Abstractive Health has launched Clinical Time Machine, an simulation that immerses physicians in diagnostic cases using real historical medical charts. Built on the same HIPAA-compliant platform that powers live summarization of electronic health records (EHRs) in hospital settings, the simulation lets clinicians explore rare, complex cases from hundreds of years ago without patient risk
CEO Vince Hartman calls it “a Microsoft Flight Simulator for medicine,” enabling diagnostic training on authentic data with no need for EHR integration. “Three years after ChatGPT, fewer than 1% of physicians have ever seen an AI full medical record summary,” he says. “We’re changing that.”
Each case begins with an AI-generated summary distilled from original, centuries-old handwritten documents. Clinicians explore the structured chart, from history of present illness to labs and vitals, and receive simulated updates based on actual clinical observations. “It’s not a quiz. It’s about engaging clinical reasoning in a sandbox where doctors can make decisions and learn from them,” Hartman explains.
The simulation is built on Abstractive Health’s existing summarization and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and agentic AI platform. Leveraging advanced OCR and a robust AI summarization pipeline, it can also process handwritten records and turn scribbled notes into readable clinical narratives. The summarization technology is currently being piloted at Weill Cornell Medicine in a research collaboration to assist with writing Emergency Medicine handoff notes. Abstractive Health is also preparing to roll out the experience to Canadian outpatient clinics through a partnership with Canada’s WELL Health Technologies that followed an investment and distribution deal inked last year.
Abstractive Health’s broader goal is to bring clinicians into meaningful, hands-on engagement with AI. “We’re not just saving time – we’re helping doctors think better,” Hartman says. “This is about curiosity, growth, and elevating clinical skill.”
Clinical Time Machine is available now through Abstractive’s platform for free.
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