What is Patchs AI?
Patchs AI is an optional feature of Patchs that automates triage, workflow, and signposting.
The aim of Patchs AI is to reduce GP practice workload and improve patient safety.
Patchs AI has been available since January 2021, and all GP practices that use it have found it both useful and safe.
There are different Patchs AI modules, which do different things:
- Urgency AI flags patient requests as urgent or emergency as soon as they are submitted.
- Signpost AI signposts patients away to self-care, NHS 111, or emergency services as appropriate.
- Topic AI works out the clinical topics of a patient request and can be used to send patients messages before they submit their request including questionnaire or advice templates, and Pharmacy First information.
- Assign AI assigns requests to a ‘Clinical’ inbox if they need input from a clinician.
- Face-to-Face (F2F) AI highlights requests that may need an in-person consultation so they can be booked in sooner.
🚀 NEW - AI CARE NAVIGATOR! Patchs AI modules can now be combined and their actions tailored to suit the way you work and local pathways using the AI Care Navigator.
How does Patchs AI work?
Patchs AI uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and both deep and shallow machine learning to analyse free text responses from patients.
It has been ‘taught’ how to do this by the triage decisions made by GP practice staff using Patchs each time they process real life patient requests (this is called supervised learning), and through other unsupervised learning techniques.
In addition to the free text written by patients, Patchs AI also analyses the type of request chosen by the patient (e.g. health problem vs admin), and their age and sex to make its decisions.
Patchs is not a keyword search or pre-programmed algorithm, though for certain AI modules we sometimes use algorithmic approaches to improve performance.
Patchs AI has learned from the experience of hundreds of Patchs users across the country who have triaged thousands of real patient requests (see: the wisdom of the Crowd). And it's learning more every day - each time a user makes a triage decision they are teaching Patchs how to triage similar patient requests in future.
Because Patchs AI makes clinical decisions, we primarily use triage decisions made by clinicians to teach Patchs AI rather than triage decisions from non-clinical staff (although we do use triage decisions made by non-clinical staff when they don’t need clinical input).
Therefore when a request needs clinical input, GP practices must assign requests to clinicians within Patchs so they can add triage decisions.
Patchs AI can therefore deal with real-world patient health problems, spelling mistakes, and uncertainty - all of which are essential for General Practice.
However, just like the humans that teach it, Patchs AI isn’t perfect. It isn’t 100% accurate – nothing is.
How is Patchs AI regulated? Is it safe?
Patchs AI is considered a Class I Medical Device because it offers ‘triage and signposting of next steps based on filters by severity and probability of a match’, but without ‘direct diagnosis’.
It is registered with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and is UKCA marked.
This means we undertake rigorous clinical evaluations and safety assessments before releasing PATCHS AI modules to customers, and conduct ongoing post-market surveillance after they are released.
This process includes multiple stages of testing including on historic patient requests, newly collected patient requests, interviews with staff and patients, and direct comparisons with GPs.
Because Patchs AI is used in the NHS, it is also governed by DCB0129: Clinical Risk Management: its Application in the Manufacture of Health IT Systems. It regularly undergoes clinical risk assessment and has its own Clinical Safety Case Report, which should be read and understood by GP practices before it is used.
How should Patchs AI be used by GP practices?
Patchs AI is meant to assist, not replace, human decision-making.
Because Patchs AI isn’t 100% accurate, staff should therefore still read, respond, and triage all patient messages as soon possible.
How does Patchs AI work? Is it complicated to activate Patchs AI?
No, it’s straightforward.
You can enable Patchs AI with just a click on your 'Feature settings' page, accessed via 'Edit Practice.' For a detailed guide on how to enable these features, go to this page.
Is additional training required to use Patchs AI?
No. As a UKCA-marked Class I Medical Device, Patchs AI is straightforward and safe to use.
Simply familiarise yourself with the relevant Patchs AI help pages and AI clinical safety documentation.
There are recommended eLearning modules available via elearning@oneadvanced.com should you wish to use them, but these are optional.
Do we have to change how we work to use Patchs AI?
No. Patchs AI automates tasks that you already do - including triage, signposting, assigning requests, booking appointments, asking patients questions and giving them advice.
You can also customise Patchs AI to align with your local pathways using the AI Care Navigator so it works exactly how you want it to.
Are there any success stories using Patchs AI?
Yes! Hundreds of general practices the country are already experiencing the benefits of Patchs AI. Here's what some of them have had to say:
🌟 “Whenever there is a red flag highlighted by Patchs AI... I’ll think, hang on, let me just pop in and just make sure… When we didn’t have that AI, we could be scrolling through the list before we found something urgent…” Receptionist, London
🌟 “Artificial intelligence and electronic consultations are the future of communicating with our patients. Patchs is able to integrate all of these into one system.” GP, Leeds
How does Patchs AI work with Patchs Translate and Telephone Assistant?
Patchs is primarily meant to be used in English. However, GP practices can choose to use Patchs Translate. This feature allows patients to submit requests in non-English languages that are then automatically translated into English by Patchs.
Patchs AI has primarily learned from requests written by patients in English, so non-English language requests are first translated to English then analysed by Patchs AI. This may reduce the accuracy of Patchs AI.
To make translated patient requests quicker and easier to identify, there is a language icon next to them in the Patchs inbox.
Patchs Telephone Assistant allows patients to use the telephone to submit Patchs requests by speaking to an automated voice assistant.
Their voice message is then automatically transcribed into a written message, which can be analysed by Urgency AI, Signpost AI, Assign AI, and Face-to-Face (F2F) AI.
Patchs AI has primarily learned from requests written by patients, not spoken by them. Therefore, Patchs AI may be less accurate when analysing messages submitted via Telephone Assistant.
How is Patchs AI kept up to date?
We constantly monitor the performance of Patchs AI using triage decisions made by GP practice staff.
If GP practice staff change a decision made by Patchs AI, we consider Patchs AI to have been incorrect. As we collect more data, we use it to re-train Patchs AI to keep it up to date.
Periodically, we release these new versions of Patchs AI - but only once we are satisfied they perform better than older versions.
What work are we doing on the use of AI in general?
The use of AI in clinical care is a developing and fast-moving area. Patchs is at the forefront in terms of AI research, practice, and regulation.
We are working with NHS Digital on how best to assure AI in online consultations, using Patchs as an exemplar. We are also preparing peer-reviewed scientific publications about Patchs AI with The University of Manchester.