Suki and MedStar Health’s National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare Partner to Pioneer the Science of Ambient AI Adoption

WASHINGTON, D.C. & REDWOOD CITY, CA — Suki, the leading Ambient Clinical Intelligence (ACI) platform, and MedStar Health’s National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare are announcing a strategic research collaboration. This partnership aims to study the impact of ambient AI on healthcare delivery.

The "Science of Use": Moving Beyond Surface Metrics 

While the industry has focused on rapid adoption, few institutions use the science of human factors to understand technology success in complex clinical environments. By working with the National Center for Human Factors’ industry-leading research on the use of AI in patient care, this collaboration applies rigorous implementation science to the rollout of Suki across MedStar Health clinical sites to bridge this knowledge gap.

Strategic Research Pillars 

The collaboration will execute a high-priority research portfolio focused on the fundamental drivers of clinical and operational success:

• Designing for Adoption: With adoption of ambient AI varying significantly across clinicians and health systems, MedStar Health’s human factors experts will design and test interventions to create a replicable blueprint to scale adoption.\
• The Human Experience: Researchers will examine how ambient AI affects clinicians, trainees and patients, including its impact on administrative burden, clinical reasoning and the patient-provider experience across diverse care settings and populations.
• Patient Safety & Care Quality: Researchers will evaluate how ambient AI performs within clinical workflows, with a focus on safety, care quality and the experience of clinicians and patients.

Why This Matters Now 

As health systems move from pilot programs to scaling implementation, the need for credible, rigorous real-world evidence is increasingly important. By partnering with MedStar Health’s National Center for Human Factors, Suki is investing in rigorous research to better understand how ambient AI can be safely and effectively implemented in complex clinical environments.

As Sudha Jayaraman, MD, MSc, FACS, who leads the effort at Suki, explains, "Through the Suki Research Collaborative, we're bringing together clinicians, informaticists, and implementation scientists to ensure that ambient AI is developed, tested, implemented, and evaluated thoughtfully and responsibly."

“Realizing the transformational potential of ambient AI requires thoughtful, rigorous evaluation to ensure it’s implemented safely and effectively at all health systems,” said Joshua Biro, PhD, principal investigator for this partnership and research scientist for the MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare. “By combining human factors research with Suki’s innovation, we can make sure these tools genuinely support clinicians in their daily work and improve the care patients receive.” 

“Ambient AI has the potential to fundamentally reshape the patient-provider experience, but only if it is designed and deployed with people at the center,” said Raj Ratwani, PhD, director of the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare and vice president of Scientific Affairs for MedStar Health Research Institute. “Our work with Suki focuses on ensuring these tools reduce burden without compromising clinical thinking, enhance patient engagement, and deliver benefits across all patient populations.”

A Vision for Standardized Excellence 

The goal of this partnership is to move the industry higher up the evidence pyramid. By combining Suki’s expertise in Ambient Clinical Intelligence with MedStar Health’s legacy in safety and human factors, the collaboration will help advance the standards for how ambient AI is evaluated and integrated into clinical care.

The Methods & Milestones 

The collaboration will use mixed-methods research, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches to study how ambient AI is adopted and performs in real-world clinical environments. Findings from the research are expected to be submitted for scientific publication and shared with the broader healthcare community.