In the fast-evolving world of healthcare, innovations that help reduce administrative burdens and enhance patient care are highly sought after. For clinicians working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), paperwork has long been a time-consuming and often overwhelming challenge. This is where the partnership between Catalight, a nonprofit health care network based in Walnut Creek, California, and Nabla, a technology company that specializes in artificial intelligence (AI) for healthcare, comes into play.
Catalight has taken a bold step in tackling the issue of clinician burnout and the challenges of documentation by teaming up with Nabla. This collaboration is aimed at leveraging AI technology to streamline clinical workflows, especially for case managers and consultants working in the IDD field. Through this partnership, Catalight seeks to enhance the care experience for patients while improving efficiency and reducing the administrative burden on clinicians. The partnership represents a significant move toward integrating AI into healthcare processes, bringing the promise of AI-powered ambient assistants into the hands of clinicians who provide care for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other diagnoses.
In this blog post, we will explore the details of this groundbreaking partnership and how it promises to transform the way clinicians handle paperwork, improve care for individuals with IDDs, and help mitigate the burnout often experienced by healthcare professionals.
What is Catalight, and What Role Does it Play in IDD Care?
Catalight is a nonprofit healthcare organization that provides specialized care to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Operating out of Walnut Creek, California, Catalight serves over 17,000 families, providing a range of care services to individuals with complex health needs. The organization is particularly focused on improving the quality of life for people with IDDs by offering tailored treatment plans, therapies, and case management services.
One of the distinctive features of Catalight’s approach to care is its value-based care model, which focuses on patient outcomes rather than the volume of services provided. Catalight’s clinical staff, which includes case managers, clinicians, and consultants, oversees the care of patients, ensuring that each individual receives personalized treatment and support. Their work often involves coordinating care with outside providers and therapists who specialize in treating IDD diagnoses like ASD.
Despite the noble mission, the clinicians working within Catalight face a major challenge: paperwork. Like many healthcare providers, Catalight’s clinical staff spends a significant portion of their time on documentation tasks. This administrative workload can eat into the time that clinicians could otherwise spend with patients, reducing the overall quality of care. Additionally, the repetitive nature of report writing and documentation is one of the factors contributing to clinician burnout in the healthcare industry, particularly for those working with vulnerable populations like children with autism.
Enter Nabla: Revolutionizing Documentation with AI
Founded in 2018, Nabla is a company that focuses on creating AI-powered tools for healthcare professionals. The company’s mission is to reduce the administrative burden on clinicians, enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Nabla’s flagship product is its AI-powered “ambient assistant,” a tool designed to transcribe conversations between clinicians and patients and automatically generate summary notes for patient records.
For Catalight, this ambient assistant technology is a game-changer. By integrating Nabla’s AI assistant into its clinical workflow, Catalight is able to reduce the time spent on documentation tasks while improving the accuracy and completeness of patient records. Through this partnership, Catalight’s case managers and clinicians can access the assistant directly through their electronic medical records (EMRs), allowing them to document patient interactions seamlessly as part of their regular workflow.
The ambient assistant works by transcribing conversations between clinicians and patients, providing accurate and detailed summaries of patient visits. This allows clinicians to focus on interacting with their patients, rather than worrying about typing up detailed notes after the session. The AI also generates take-home notes for patients and their caregivers, ensuring that everyone involved in the care process is on the same page and has access to the necessary information.
Reducing Clinician Burnout: The Impact of AI on Workload
The partnership between Catalight and Nabla is not just about improving operational efficiency; it’s also about addressing a much broader issue facing healthcare workers today—burnout. Clinician burnout has become a significant concern in the healthcare industry, with a growing body of research highlighting the psychological toll that administrative tasks and heavy workloads can take on medical professionals.
In particular, clinicians working with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities face unique challenges. According to a 2022 report published by the National Library of Medicine, healthcare workers serving children with ASD often experience heightened levels of anxiety and depression due to the emotional demands of their work and the stress of managing complex cases. The administrative tasks that accompany these responsibilities, including report writing and data entry, only exacerbate these feelings.
Tracy Gayeski, the chief health officer at Catalight, has been outspoken about the issue of clinician burnout. In an interview with Autism Business News, she emphasized how the AI-powered documentation tool has been a solution to this problem, particularly by freeing up time that clinicians would otherwise spend on paperwork.
The results speak for themselves. During a six-week pilot program of Nabla’s ambient assistant, Catalight’s clinicians reported saving an average of 55 minutes per day on documentation tasks. This time savings is significant when multiplied across an entire team of clinicians, as it can add up to hours of additional time each week that can be dedicated to direct patient care. As Gayeski explains, the AI assistant handles much of the “hard work” of documentation, allowing clinicians to focus on reading and adjusting reports rather than starting from scratch. This shift not only improves the clinician’s ability to engage meaningfully with patients but also reduces the mental strain of administrative tasks.
The impact of the AI-powered documentation tool extends beyond just efficiency. By alleviating some of the administrative burden, Catalight’s clinicians are able to provide more personalized and focused care. The time saved from paperwork allows clinicians to be more present with their clients, which is especially important when working with individuals with IDDs, as these patients often require highly individualized care and attention.
The Catalight-Nabla Partnership: A Model for the Future of Healthcare?
The year-long agreement between Catalight and Nabla is a promising step toward the future of healthcare. By integrating AI into the documentation process, Catalight is setting a precedent for other healthcare organizations that work with individuals with complex needs. The potential for AI to reduce administrative burdens, enhance clinician-patient interactions, and improve overall care is immense.
As Delphine Groll, the co-founder and chief operating officer of Nabla, points out, AI is not a “threat” to healthcare professionals; rather, it is a tool that can make healthcare more accessible and less stressful. By reducing the amount of time clinicians spend on repetitive administrative tasks, AI frees them up to focus on what they do best—providing high-quality care to patients. This, in turn, can help alleviate the burnout and exhaustion that many clinicians experience, particularly in fields like IDD care, where emotional demands are high.
Nabla’s technology is already being used by other healthcare organizations, with a particular focus on behavioral health. The company has worked with 18 organizations, five of which are solely focused on behavioral health, and its products have been deployed in various U.S. healthcare systems. The success of the Catalight-Nabla partnership could serve as a model for other nonprofit organizations and healthcare providers looking to harness the power of AI to improve their operations and care delivery.
Looking Ahead: The Future of AI in IDD Care
The collaboration between Catalight and Nabla is a promising development for the field of IDD care. As the demand for services continues to rise and the need for efficiency becomes more pressing, AI has the potential to play an increasingly important role in supporting clinicians and improving patient outcomes.
For Catalight, the benefits are clear: AI helps reduce clinician burnout, improve documentation accuracy, and ultimately enhance the quality of care for patients with IDDs. If the results of the pilot program are any indication, this partnership is just the beginning. With the possibility of renewing the agreement beyond the initial year, there’s every reason to believe that Catalight and Nabla will continue to work together to create a brighter future for individuals with developmental disabilities and the clinicians who care for them.
As AI technology continues to evolve, it’s exciting to think about the future possibilities for transforming healthcare workflows. Whether through reducing administrative burdens, improving patient outcomes, or helping to address the burnout epidemic, AI has the potential to reshape the healthcare landscape for the better. Catalight and Nabla’s collaboration serves as a beacon of how innovation can drive change in one of the most critical areas of healthcare—caring for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
