRDOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW
From Letters to Lifelines: A Conversation with Oxleas NHS Trust, Episode 3
What was covered?
- Ambient/AI scribes are promising but unfinished: Core capability exists, but the last 5–10% (identity context, EPR data pull-through, admin niceties) determines real value and adoption
- Friction kills adoption: Tiny annoyances aggregating into “marginal pain” that erodes clinician goodwill
- Protect clinicians’ thinking time: If AI drafts notes, we still need to make space for reflection previously embedded in manual write-ups
- Prompt engineering as operating discipline: Prompts are the practical bridge between policy and reality; overfitting prompts to one team harms generalisability
- Pathway redesign > bolt-ons: Why we should aim for standardised capabilities applied across settings and full “vertical” pathway changes
- Risk, agility and feedback loops: Enabling safe experimentation by starting small, instrumenting feedback, and building an organisational “nervous system” to course-correct quickly
- Personalisation at scale: Moving beyond “letters” to structured data and interfaces patients choose (text, voice, avatars)
- Culture is the unlock: Successful change blends operational, financial and clinical rationales, shared learning across Trusts, and design literacy