Lawsuit: AI illegally recorded doctor-patient encounters

A proposed federal class action lawsuit alleges two California healthcare organizations violated patient privacy laws in their use of an artificial intelligence-enabled tool that records, transcribes, and processes sensitive conversations between clinicians and patients.

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The April 8 lawsuit alleges that Sutter Health and MemorialCare Medical Foundation violated California privacy, medical information confidentiality and unfair business practices laws, as well as a federal wiretapping law, in their use during patient appointments of an AI-enabled recording tool by Abridge AI.

“Through this system, highly sensitive medical communications were intercepted, recorded and processed without patients’ informed consent,” allege plaintiffs in San Francisco federal court. The suit targets medical use of an “ambient clinical documentation” system developed by Abridge AI, a Philadelphia startup described by a co-founder as “SoundCloud plus RapGenius for medicine.”

Read more at Healthcare Info Security