Several Californians sued Sutter Health and MemorialCare this week, alleging that AI transcription tools were 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, says that, within the past six months, the plaintiffs received medical care at various Sutter and MemorialCare facilities.
During those visits, the medical staff used Abridge AI. According to the complaint, the system “captured and processed their confidential physician-patient communications. Plaintiffs did not receive clear notice that their medical conversations would be recorded by an artificial intelligence platform, transmitted outside the clinical setting, or processed through third-party systems.”
The complaint states that these recordings “contain personally identifiable medical information, including, but not limited to, medical history, symptoms, diagnoses, medications, treatment discussions, and other sensitive health disclosures communicated during confidential medical consultations.”
In recent years, Abridge’s software and AI services have been increasingly deployed in major health care providers across the country, including Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, Duke Health, and many others.
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