The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is launching a pilot to evaluate the use of Ambient Voice Technology (AVT) in its emergency departments (ED), supported by NHS England.

The 12-month pilot will assess how AVT – which uses speech to text artificial intelligence (AI) to capture consultations and produce accurate notes and letters for clinician approval – can improve care by reducing documentation burden in high-pressure, urgent-care environments, while supporting better communication between hospital and primary care teams. 

Learning from the pilot will be shared to help shape national policy and inform wider NHS adoption.

ED has been selected for the pilot to demonstrate the potential of AVT to free up clinician time, improve patient flow and enhance safety in urgent settings. 

The pilot forms part of a Trust-wide evaluation of its AVT rollout, conducted in partnership with the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Sustainable Innovation and the University of Exeter, to thoroughly evaluate its impact and ensure it continues to advance quality of care and meets rigorous assurance standards.

Dr Steve Trowell, Director of Digital Transformation for NHS England SW region said “There is huge potential for AI scribes when safely and reliably delivered, to improve the quality and experience of care for both staff and patients. We are pleased to be working with Royal Devon to support its implementation and further understand the impact further on healthcare delivery”.

Dr Nick Kennedy, Digital Innovation and AI Lead at the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre (HRC) in Sustainable Innovation, added: “Evaluation is essential to understanding how technologies like Ambient Voice Technology can genuinely improve clinical care. By building trusted evidence on what works for both patients and clinicians, we can support the adoption of digital tools that save time, improve communication and contribute to delivering high‑quality care for even more patients.”

This builds on the Royal Devon’s national leadership, having become the first Trust to fully integrate AVT into its Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system, Epic.

Since its launch in September, AVT has already supported over 2,700 outpatient consultations at the Royal Devon – with positive feedback from patients on the quality of appointments and records, and clinicians reporting improved accuracy of documentation and more time available to see patients.

Once fully rolled out, AVT could support around 15,000 additional outpatient appointments at the Royal Devon each year, helping to transform care and reduce waiting times.

Professor Adrian Harris, Chief Medical Officer for Digital and Research at Royal Devon, said: “We’re already seeing the benefits that Ambient Voice Technology can bring in outpatients. It could transform emergency and urgent care, by allowing clinicians to focus on what they do best – treating patients – whilst speeding up processes and ensuring that patient notes are accurate. Our priority is to test and evaluate how the technology performs in ED to ensure clinical safety and effectiveness.”