The United States Department of Veterans Affairs announced on Tuesday that it will maintain access to Abridge’s ambient scribe system across its medical facilities under a newly issued enterprise contract. The agreement is part of a multi-award procurement with a ceiling of $775.72 million spanning five years, and it permits any qualified vendor to compete for individual task orders that support the VA’s documentation needs.
Dr. Shiv Rao, who serves as chief executive officer and co-founder of Abridge, praised the decision in the release, stating, “It is an honor to support the clinicians who care for our nation's Veterans. We’ve worked to earn trust by meeting them where they are and preserving clinical context across providers, specialties, care settings, and the EHR migration.” The statement underscores the company’s focus on continuity of care and data integrity.
The VA initially piloted ambient-scribe solutions in October 2025, deploying tools from both Abridge and Knowtex that record conversations between veterans and providers after obtaining patient consent. Those early trials focused on outpatient environments and demonstrated the technology’s ability to capture clinical dialogue without interrupting care delivery. The pilot’s success informed the department’s decision to broaden the program through an enterprise-wide extension.
Following the pilot, the VA extended ambient-scribe access to every member of its Patient Aligned Care Teams, encompassing primary-care physicians, behavioral-health interdisciplinary practitioners, specialists in physical medicine and rehabilitation, as well as medical and surgical experts. This rollout enables clinicians across more than 75 VA medical centers to document patient encounters directly from recorded dialogue, aiming to reduce manual entry burdens and improve record completeness.
Knowtex announced its inclusion in the same enterprise contract, confirming the company’s continued participation alongside Abridge. The firm relayed this information to Nextgov/FCW after the publication of the contract notice. The Department of Veterans Affairs did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment regarding the selection process or the roles of the two vendors.
Abridge emphasizes that its ambient-scribe platform is currently the sole solution capable of interfacing with both legacy and newly deployed VA electronic health-record systems across the network. According to the company, this integration is operational at more than 75 medical centers, positioning the technology as a unique bridge between existing documentation workflows and emerging AI-assisted transcription capabilities.