Real time, live visit interaction feature
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Nichole Marty
I recently trialed Open Evidence and one feature stood out immediately as a major differentiator: live, in-visit clinical guidance. During a visit, I could type questions such as “What questions should I ask next?” or “Is anything I recommended incorrect or missing?” and receive real-time, clinically relevant prompts while still with the patient.
This functionality meaningfully improves visit quality, not just documentation. It supports clinical completeness, reduces cognitive load, and acts as a real-time safety net without interrupting workflow. Importantly, it is usable during the visit, not retrospectively.
This is currently a gap in Heidi. Heidi is excellent as a documentation tool, and I have been loyal to it for that reason. However, without real-time, in-visit guidance, Heidi functions as a passive scribe rather than an active clinical support tool. Open Evidence is already offering this capability, and it is free. From a user perspective, the question becomes: what keeps clinicians from switching if this gap remains?
I strongly recommend prioritizing a live visit interaction feature, where clinicians can:
- Ask what additional history, ROS, or counseling points may be appropriate in real time
- Sanity-check recommendations before the visit ends
- Receive prompts without breaking eye contact or workflow
This type of functionality aligns with how clinicians actually think and practice, and it materially affects care quality, not just note quality. Adding this would significantly strengthen Heidi’s competitive position and long-term clinician loyalty.
Tom
Great to hear your perspective, Nichole Marty! I have a few more questions for you:
- What specific types of real-time prompts or guidance would be most valuable during a patient visit?
- How do you envision the integration of real-time guidance with existing workflows to ensure minimal disruption?
- Are there specific clinical scenarios or specialties where real-time guidance would be particularly beneficial?
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Nichole Marty
Thank you for the thoughtful follow-up. I really appreciate the engagement and responsiveness.
- Types of real-time prompts or guidance that would be most valuable
The most useful prompts would be clinician-initiated and flexible, rather than rigid or pre-scripted. Examples include:
“What additional questions should I ask this patient?”
“Check my assessment and plan for errors or omissions.”
“Are there any contraindications or safety concerns in what I just recommended?”
“Generate a list of likely diagnoses and differentials based on the visit so far.”
“What medications are most likely to cause this patient’s symptoms?”
“What are the AAP recommendations for safe sleep at this age?”
More broadly, I would like the ability to type any clinical question during the visit and receive an evidence-based response that augments my clinical reasoning in real time.
I would also find it extremely valuable to have saved, reusable prompt buttons for questions I ask repeatedly. One-click prompts such as “Generate differential diagnosis,” “Check plan for safety issues,” or “Key red flags and next steps” would improve speed and consistency while still allowing free-text questions as needed.
- Integration with existing workflows
My ideal workflow would be two panes running in parallel, similar to what Open Evidence offers.
Left pane: live scribing, as Heidi already does well
Right pane: an interactive query window where I can ask real-time questions during the visit
Conceptually, this could live where the Tasks pane currently is. The key is that it must be available during the visit, not after, and it must not interrupt patient interaction. The clinician controls when and how it is used.
What I am looking for is essentially an LLM running in parallel with my visit. It is there when I need it and silent when I do not.
- Clinical scenarios where this is most beneficial
This would be most valuable with complex or diagnostically challenging patients, and honestly across many primary care visits.
Currently, when I have a patient who is stumping me, my workaround is:
- Use Heidi to scribe the visit
- Finalize the dictation
- Ensure the content is appropriately anonymized under HIPAA
- Paste it into ChatGPT or Gemini and ask for diagnostic considerations, differentials, treatment options, red flags, labs, and next steps
I would very much like to eliminate those extra steps and do this directly within Heidi.
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Nick Adams
Nichole Marty interesting - I do a similar thing fairly often with ChatGPT (but more sparingly). Open Evidence Visits I think is still only available in the US (I'm in UK) but it sounds useful. I think it must be classed as a clinical decision support system