When a patient walks into a doctor’s office today, they might notice something is missing: the frantic clicking of a keyboard. In exam rooms across Ontario, the traditional image of a physician hunched over a laptop is being replaced by eye contact, active listening, and a small, unobtrusive digital assistant known as an ambient artificial intelligence (AI) scribe.
Key Takeaways |
| Restoring the human connection: By automating real-time notes, Ontario doctors are spending less time behind screens and more time on active listening, demonstrating increased empathy, significantly boosting patient trust and satisfaction. |
| Ending “pajama time”: Ambient AI can reduce documentation time by up to 70%. For many clinicians, this means saving 3 to 4 hours per week and completing charts during work hours rather than at home. |
| Human oversight is vital: While AI streamlines the process, it isn't perfect. Clinicians must remain “in the loop” to review drafts for accuracy, ensuring that potential AI “hallucinations” or omissions are corrected before finalizing the record. |
For many patients in Ontario, the impact of this technology is immediate and deeply felt. The typical scene of a physician divided between a patient and a computer screen is being replaced by a more traditional, face-to-face interaction. Because the AI scribe handles the real-time transcription and summarization of clinical details into structured notes, doctors are no longer required to spend half the visit focused on data entry. Patients frequently report that these sessions feel like a return to an earlier era of medicine, one where the physician’s undivided attention provides a stronger empathetic connection.
The Ontario AI Scribe Program: Putting Patients Before Paperwork
Ontario is currently at the forefront of this digital shift. Through a partnership between OntarioMD (OMD), Supply Ontario, and the Ministry of Health, the province has established the Ontario AI Scribe Program1. This initiative helps clinicians navigate the rapidly evolving AI market by identifying prequalified vendors that meet strict provincial requirements for clinical function, privacy, and data security.
By taking the guesswork out of sourcing technology, the program allows doctors to focus on what they do best—caring for patients—while ensuring that personal health information remains encrypted and protected. OMD further supports this transition by providing free change management advice, helping clinics integrate these tools into their daily workflows without disrupting care.
Beyond Efficiency: Are We Measuring What Matters?
While the primary promise of AI scribes is reducing the administrative burden and physician burnout, researchers are beginning to look deeper. In a recent editorial published in JMIR Medical Informatics, experts Enrico Coiera and David Fraile-Navarro ask a critical question: “Are we measuring what matters?”2
Documentation time is clearly decreasing, and clinician satisfaction is up, but the scientific community is now turning its attention to the nuances of safety and clinical reasoning.
1. The Safety Profile of AI vs Human Error
Ha and colleagues, in research featured in JMIR Human Factors3, highlight that no AI system is error-free. However, the type of error matters. While a human doctor might lose focus due to fatigue, an AI might “hallucinate”, confidently fabricating a medication or symptom that wasn't mentioned or omitting a detail in the pursuit of conciseness.
2. Documentation as a Cognitive Process
Note-taking isn't just administrative; it’s how doctors think. When a physician writes a summary, they are prioritizing information and testing hypotheses. Researchers are now exploring whether “outsourcing” this task to an AI alters the human sensemaking process. Does documenting faster mean we are documenting differently?
3. The Patient Perspective and Trust
A survey by Leiserowitz et al4 in JMIR Medical Informatics showed that while patients generally welcome AI scribes if they help the doctor focus, there is a “trust gap” to monitor. A meaningful number of patients indicated they might withhold sensitive information if they knew an “always-listening” device was present.
A Call for Evidence-Based Innovation
Because ambient AI technologies have sidestepped traditional medical device regulations in many regions, they have proliferated at a pace rarely seen in health care. JMIR Medical Informatics has issued a Call for Papers titled Ambient AI Scribes and AI-Driven Documentation Technologies to build a robust evidence base for these tools.
The journal is seeking original research on:
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Accuracy and bias: How do these tools perform across different languages, accents, and medical specialties?
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Integration: How can AI scribes best “talk” to existing hospital systems and patient portals?
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Training: How do we teach the next generation of medical students to use these tools without losing their own clinical reasoning skills?
Conclusion: The Human Heart of High-Tech Care
AI might be the new “assistant in the room,” but as the Ontario experience shows, the goal isn't to replace the physician. Instead, the technology handles the routine tasks so the doctor can do what no algorithm can: empathize, interpret, and connect.
Documentation burden is a real crisis in modern medicine. By moving toward a “Healthcare 5.0” model, one that balances real-time monitoring with privacy compliance, we can ensure that the time saved by AI translates directly into better, more human-centric care.
Expanding the Horizon: More on AI Scribes from JMIR
The exploration of ambient AI is a rapidly expanding field, and JMIR Publications is at the center of the discourse. For those looking to dive deeper into the technical and ethical nuances of this technology, we recommend exploring further research in JMIR Medical Informatics.
Sources:
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Information regarding vendor requirements and provincial procurement for the Ontario AI Scribe Program was sourced from the OntarioMD Practice Hub: https://omdpracticehub.com/learn/ai-scribe-program/
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Coiera E, Fraile-Navarro D. AI Scribes: Are We Measuring What Matters? JMIR Med Inform. 2026;14:e89337. DOI: 10.2196/89337
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Ha E, Choon-Kon-Yune I, Murray L, Luan S, Montague E, Bhattacharyya O, Agarwal P. Evaluating the Usability, Technical Performance, and Accuracy of Artificial Intelligence Scribes for Primary Care: Competitive Analysis. JMIR Hum Factors. 2025;12:e71434. DOI: 10.2196/71434
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Leiserowitz G, Mansfield J, MacDonald S, Jost M. Patient Attitudes Toward Ambient Voice Technology: Preimplementation Patient Survey in an Academic Medical Center. JMIR Med Inform. 2025;13:e77901. DOI: 10.2196/77901
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