Your voice technology questions answered

The technology is a digital tool that can listen to spoken words. It works in the background by listening (with your permission) to your discussion with your clinician. It then produces a summary of what has been said. After it has been checked, this summary can be used as the basis of medical notes and letters.

Some outpatient specialty clinics at CUH are currently piloting the technology.

The idea is that it will save time on typing up notes and letters, so clinicians have more opportunity for more face-to-face conversations with you. And, if time is saved from administrative tasks, clinicians might also be able to see more patients, so waiting times for appointments may be reduced.

The Trust is piloting the technology in the following outpatient clinics:

• Haematology
• Oncology
• Paediatrics - Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)
• Urology
• Gynaecology medical oncology
• Gynaecology oncology

The pilot is being evaluated by CUH in partnership with The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute at the University of Cambridge. THIS Institute is funded by a charity - The Health Foundation - to produce evidence about how to improve care in the NHS.

The idea of using the technology is that your time with your clinician will work better for you by enabling them to focus more on the conversation with you instead of typing and trying to make notes. That will also save valuable time. We are doing the pilot and the evaluation to see whether these possible benefits are delivered.

Yes. Your clinician will ask you whether you're happy for the technology to be used during your appointment. It's absolutely fine to say "No". It's entirely your decision and will not affect anything about your care.

Yes. As part of the evaluation process, the Trust will be placing observers in consultations to understand how clinicians use their time to capture clinical documentation with and without the new voice technology. The observers will not be collecting any information related to patients. Your clinician will ask you whether you're happy for an observer to be present during your appointment. It is absolutely fine to say "No". It's entirely your decision and will not affect anything about your care.

The new voice technology at CUH is provided by Heidi Heath (heidihealth.com) with strict security protocols. All data is encrypted and locally hosted within the UK according to NHS and UK data protection (GDPR) regulations.

Information management systems are ISO27001 accredited for data security.

Access to information is limited to authorised staff and there are clear and robust audit trails. Infomation about the Trust's technology security is in the Trust's data policy.

No. Conversations are converted into text as they happen, so no recordings are ever stored. Only clinical discussions that are relevant to your care and documentation will be added to your electronic health record as standard. Personal, sensitive or private conversations that are not related to your medical care are not added to your health record.

We follow consent protocols in line with NHS guidance.

Modern voice technology systems use advanced speech recognition algorithms and natural language processing. While accuracy is high, clinicians will check notes and documents before they are finalised.

Your privacy is vital. You will be informed about the new voice technology being used at the start of your appointment. You can choose to continue your appointment without the technology being used to capture your conversation.

Only the information you share during the consultation is processed. Nothing extra is recorded or used.

Your information is encrypted and security handled, compliant with GDPR (data protection) and NHS standards. The system is regularly audited and holds required security certifications, including ISO27001, SOC2 and Cyber Essentials.

The technology system can only access information allowed by hospital policies and is designed to prevent unauthorised access and sharing of confidential patient information.

No. The technology is designed to help, not replace human interaction. It is aimed at supporting the clinician in their work by letting them spend less time on clinical documentation and typing.

Yes. The technology makes accessing information and communicating easier for clinicians who may find typing or manual data entry challenging, for example because of impairments or disability.

The technology is used to record and document your appointment conversation so it can form the basis of your electronic patient record (EPR). It can also be used to produce your clinic consultation follow-up letter.

Your clinician will review this letter before it is sent to you either by post or via MyChart if you have signed up to use our patient portal.

Further information is published on the MyChart page.

While the technology is active during your appointment session, it only captures and converts speech to summary notes when activated by your clinician after you have given your consent.

It does not record or store the audio once the notes are created and approved.

No. Non-clinical or personal use is not allowed.

Contact your clinical team or clinic using the information at the top of your appointment letter. You an also ask questions during your appointment.