How to choose an AI medical scribe

Most AI scribes look alike on a features page. The differences show up in your own clinic: how the notes read, how long you spend fixing them, where the data goes and what you pay at the end of a busy month. This guide gives you a short, repeatable way to test that before you commit.

Start with how you actually work

Before you compare products, write down four facts about your practice. Where do visits happen: a clinic room, video calls, home visits, a ward? Which languages do your patients speak, and do they switch between them? Where does the finished note have to end up: an EMR you paste into, or a system your employer has already connected to a vendor? And who pays: you, a partner group or an organisation with a procurement process?

Those answers remove most of the options quickly. A tool built for a large organisation with an integration team can be a poor fit for a solo clinic, and a lightweight browser tool may not satisfy an employer that requires a signed data agreement. Neither is better in general. The right one is the one that matches your setting.

What to test during a free trial

1. Use real visits, with consent. Demo scripts make every scribe look good. Explain the tool to a few patients, ask them, and try it on ordinary appointments.
2. Time your edits. The useful number is not how fast the draft appears but how long you spend correcting it before you would sign it. Note that time for ten visits.
3. Try your hardest visit type. A long new-patient visit, a patient with several problems, a family member talking over the patient. Easy visits tell you little.
4. Test your languages and accents. If your patients mix languages, run those visits in the trial. Quality varies a lot by language and accent across all products.
5. Check the extras you will use. Referral letters, patient instructions, coding suggestions, your own note headings. Try each once instead of assuming it works the way you expect.
6. Use the device you will really use. If you plan to work from a phone, test on that phone, in the room, with your usual connection.

Questions to ask about data

• Where does the audio go, and is it kept after the note is written?
• Where is the note text stored, and for how long? Can you delete it yourself?
• Which outside companies (sub-processors) receive the audio or text?
• Does the vendor sign the data agreement your employer or jurisdiction requires, such as a BAA or DPA?
• Is your data used to train models, and can you opt out?
• Are identifiers removed before text reaches the AI, and how reliably?

A vendor that answers these plainly in writing is easier to trust than one that answers with badges. The privacy checklist goes through each question in more detail.

Cost, limits and commitment

Read the plan for limits, not just the headline price. Some plans cap the number of notes or hours; some put letters, coding or custom headings behind a higher tier. Check whether the cheaper price needs an annual commitment, and what happens when the trial ends: some trials turn into a paid plan automatically, others simply stop.

Work out the cost for a heavy month, not an average one. A cap you never hit in a quiet week can matter when a colleague is on leave and your list doubles.

Warning signs

• Claims that notes need no review. Every AI note is a draft.
• No clear written answer on where data goes.
• No way to copy or export your notes if you leave.
• Pricing that is only available after a sales call, if you are buying for yourself.

Where ClearPass fits

ClearPass is a browser-based scribe for individual clinicians. You tap Transcribe, confirm the patient agreed, see the patient and get a structured English note, with letters and ICD-10 codes one click away. The trial needs no card and ends on its own.

Be clear about what it lacks before you try it. It does not integrate with any EMR, so notes are copied and pasted. Notes are written in English only. It does not sign BAAs today. If any of those is a requirement for you, another product will suit you better, and it is better to know that on day one.

What ClearPass does not do

• It does not replace your judgement. Every note is an AI draft that you review and correct before it is used.
• It is not a medical device and does not make clinical decisions. It is a documentation aid.
• It does not connect to your EMR. The note is copy-ready text that pastes into any system.

Privacy

Clinical note content is not stored on ClearPass servers: it is processed to write the note, then discarded. Consultation audio is transcribed and discarded, never stored. Your note history stays in your browser, on your device, and you choose how long it is kept. Common identifiers are removed from typed and transcribed text before it reaches the AI; that is a best-effort safeguard, so leave names, ID numbers and file numbers out where you can. Processing goes through the AI providers named in our Privacy Policy, which sets out exactly what each one receives and how long it keeps it. ClearPass does not sign HIPAA business associate agreements today.

Questions

Related

• An AI scribe privacy checklist
• AI scribe accuracy: where errors come from and how to catch them
• What is an AI medical scribe?
• Patient consent for an AI scribe