According to The Guardian, a regulatory body of the UK's National Health Service (NHS) has warned that AI technology used to listen and transcribe doctor-patient consultations is posing risks to patients, as these tools may misidentify drug names and disease names. Patient rights organization Healthwatch England has revealed several cases showing that this rapidly adopted technology has already posed a real threat to patient safety.

Recording "No demyelination" as "Demyelination"

In one case, an AI recording tool incorrectly summarized a female patient as having "demyelination" — a severe neurological injury that can lead to multiple sclerosis. She herself is an NHS healthcare professional, and the hospital discovered the error after she questioned her MRI results and corrected it to the intended "no demyelination." She described the AI first providing an incorrect diagnosis and then saying it was just a spelling mistake as a "very painful experience."

In another case, AI confused a medication prescribed by a general practitioner with another medication with a similar name; the error was discovered by the patient, not the doctor. In another instance, the summary letter generated by AI omitted the specialist doctor's instruction for the patient to request a refill of their migraine prescription from their general practitioner, which could have prevented the patient from obtaining the necessary medication.

Lack of Regulation and the "Double-Edged Sword"

Healthwatch pointed out that if these errors are not identified in time, they will be entered into the patient's records and affect future treatment. The organization has received multiple reports of "patients identifying errors while professionals did not." More concerning is that the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has decided not to classify such tools as medical devices, meaning England will not establish a nationwide regulatory mechanism to ensure safety and effectiveness — despite the fact that 27 such tools are already in use by local doctors.