Highmark Health has announced a partnership with Abridge to scale and implement the latter’s AI-driven technologies.

This initiative aims to enhance clinical documentation and streamline prior authorisations, integrating Abridge's AI technology into the healthcare provider's operations.

The first phase of this partnership will see Abridge's ambient clinical intelligence platform deployed at Highmark Health’s Allegheny Health Network (AHN) hospitals and office locations.

The platform uses AI to assist clinicians in creating clinical documentation from patient conversations, which are securely documented via a computer or smartphone app with web recording and converted into clinical notes in real-time.

This enables immediate review and editing by healthcare providers.

AHN president Mark Sevco said: "Providing patients with exceptional, personalised care is our highest priority, and that starts with empowering clinicians to be their best.

"Abridge's technology allows clinicians to spend more time listening to and engaging with their patients, leading to a much better overall experience for both parties."

The ambient technology is set to be deployed initially at outpatient locations, with plans to extend its use throughout AHN's entire health system.

This would allow physicians, nurses, and practice providers to benefit from the technology across all hospital locations.

In addition, Highmark Health and Abridge are also working on a new prior-authorisation technology using Highmark's existing products.

This technology is designed to enable almost immediate approvals, thereby reducing delays caused by the prior authorisation review process.

Highmark Health Plan has already made significant progress in processing prior authorisations electronically via its physician Gold Carding programme and other systems.

The partnership with Abridge seeks to expedite this process by ensuring that all necessary documentation is collected during the patient-physician interaction.

Highmark Health's subsidiary, enGen, and other teams within the enterprise are helping to scale these advanced technologies.

Last year, Highmark Health collaborated with Epic and Google Cloud to improve coordination between payers and providers.