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Physicians across Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN) now have access to artificial intelligence (AI) scribe technology to reduce time spent on clinical documentation and create more opportunities to focus directly on patients. The organization-wide deployment builds on an initial implementation with physicians in the Emergency Department (ED).
AI scribe apps use digital tools to capture a clinical conversation and generate a draft clinical note. Physicians then review, edit and approve the documentation before it becomes part of the patient’s record.
Led by the CareNext Team in partnership with clinical, Digital, Privacy, Cybersecurity and other organizational partners, the AI Scribe initiative was designed around a simple clinical challenge: helping physicians spend more time with patients and less time on documentation.
“Clinicians come to work because they want to care for patients, not spend their evenings catching up on documentation,” says Dr. Payal Agarwal, Chief Medical Information & Innovation Officer, WRHN. “AI scribe is an opportunity to reduce some of that administrative burden and help physicians spend more time looking at their patients, listening to them and providing care. It can bring some of the joy back into clinical practice.”
The initial implementation in the ED provided an important opportunity to understand the technology in a clinical environment. Physicians reported being able to maintain eye contact and have more natural conversations with patients, while completing much of their documentation in real time. In some cases, physicians reported leaving the patient’s room with much of their documentation already prepared.
The initiative began with physicians in the ED, providing an important environment to test, learn and refine WRHN’s approach. Building on that experience, AI Scribe has now been deployed across the organization, giving physicians access to approved solutions within an established clinical, privacy, security and governance framework.
“Our CareNext team led this work with a clear focus on solving a real challenge for clinicians and creating an approach that could scale,” says Danina Kapetanovic, Vice President, Innovation and AI Strategy and Chief Health Innovation Officer, WRHN. “By starting with physicians in the Emergency Department, we were able to learn, adapt and build the right supports around the technology. Moving from that initial implementation to organization wide deployment demonstrates what’s possible when innovation is grounded in the needs of the people delivering care.”
Ensuring patients are informed and provide consent along with privacy and security were key considerations throughout the implementation.
WRHN completed privacy and cybersecurity assessments as part of its due diligence, including reviewing how information is collected, stored and handled and requires data to remain in Canada. Information held by the scribe is retained only for a predetermined period before recordings are deleted.
Importantly, AI scribe does not replace the physician’s professional responsibility. The technology produces a draft, but the physician remains accountable for reviewing the documentation and approving the final note.
“AI is a tool to support the clinician — it does not replace clinical judgment or accountability,” says Dr. Agarwal. “If a physician signs a note, they are responsible for what is in that note. That principle was fundamental to how we designed our approach.”
“Introducing AI into healthcare requires strong digital foundations,” says Danielle Sanagan, Vice President, Digital & Chief Information Officer, WRHN. “Protecting patient information, assessing cybersecurity risks and ensuring the technology can be introduced responsibly are critical to enabling innovations like AI Scribe to scale across the organization.”
The organization wide deployment of AI scribe is one of the ways WRHN is advancing its strategic priorities of Advancing Personalized Care and Building Our Network for Better Health, enabled by innovation through emerging technology to improve care, support its workforce and build a more efficient, sustainable healthcare system.
It also reflects the Ontario government’s focus on actively integrating AI into healthcare to reduce administrative work for clinicians, accelerate access to innovative technology and strengthen digital health across the system. WRHN is putting that direction into practice through an established pathway for clinicians to access and use approved AI tools while maintaining appropriate clinical, privacy, security and governance oversight.
WRHN’s organization-wide approach does not rely on a single technology. Physicians can use approved solutions while the organization continues to evaluate the rapidly changing AI market. WRHN has established an ongoing review process so new technologies and clinician feedback can be considered over time. The organization is also monitoring longer-term impacts, including how AI-generated documentation affects discrete information in the clinical record, coding, reporting, research and future opportunities for deeper integration with clinical systems.
“AI Scribe has been about much more than implementing a single technology,” says Danina Kapetanovic, Vice President, Innovation and AI Strategy and Chief Health Innovation Officer, WRHN. “Through this work, we have built the governance, processes and infrastructure needed to evaluate, introduce and scale AI responsibly across WRHN. That foundation now gives us a more coordinated organizational approach for evaluating AI opportunities and moving those that demonstrate value toward responsible adoption at scale.”
Through AI Scribe, WRHN has not only introduced technology that supports physicians today, but strengthened the organizational capability needed to responsibly evaluate, adopt and scale AI. The governance, processes, infrastructure and experience developed through this work provide a foundation for WRHN’s continued adoption of AI and other emerging technologies.
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About Waterloo Regional Health Network
Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN, pronounced wren) represents the merger of two Hospitals into a single, integrated healthcare organization. Built on over 90 years of partnership, WRHN is home to seven regional programs and comprehensive healthcare services to meet the current and emerging needs in Waterloo-Wellington and beyond. WRHN is redefining the healthcare experience through collaboration and innovation, addressing barriers to access, advancing care delivery, and setting new standards in compassionate, empowered, community-driven healthcare. At WRHN, we provide outstanding care that’s personal, seamless, and reimagined. Learn more at WRHN.ca.
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