NextGen announced several AI initiatives at their annual User Group Meeting, including the launch of their Ambient Assist product to help with clinical documentation. The company also promised more focus on stability, customers, and patient engagement.
The roller coasters and thrill rides in Orlando, FL were the perfect backdrop for the 26th edition of NextGen Healthcare’s annual User Group Meeting (#NextGenUGM23). It has been an up and down year for the ambulatory EHR maker and its customers in this ever changing climate. Their UGM was a chance to reset and chart a clearer path forward.
David Sides, Chief Executive Officer and Dr. Bob Murry, Chief Medical Officer did just that during their opening keynote.
Together, the pair made a slew of announcements aimed squarely at improving the lives of customers including: adding AI capabilities, patient engagement features, and more focus on product stability.
Ambient Assist
The big news item from Sides and Murry was Ambient Assist – the company’s new AI-powered ambient clinical voice solution. Ambient Assist runs on NextGen’s mobile platform and “listens” to the patient encounter. Using AI (powered by Nabla) it extracts the relevant clinical information and creates structured SOAP notes according to templates set up by users.
Ambient Assist promises time savings for clinicians who are buried with too much documentation. Several NextGen customers have high praise for the new solution. Candance Lemke, MS, RN, NP-C a Nurse Practitioner at Bowen Health, for example, had her comment enlarged on several signs displayed at the UGM.
Sides had a great term for the company’s push for more ambient clinical voice capabilities: “The Next User-Interface (UI), is no UI.”
Patient Self-Scheduling & Engagement
During the opening presentation, Dr. Murry spent time highlighting the investment the company has made in partnering with Luma Health. Together they are delivering the ability for patients to self-schedule appointments online.
“By partnering,” stated Dr. Murry. “We are helping to meet quickly changing patient expectations faster than trying to build everything from scratch.”
The partnership with Luma is also helping NextGen customers to improve patient engagement through conversational messaging, online forms, and financial workflows.
More Focus
Sides deftly answered the question that was surely top-of-mind for most members of the audience – what is the path forward now that NextGen is a private company after its acquisition by Thoma Bravo?
Using humor, Sides stated simply: “Well, we decided that it was time to join all our other EHR peers as a private company.” He quickly followed that up with a clear statement of what being private means for NextGen customers: “Being a private company means that we will now be able to focus on a few things and do them well, instead of being beholden to the next quarterly earnings call.”
Part of that focus will be on more AI capabilities for the NextGen platform. It also potentially means more focus on platform stability and smoother upgrades – at least that is what customers are hoping for.
Acknowledging Healthcare’s Challenges
Sides ended his presentation by acknowledging the big challenges that NextGen customers are facing. He named five challenges that he has personally heard raised from customers he has spoken with:
- Staffing
- Revenue
- Regulations
- Technology (specifically the pace of technological change)
- Meeting patient expectations
Sides said that NextGen was aware that these are significant headwinds and that the company will be doing what it can to help customers meet these challenges over the next year.
