{"id":285765,"date":"2026-07-04T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/doctors-soaring-use-of-ai-scribes-prompts-australian-government-warning-over-privacy-health\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T16:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T20:10:10","slug":"doctors-soaring-use-of-ai-scribes-prompts-australian-government-warning-over-privacy-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/doctors-soaring-use-of-ai-scribes-prompts-australian-government-warning-over-privacy-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors\u2019 soaring use of AI scribes prompts Australian government warning over privacy | Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doctors\u2019 soaring use of AI scribes prompts Australian government warning over privacy | Health<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/jul\/05\/doctors-ai-scribes-australia-government-privacy-warning<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-07-04 16:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n

The federal health department has raised concerns about the use of AI scribes by doctors as the health regulator considers the need for safeguards around the technology.<\/p>\n

AI scribe tools record, transcribe and summarise conversations between doctors and patients for medical notes, and have boomed in popularity in the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

According to an online poll by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), use of AI scribes by doctors in Australia nearly doubled from 22% in August 2024 to 40% in November 2025.<\/p>\n

Companies offering the technology to practitioners say it has been used hundreds of millions of times across the globe in the past 18 months alone as doctors seek to ease the administrative burden of patient consultations.<\/p>\n

The federal health department has identified concerns about the growing use of the technology. In February 2026 Senate estimates briefing documents, obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws, the department noted AI scribes \u201chave little oversight\u201d and raised concerns about the use of such tools in healthcare settings.<\/p>\n

Digital scribes are classified as \u201cmedical devices\u201d \u2013 and therefore regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Act \u2013 only if they serve a therapeutic purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnecdotally, some are marketed as outside regulatory levers (e.g., not a medical device) or as privacy\u2011compliant, often with limited transparency,\u201d the department said. \u201cSome suppliers may be unaware their cloud platforms send data outside Australia, raising risks for patient data security.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department said some suppliers advertised a 30% revenue increase for health professionals with no additional hours or patient consultations, \u201cwhich has implications for [Medicare Benefits Scheme] costs\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/span><\/p>\n

In an April briefing document from the department\u2019s AI advisory group, it was noted that AI scribes could improve clinicians\u2019 productivity and potentially reduce their burnout,…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doctors\u2019 soaring use of AI scribes prompts Australian government warning over privacy | Health https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/jul\/05\/doctors-ai-scribes-australia-government-privacy-warning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":285766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/5338cbc67f70b23a5fdf94db237441d2c238cdfb\/724_0_7240_5792\/master\/7240.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=e5b6119492132aec2e920203da117f20","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285767,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285765\/revisions\/285767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}