Several Californians sued Sutter Health and MemorialCare this week over allegations that an artificial intelligence transcription tool was used to record them without their consent, in violation of state and federal law.
The proposed class action lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, claims that over the past six months, the plaintiffs received medical care at various Sutter and MemorialCare facilities.
During those visits, medical staff used Abridge AI. According to the complaint, this system “captured and processed their confidential doctor-patient communications. Plaintiffs did not receive clear notification that their medical conversations would be recorded by an artificial intelligence platform, transmitted outside of the clinical environment, or processed through third-party systems.”
The complaint adds that these recordings “contained individually identifiable health information, including, but not limited to, medical histories, symptoms, diagnoses, medications, treatment discussions, and other sensitive health disclosures communicated during confidential medical consultations.”
In recent years, Abridge’s AI software and service have been rapidly deployed at leading healthcare providers across the country, including Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, Duke Health, and many more.
