Please provide the following recorded information about ambient voice technology (also called AI scribes or ambient documentation tools – software that listens to clinical consultations and drafts notes or letters). Questions 1 and 2 cover use by GP practices in your area as well as by the ICB itself.
- Does the ICB currently use, pilot, commission, fund, or approve for use any ambient voice technology product, including any product approved for use by practices in your area whether or not the ICB commissioned it? If yes, which product(s) and supplier(s)?
- Whether the ICB holds any of the following recorded information about the use of such products by practices in its area: (a) a register or list of practices using them; (b) a DPIA or DTAC assessment; (c) an information governance sign-off or approval decision; (d) a funding or reimbursement decision; (e) guidance or a position statement; (f) correspondence with suppliers. Please state for each whether it is held. If the ICB holds none of them, please confirm that explicitly.
If the ICB holds no contract of its own, questions 3 to 8 can simply be answered “not applicable”.
- For each product the ICB holds a contract for: the contract start date, end date, and total contract value. If the exact value cannot be disclosed in full, a banded figure or the Contracts Finder notice reference is sufficient.
- For each product: the number of licences or seats procured. If the contract is priced by consumption rather than by seat, the units purchased instead (for example hours per year).
- For each product, and separately from question 4: (a) the number of clinicians trained to use it, and (b) the number of clinicians who actively used it in the most recent month for which you hold data.
- The number of patient safety incidents recorded in your incident reporting system (for example LFPSE or Datix) in which an ambient voice technology product is referenced, from 1 January 2024 to the date of this request. A count is sufficient. If your system cannot break incidents down to product level, please say so.
- For each product: whether it records audio, processes it locally, or transmits it to a third party, and where it is processed and stored (UK, EEA, other); and the retention period for (a) the audio recordings and (b) the transcripts, stated separately, as recorded in a DPIA or contract.
- Whether patients are informed the technology is in use, and by what mechanism (verbal consent, implied consent, posters, opt-out, other), as recorded in a DPIA or SOP. If recorded, the number or proportion of patients who declined its use in any period for which you hold data. A single figure or “not recorded” is sufficient.
