General Practice · 2 h ago
AI-Drafted Portal Replies Linked to Faster Responses When Used
A retrospective cohort study of 983,154 patient-portal responses from 1,542 clinicians at Columbia University Irving Medical Center assessed an AI-drafted reply tool. Tool use was associated with shorter turnaround times, but enterprise adoption was associated with longer turnaround times, and overall after-hours messaging did not decline.
- Tool use was associated with 29.5% shorter turnaround time.
- Institutional adoption was associated with longer turnaround time.
- Overall after-hours messaging did not decline.
- After-hours findings varied by message type and timing.
Researchers examined portal messages at Columbia University Irving Medical Center from March 2023 to May 2025, using clinician-level panel regression with individual fixed effects. The analysis included 983,154 first responses by 1,542 clinicians to messages from 272,091 patients. The Epic In Basket Augmented Response Technology tool was deployed across the institution in December 2024. Outcomes were time from message submission to first clinician response and whether the reply was sent outside working hours.
Enterprise adoption was associated with an 8.6% increase in overall turnaround time (95% CI, 4.6%-12.9%). In contrast, use of the tool was associated with a 29.5% reduction in turnaround time (95% CI, 24.1%-34.5%). Tool use was not associated with an overall change in the proportion of after-hours replies. It was associated with fewer after-hours responses to test-result queries received during working hours (−3.67 percentage points), but more after-hours replies to messages received outside working hours (+4.52 percentage points).
The findings suggest that efficiency effects differed between institutional adoption and individual use, and by message timing and type. After-hours results were sensitive to how working hours were defined. The retrospective, single-center study identifies associations and does not establish that the tool caused the observed changes or that it reduces clinicians’ overall workload.
In practice
For clinicians and health systems using patient portals, this single-center retrospective study found that individual use of Epic’s AI-drafted response tool was associated with shorter message turnaround times, but institution-wide adoption was associated with longer times. Use was not linked to an overall reduction in after-hours replies; associations differed by message timing and type. These observational findings do not establish causation or demonstrate reduced total workload, and after-hours results were sensitive to the definition of working hours. They do not establish a basis for changing clinical workflows.
AI-generated clinical interpretation · Not editor-reviewed
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JAMA Network Open: AI-Generated Draft Response Tool, Message Turnaround Time, and After-Hours Replies Among Health Care Professionals ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.