AI vs. Human Scribe: Which One is Better for Healthcare?

Author

healthorbit.ai

Published On

February 24, 2025

Read Time

8 minutes

As long as we’ve had AI, it has been compared to humans. These comparisons are not unwarranted, since AI was quite literally created to mimic human intelligence minus its situational and behavioral inconsistencies. Healthcare is a sector that attracts the majority of these human vs. AI comparisons, so today we’ll dive into one concerning HealthOrbit AI Scribe and how it compares to human counterparts.

What exactly is scribing?

Scribing is when a professional charts physician-patient interactions in real-time. Scribes assist doctors, and other healthcare professionals with health information management by recording and updating patient information in electronic health records (EHR) systems. The comparison between an AI and a human scribe involves the evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses.

Parameters for Comparing HealthOrbit AI and Human Scribes

  • Accuracy and Consistency
  • Speed and Efficiency
  • Contextual Understanding
  • Cost and Accessibility
  • Learning and Improvement

1. Accuracy and Consistency

It’s essential for scribes, AI, or humans to be able to chart medical information as accurately as possible. Furthermore, the information noted must be consistent in terms of readability and structure. 

2. Speed and Efficiency

Scribing has to be accurate but also needs to be done within the constraints of a physician’s timetable. Lags in charting time lead to jumbled documentation and, therefore, patient care.

3. Contextual Understanding

Linguistics are complex, as human speech is more sophisticated than mere voice modulation. Physicality, tone, and mannerisms are essential aspects of effective communication. Scribes must be able to capture information relayed by patients within context. Let’s see how AI and human scribes fare:

HealthOrbit AIHuman Scribe
Certain AIs can struggle with grasping deeper contextual meaning from recorded audio. While patterns and relationships are recognized, at times, AI scribes may struggle with comprehending humor, idioms, and cultural nuances. HealthOrbit AI sidesteps some of these pitfalls by charting only relevant medical information. Trained to understand the context around medical terminology, HealthOrbit AI ensures nuance isn’t entirely lost in translation.Naturally, humans excel at understanding complex contexts and recognizing subtext, emotions, and cultural nuances. While this is immensely beneficial, it can also make human scribes prone to certain inherent biases that may unknowingly disrupt professional responsibilities at times. Nevertheless, humans can interpret ambiguous material in ways most AI can’t, drawing from their personal experiences and emotions. This adds an extra layer of quality to transcripts.

4. Cost and Accessibility

A level of financial accessibility is necessary when deploying scribe services on a large scale. Here’s how AI and human scribes compare when it comes to cost-effectiveness.

HealthOrbit AI Human Scribe
Generally, AI tends to be a more cost-effective solution for both small and large-scale transcription demands. HealthOrbit AI scribe is accessible at all times and doesn’t require breaks or set working hours. Thanks to its scalability, HealthOrbit AI can handle both simple and complex tasks with relatively low ongoing costs. On top of cost-cutting benefits, it’s intuitive and easy to use even for physicians with no prior experience with AI assistants, making for fluid integration in existing workflows.When it comes to large-scale transcription, training and hiring human scribes is costlier than AI implementation. Human scribes, despite their unique advantages, tend to be way less scalable due to physical and cognitive limitations. For large-scale, high-volume work, hiring the equivalent amount of human scribes massively inflates expenses. However, the price may be justified for specialized tasks that demand deeper insight and abstract thinking.

5. Learning and Improvement

HealthOrbit AIHuman Scribe
AI systems can be retrained and improved over time, making them increasingly efficient and accurate in specialized tasks. HealthOrbit AI adapts to a physician’s tone and diction over time, showing its learning ability. Fed with constantly evolving data sets, HealthOrbit AI Scribe stays on top of the latest medical information. Although it needs to be noted AI systems don’t have “true learning” like humans. This is due to their reliance on predefined algorithms and set patterns.Human scribes can learn, adapt, and improve over time based on experiences. They can pick up new terminologies and styles over time, and their ability to innovate is more dynamic. Conversely, since human scribes can’t “download” data, they need to rely on memorization, which is not always reliable. Also, improvements in human scribes are gradual and don’t always follow a linear progression.

Conclusion

It has long been accepted that human scribes are suited for creative, nuanced tasks while AI scribes fare better for complex, large-scale, repetitive projects. However, advancements in AI technology have proved that achieving real nuance, emotional intelligence, and contextual understanding is very much on the horizon. HealthOrbit AI Scribe aims to be an extension for physicians that bridges the gap between being an effective tool and a smart assistant. 

Get your free demo for HealthOrbit AI by registering on the HealthOrbit AI official website.

FAQs

Why choose HealthOrbit AI scribe over a human scribe?

HealthOrbit AI scribe is faster, more efficient, and can be deployed on a larger scale.

How long does it take to introduce HealthOrbit AI Scribe in your workflow?

HealthOrbit AI scribe can be immediately implemented in your daily workflow.

Is HealthOrbit AI trustworthy?

Yes, absolutely. HealthOrbit AI is completely safe and does not collect patient or physician data.

What’s an advantage that HealthOrbit AI has over a human scribe?

HealthOrbit AI provides informed diagnostic recommendations during consultations.

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