Quick Summary
AI can reduce documentation burden and improve continuity, but healthcare cannot accept invented details. Provenance means outputs can show where claims came from: links to report sections, timestamps, and clear separation between facts and interpretation.
Why summaries are a first use case
Documentation is high volume, repetitive, and time constrained. A system that saves even a few minutes per visit has immediate value. It reduces burnout, improves throughput, and makes care easier to deliver.
This is why clinical summaries are often one of the first successful deployment paths for health AI.
The risk: confident but ungrounded text
Healthcare cannot accept invented details. A summary that introduces a wrong medication, a wrong diagnosis, or a wrong timeline can cause downstream harm. Errors can become sticky once copied forward.
This is why provenance is non negotiable.
What provenance looks like
Provenance means the system can show where each claim came from. It is trust, but it is also auditability.
- Links to the exact report section or note
- Timestamps for when the data was captured
- Clear separation between facts and interpretation
- Visible uncertainty and confidence boundaries
Why longitudinal context changes documentation
Most summaries are written per encounter. But real care is longitudinal. When summaries have access to a timeline, they can highlight trends, flag changes from baseline, reduce repetition, and improve continuity across clinicians.
A timeline turns documentation from a snapshot into a narrative of progression.
Where Aether fits
Aether can turn documentation into a safe workflow because the timeline, provenance, and sharing flows are native. This enables summaries that are grounded, traceable, and easy to validate.
- Patient timeline across documents and time
- Summaries that link back to source documents
- Shareable continuity for clinicians and families
Sources and further reading
- ONC: What are EHRs (why documentation and continuity matter)
- FDA: AI in software as a medical device (risk and oversight context)
- HL7 FHIR overview (structure that supports traceability)
Information only. Not medical advice.
Next steps
- Require source links for every critical claim.
- Separate facts from interpretation and label uncertainty.
- Use timelines so summaries reflect progression, not snapshots.