How AI Helps Streamline Medical Record Summaries

When it comes to the “iron triangle” points of time, cost, and quality, we’re often asked to choose which one should be sacrificed. AI’s ability to streamline medical record summarization, however, is a shift that can benefit you in all three areas. 

AI integration provides the opportunity to boost speed, lower costs, and improve access to strategic insights. While any change in workflow requires an initial investment of time and energy, the ongoing benefits of AI-powered medical summaries can enhance case preparation, efficiency, and client service.

The Growing Need for Medical Record Summarization in Legal Cases

Individual medical record fragments can be filled with jargon, incomplete details, and difficult-to-connect elements that impact narrative sequences, cause and effect factors, and other data that can steer legal arguments. 

Legal teams need succinct and incisive medical record summaries that provide clarity and cohesion to prepare for cases. 

What Comprises Medical Records?

Records retrieval can produce a wide range of file types and a large volume of results. For legal purposes, medical records: 

• Include individually identifiable data
• Document and/or advise on health status, changes, actions, and needs
• Can be captured and recorded in text or by audio, visual, or other means
• May be stored on analog or digital file in any format

Multiplicity and Diversity of Records

When it comes to medical records, keep in mind the plurality of “records.” There is no single location that contains all records in a unified state for the vast majority of individuals. 

Instead, you may find records in various levels of detail from sources, including: 

• Hospitals, clinics, and community health organizations
• Doctors, nurse practitioners, and other providers (or their practice groups)
• Medical testing and diagnostic centers
• Individual specialists and technicians performing or consulting on tests or procedures
• Ambulance providers
• Pharmacies and medical supply providers
• Home health care providers
• Rehabilitation, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities
• Physical, occupational, and other therapy providers
• Clients/patients directly

Challenges of Manual Summarization

Each source for medical records can vary in how information is captured and documented, and it can be challenging to fit very diverse puzzle pieces into a comprehensive narrative.

Assigning a professional with the right skills to review all files and summarize their findings poses challenges including: 

• Time to review, sort, and analyze files, which can delay legal matters
• Cost of outsourcing to professionals trained to review and summarize medical files 

How AI Improves Medical Record Summarization

AI offers a different path to arriving at medical records summaries, with more consistent results in less time. There are two primary approaches¹:

• Extractive – The AI identifies key phrases and data points using natural language generation (NLG), then extracts and combines them into a summary, providing an exact connection from the summary to the original file. 

• Abstractive – In addition to identifying important data, the AI goes a step further. It creates a summary that doesn’t just repeat extracted content but employs newly written text using its own interpretation, incorporating the knowledge base it was trained on. This technique relies on scoring and ranking data based on importance and relevance.

Each approach has benefits and applications, but extractive summarization is more common and more easily compliant.

Speed and Efficiency

When you break down the steps and output needs of a medical records analysis and summary, it can take a significant amount of human hours to complete—particularly keeping in mind the need to secure the right professional for the job and adapt to their availability and business hours. 

With AI tools, both the work assignment and the work itself can be boosted in speed. 

Paired with human oversight, AI automation can be used to²:

• Analyze and categorize records and the data within them
• Search for specific keywords, names, or dates
• Sort and organize key elements
• Index the source document and hyperlink text 
• Create chronological timeline of conditions and treatments 
• Deliver records in the desired document format with the ability to search and edit

Accuracy and Consistency

AI is also tasked with delivering improved accuracy and consistency for medical record summaries by helping to eliminate: 

• Miscommunication
• Work interruptions
• Attention span limits
• Visual fatigue

It can also be a game-changer for maintaining consistency, which can suffer in even the most diligent individuals by way of: 

• Gaps in training or education
• Lack of familiarity with less common procedural and practice jargon
• Differing interpretations of regional and institutional language and presentations

AI can reduce human errors and omissions, paving the way for more accurate and consistent medical record summaries.

AI-Driven Categorization

Medical records from different sources, states, types of institutions, and time periods can be difficult to align, with diverse approaches to how, where, and in what detail each type of information is recorded. The use of AI can help cut through the clutter to quickly identify key data points and integrate the information seamlessly.

Key Benefits of AI-Powered Medical Record Summarization for Legal Teams

Implementing AI-powered medical record summarization is a win-win opportunity for legal teams. Consider: 

• Faster case preparation – Personal injury, malpractice, and insurance claims are time-consuming. By integrating AI into medical records analysis and summarization, firms can receive faster results that drive case strategies—getting them to the negotiation table or courtroom more quickly.

