Planning for variation in adoption and value

This article is part of a series exploring implementation lessons from Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service's 16-week evaluation of ambient documentation across 7,499 consultations. For the full analysis and all implementation lessons, see our complete article.

Different specialties, different experiences

The evaluation showed meaningful variation in how different outpatient specialties used the tool across the trial period.

The authors highlight orthopaedics as an example where participation was lower, suggesting this likely reflects how documentation works in that setting: consult notes are often written by junior doctors, with a stronger preference for brevity.

Investment matters

The paper also describes a key implementation insight: the more clinicians invested in the tool, the more they got out of it. Template customisation and familiarisation were central to usability, but sometimes difficult to prioritise in time-poor outpatient clinics. Clinicians who invested that upfront effort reported better outcomes. Whether clinicians persisted depended on whether the output suited their documentation needs and felt worth the effort.

Treating variation as feedback

Variation is expected at multiple levels: between specialties, between clinics, and between individual clinicians. Rather than treating mixed experiences as a sign something is wrong, it's more useful to treat them as early feedback.

Where is this saving time? Where is it improving notes? Where does it need adjustment to better match the way that clinic documents? 

Those early learnings make broader implementation smoother over time.

About this series: This article is part of a series based on independent, peer-reviewed research from Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service. For the complete analysis and all implementation lessons, read our full article.

Continue the conversation: We welcome feedback from clinicians, researchers, and healthcare leaders. Contact our team at clinical@lyrebirdhealth.com

Read the full study: Memon S, Brand A, Taylor B, Michael A, Smithson R. Performance, acceptability, and impact of ambient listening scribe technology in an outpatient context: a mixed methods trial evaluation. BMC Health Serv Res (2025).