GPs are using artificial intelligence to record patient consultations but how safe is your personal data?

Australia Broadcast Center

06-08-2025

For the last 12 months Dr Grant Blashki has used what he calls a "medical intern" in every appointment.
His intern is completely digital. It is an artificial intelligence scribe that listens to every word his patients say.
"It's mostly surprisingly accurate," the GP told 7.30.
"Occasionally it will mishear the name of something. Occasionally it will mishear a diagnosis."
He says patient consent when using AI scribes in a clinical setting is essential but that most people don't have an issue.
"I do ask for consent. Occasionally people don't want me to use it, which is absolutely fine, but almost everyone is comfortable with it and it just streamlines the work," Dr Blashki said.
"It's good for the patient because I'm concentrating on them."
Dr Blashki says he has become so reliant on the scribe that he would struggle to conduct appointments without it.
"I use it almost in every consultation," he said.
As patients reveal intimate details about their medical history with Dr Blashki, he says the scribe is constantly collecting sensitive data.
"So I make sure that at the end of each consultation I actually delete all the transcriptions off my software."
Dr Blashki uses software from Melbourne-based company Heidi Health, which is one of the main AI scribe tools used by clinicians in Australia.
Heidi Health declined 7.30's request for an interview but its CEO and co-founder Dr Thomas Kelly provided a written response to questions about patient privacy.
"Heidi now supports almost two million visits a week, and that's around the world from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, to the US and the UK," Dr Kelly said.
"In each region, data is stored in compliance with the healthcare regulations and privacy policies of the region."
"Here it's Australian Privacy Principles (APP), in the EU that would be GDPR, in the US that would be HIPAA. All data is protected according to ISO 27K and SOC2 requirements, which are the highest enterprise standards that exist. We get audited by third parties to protect our data and ensure the security that we have.'
Dr Kelly says all data is protected according to "the highest enterprise standards that exist".
Lyrebird Health is another AI scribe software company that is based in Melbourne.
It is used by GPs, surgeons, psychiatrists and paediatricians — the company says the software was used in "200,000 consults" in Australia last week.
"All data is stored 100 per cent in Australian sovereign databases if you're an Australian customer — it's different obviously if you're overseas," Lyrebird Health CEO Kai Van Lieshout told 7.30.
Patient notes are deleted automatically after seven days from Lyrebird Health's system (doctors need to back up the notes if they want to keep them), but users do have the option to manually extend this period to six months.
"For us it is definitely really gone," Mr Van Lieshout said.
"I know that because we've had doctors that have needed something that we've had ... that don't realise that it's deleted after seven days and there's nothing we can do."
John Lalor is an Assistant Professor of IT, Analytics and Operations at the University of Notre Dame, he warns there is always an element of risk when storing digital data.
"A lot of those models, they're very data-driven, so the more data they have, usually the better they get," Mr Lalor told 7.30.
"So on the one hand, if it has a lot more data from patients, that can typically improve the models, but on the other hand, there's the privacy risk of the data being exposed if it's leaked or hacked."
He says patients and doctors should be making sure AI scribe companies are transparent with how they are storing and using data.
"Making sure that the firms are clear with how exactly the data is being used, because if there's ambiguity in what they say, then there could be ambiguity in the interpretation as well," he said.
"With individuals, if they're uncomfortable with using something like that, they could speak with their physician to see if it's optional or see if they could get more information about what exactly is being done when the data is taken into scribe system."
To show how Heidi Health's AI scribe works, Dr Blashki has taken 7.30 through a mock appointment about a headache.
We discuss how the headache has been "on and off pretty much every morning for the last month" and that there's no history of migraines.
Heidi Health then processes the conversation, in a process it calls 'Making Magic', then produces consultation notes.
The software also suggests "differential diagnoses" including a "tension-type headache" and a "cervicogenic headache".
"We're seeing some of the medical softwares and some of the AI generally come up with differential diagnoses, make suggestions, and ... the doctor really needs to turn their mind to it and look at them more as suggestions than the answer," Dr Blashki said.
Dr Kelly said the software "aims to be more than a literal summary and is able to identify the clinical rationale underpinning a line of questioning".
In response to 7.30's mock consultation, Dr Kelly said: "We summarise the clinical encounter reflecting their lines of questioning and using appropriate clinical terminology to describe them.
Mr Van Lieshout said Lyrebird Health doesn't produce potential diagnoses after a consultation.
"We won't try to tell the clinician what to do, if that makes sense," he said.
"It's subjective to: what did the patient describe? Did I do any forms of examination? What was their blood pressure assessment? What's my diagnosis or assessment of situation? Then plan what's the next steps.
"We will break up that conversation into those categories."
Dr Blashki said about 50 per cent of the doctors in the GP clinic he works at in Melbourne are using AI scribe software for every consultation.
He says he has also received referral letters from specialists that look like they've been created by AI.
"I have had one letter where I think, 'Oh, I don't think they've checked this properly. They've clearly got one of the diagnoses not quite right'," he said.
Former Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton believes AI scribes have become "indispensable" although he conceded that protecting patient data is the greatest concern for the industry.
"I think the regulators need to make sure that it's safe," Dr Sutton said.
"Obviously the clinicians who are using it have a responsibility for sensitive health information to be properly recorded and stored and made safe, so that it's treated in exactly the same way as any other clinical notes would be treated historically."
Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV
Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.