• Improved compliance and security – With AI-driven handling, firms can close the loop on compliance within secure systems. Fewer hard copy files to manage, fewer hands touching patient documents, and trackable footprints of all access help maintain HIPAA compliance (including the ePHI Security Rule) and other requirements.

• Cost savings – Compared to manual summarization, AI medical records summaries reduce case preparation costs, benefiting both firms and clients. Your firm may be able to take on more cases or more complex cases that would have otherwise been cost-prohibitive to manage.

Integrating AI-Enhanced Medical Record Summaries into Legal Workflows

Significant changes to a firm’s workflow and file management can be challenging. Law firms and insurance companies can adopt AI solutions more easily with: 

• Leader buy-in – Make sure you have support from leadership by communicating the time and cost-savings benefits along with the opportunity to better serve clients.

• Team champions – Invite members across departments or teams to become part of the championing and change-driving process before you begin, helping them understand how it will specifically benefit their workflow.

• Internal communication – Create a series of internal communications that provide a heads-up and ongoing information to keep everyone informed and reduce anxiety.

• Client communication – Share the good news with clients. It’s important to ensure they understand there will be human governance over the AI tools that your firm carefully integrates, as well as potential cost savings or enhanced services that benefit them. 

Choosing the Right AI Solution for Medical Record Summarization

The use of AI in the legal industry is fast-changing, with new offerings appearing overnight that can clutter the process of selecting the best fit for your firm. 

Look for these key features in a partner that provides AI-driven medical record tools:

• Records retrieval integration – Retrieving medical records can be a lengthy and frustrating process that takes place before summarization begins. A comprehensive provider that also offers medical record retrieval services can streamline the medical retrieval process.

• Security and compliance – Verify with potential partners that they and their system adhere to best-practice cybersecurity protocols, including HIPAA and SOC 2 Type 2 security compliance. Confirm that none of your data will be shared, stored, or used by open AI engines to train their models.

• Industry record – A proven history of reputable service within the legal industry, including expertise with medical malpractice, personal injury, and insurance matters.

• Access – A client-facing system that provides ease of access while tracking activity and interaction at a user level. 

When it comes to the finished work product, ensure these elements are included: 

• Abstract – A concise abstract that provides an overview of conditions, treatment details, outcomes, and impacts.

• Organization – Distinct sections such as medical conditions and events, medication and treatment modalities, involved practitioners, a timeline of conditions and treatments, and key medical records.

• Linked data – A live table of contents and links throughout that connect summary details to original records.

• Concerns – Identification of potential liability issues, such as delays in diagnosis, complications, discrepancies and gaps in records, and medical management errors.

• Image integration – Comprehensive capture of unstructured data elements, including images, handwritten notes, and other non-textual elements within the summary.

U.S. Legal Support Helps Legal Teams Optimize Medical Record Processing

Since 1996, U.S. Legal Support has provided top-notch litigation support services without resting on our laurels. Our dedication to providing the best client outcomes requires innovation, such as our RecordSummary Pro™ service. 

RecordSummary Pro leverages AI to extract key details from large volumes of medical records and generate thorough, accurate summaries organized into key sections with actionable intel—for a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the traditional cost. 

With clear, concise summaries delivered more quickly, you can accelerate your medical record review and analysis and spend more time on case strategy.

Plus, we provide secure medical and legal records retrieval and management, top-notch court reporting, realtime transcription, and trial support services. 

Learn more today about our medical records summary and other litigation services.

Sources: 

1. Arup Das. Abstractive vs Extractive Summarization: A Deep Dive into Summarization Techniques [LinkedIn post]. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/arupratandas_summarization-ai-naturallanguageprocessing-activity-7214717689393483776-SECc/?rcm=ACoAAACktY4B6ijeJPsepeWqVQgKl7ArOxNiweM 
2. Maruti Techlabs. New AI Powered Medical Records System to Speed Up Treatment . https://youtu.be/q80t7ljBzyw?si=bkZ8hCS_NvfbQcPV
3. Ground Labs. Protected health information: HIPAA facts & best practices. https://www.groundlabs.com/blog/personally-identifiable-information-hipaa-facts-best-practices-ground-labs/