The Cydoc smart patient intake form accelerates medical note writing

Purpose: This study evaluates the effect of Cydoc software tools on medical note time-to-completion and quality. Methods: Medical students were recruited by email to participate in a video encounter with a standardized patient for three scenarios: writing a note from scratch (control), writing a note with the Cydoc educational tool, and writing a note with the Cydoc intake form. Notes were subsequently anonymized and rated by a resident physician across four quality measures. Note time-to-completion was analyzed using a one-way ANOVA with post-hoc Bonferroni correction, while note quality scores were compared using a Wilcoxon paired signed rank test. Results: Eighteen medical students participated in the study. The average note time-to-completion, which included the patient interview and note writing, was 17 +/- 7.0 minutes from scratch, 18 +/- 8.0 minutes with the educational tool, and 5.7 +/- 3.0 minutes with the intake form. Using the Cydoc intake form was significantly faster than writing from scratch (p = 0.0001) or using the educational tool (p = 8 x 10-5). Notes written with Cydoc tools had higher note comprehensiveness (3.24 > 3.06), pertinent positives (3.47 > 2.94), and pertinent negatives (3.47 > 2.67), although this trend did not reach statistical significance. Conclusions: Using the Cydoc smart patient intake form accelerated note writing by 2.98x while maintaining note quality. The Cydoc smart patient intake form has the potential to streamline clinical documentation and save clinicians' time. Future work is needed to evaluate Cydoc tools in an in-person outpatient setting with practicing clinician users.