Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing how healthcare professionals handle documentation. According to a recent AMA survey, AI use in patient care documentation jumped from 38% in 2023 to 66% in 2024. One of the most promising developments is the emergence of the AI scribe, the modern evolution of a centuries-old role. While early scribe tools focused on transcription, today’s AI scribes are modernizing how clinicians document care. But, there’s a problem… most AI scribe tools learn from adult-based medical information and lack the precision needed for the nuances of pediatric care.

Enter Opie AI™ — Office Practicum’s latest innovation that integrates pediatric AI directly into its EHR, making OP the first to bring pediatric-specific AI technology to market.

Why Pediatric Care Demands Different Technology

While generic EHRs might cover the basics, pediatricians understand that a pediatric-specific EHR is superior in offering precise workflows, tailored features, and safety measures essential for caring for kids. Pediatric AI follows the same principle: it’s not about modifying adult-focused technology but developing a dedicated, closed system built around the unique needs of pediatric care.

Mark Richards, Chief Revenue Officer at Office Practicum, recently joined the PediaTricks Podcast to explore the potential of AI in pediatrics. At the center of the conversation was Opie AI™. 

Unlike basic voice-to-text tools, Opie AI is more than a transcription tool — it’s an intelligent, pediatric-focused assistant. It understands and interprets conversations, turning them into structured and contextual clinical notes. Using advanced voice recognition and pediatric-trained machine learning, it distinguishes between clinicians, parents, and even the fussiest of children. Because pediatric care involves unique clinical presentations and developmental nuances, Opie AI can synthesize varying descriptions into accurate, complete notes.

The benefits:

• Reduced administrative burden
• Improved documentation quality
• Better support for clinical care and billing workflows
• The ability to focus on the patient — more face time, less screen time
• A better patient experience

The Power of a Closed Pediatric AI System

What sets Opie AI apart is its “closed” and highly pediatric-specific model. In contrast to open AI systems like ChatGPT, which learn from broad and generalized data, Opie AI continuously learns from pediatric resources like AAP clinical guidelines and “Bright Futures” developmental milestones. “Being a closed system means that we have more control over the learning, which is pediatric, and we avoid the non-pediatric learning,” Mark explains. “In effect, we’re limiting the exposure to things that aren’t pediatric-specific, so we can mitigate the dilution of the pediatric focus. Imagine a million things going into a learning model. If 100,000 are pediatric, but 900,000 of them are not, it’s obviously going to get biased in a non-pediatric way.” He goes on to say,  “a generic AI solution is going to give you back a very verbatim scribe kind of a note, but it’s not really going to give you the accuracy and the interpretation and the maximum benefit that something tailored for pediatrics is going to give you”.

By limiting its learning to pediatric-focused content, Opie AI avoids the “noise” from adult medicine and enhances accuracy, relevance, and clinical value. For example, a high fever in a newborn carries very different implications than in an adult — something Opie AI is built to recognize.

Looking Ahead: Continuous Learning and Personalized Care

Opie AI doesn’t stop at initial deployment — it evolves by learning each provider’s individual style and preferences, tailoring documentation to be both pediatric-specific and provider-specific. Future enhancements will include deeper integration with patient histories, clinical decision support prompts, and automation of orders and workflows. By reducing time spent on documentation, Opie AI helps providers focus more on what matters most: caring for children.

Want to listen to the conversation in full? Check out the “Opie AI™ – Innovation, Automation, and More” podcast to learn more about how this pediatric-specific AI scribe is enhancing pediatric care.

In our next blog, we highlight the value of pediatric AI from the clinician’s perspective. Dan Feiten, MD, and Rich Szabo, MD, weigh in on the use of pediatric AI in practice and how they see the future of pediatric care to be one with less paperwork, more time, and higher quality care.