Alexander CookJenkins is an artificial intelligence (AI) powered scribe designed to reduce the documentation burden on physicians by summarizing conversations between doctors and patients into clinical notes. As of now, it is being tested across 81 emergency departments in Alberta.
Emergency physician Dr. Michael Weldon, who previously worked as an electrical engineer before entering medicine, said that he initially developed Jenkins as a personal project.
“I realized that these large language models (LLMs) could do some incredible stuff. So, at home, I built up a scribe.”
He said that the primary motivation for developing the tool was to address physician burnout, a growing issue in the emergency department.
“We are always asked to do more, right? Can you see another patient? Can you find another bed? Can you be another specialist?” Dr. Weldon said. “Jenkins represents a task that can come off my plate.”
How Jenkins works
The tool records and summarizes doctor-patient interactions and produces a draft note for the physicians to review and finalize before adding it to the medical record. While earlier versions had more frequent errors, Dr. Weldon said improvements in AI models have made the tool more reliable.
“Errors still happen, maybe one out of 10 times, but they are rarely significant,” he said. “Ultimately, the physician is responsible for reviewing everything.”
By reducing the need to type during appointments, the tool allows physicians to maintain more direct, face-to-face interactions with the patients. “It actually allows you to do human things better,” Dr. Weldon added.
Since its launch in November 2024, Jenkins has been used in over 63,000 clinical sessions. Dr. Weldon said that the key takeaway is how adoption has progressed among physicians.
“It took a long time to go from that early 10 per cent to the first quartile,” he added. While some physicians have quickly integrated Jenkins into their workflow, others remain hesitant.
Despite this, patient response has been overwhelmingly positive. “About 99 per cent of people say yes,” Dr. Weldon said. “A lot of them say, ‘whatever makes your life easier, doctor.’”
The rollout of Jenkins has required addressing concerns around privacy and data security. According to Dr. Weldon, all data is stored within provincial health infrastructure, with no third-party access. While audio recordings and transcripts are currently used for research purposes, they are expected to be deleted at the end of the project.
“In health care, there is this phrase that innovation happens at the speed of trust,” Dr. Weldon said.
Future of AI in health care
Looking ahead, Dr. Weldon hopes Jenkins will expand beyond physicians to include other health-care professionals. He also expects similar tools to eventually become integrated into standard electronic medical record systems.
“I expect that eventually Jenkins will get retired,” Dr. Weldon said. “But we will have at least moved everybody forward into the AI world.”
Weldon is also working on a new AI project, CHAP-R1, that can independently gather patient histories and report them to physicians, further streamlining clinical workflows.
Despite the gradual pace of adoption, he remains optimistic about the long-term impact of AI in health care.
Dr. Weldon believes that this is “as big as electricity or even the industrial revolution.”
