Nora - Speech to Clinical Notes
Use Nora, Speech to Clinical Notes
What: Nora is an AI ambient-listening tool built into Healthbridge Clinical that turns what you say during a consultation, or a short spoken recap afterwards, into a structured clinical note.
Why: It replaces manual note-typing during or after a consult, so you can focus on the patient in front of you instead of your screen, and produces a consistently formatted note every time.
When: During any consultation, from the Clinical Notes tab, either recorded ambiently throughout the visit, or dictated as a quick recap once the patient has left the room.
Before you start: The Clinical Notes tab must be enabled for Nora to appear. Click your provider name in the top-right corner, select 'Settings', then toggle on 'Enable clinical notes tab'.
Steps
1. Open the patient file and click 'Start consult'
Location: Patient file › Patient overview header block
Open the patient's file from your schedule or via search, then click the orange 'Start consult' button in the top-right of the Patient overview.
You should see: the consultation opens on the 'Clinical Notes' tab, with Cancel, Save, and Finish buttons in the top-right.
2. Confirm you're on the Clinical Notes tab
Location: Consultation › Clinical Notes tab
The 'Clinical Notes' tab opens by default, with a free-text field labelled 'Capture general clinical notes'. This is where Nora's generated note will appear once you're done recording.
3. Click the microphone icon to open Nora
Location: Consultation › right sidebar
Click the Microphone icon in the right-hand sidebar. The Nora panel opens, showing a 'Start Recording' button, your microphone (auto-selected, allow a moment for the device list to load), a Language choice of 'English' or 'Afrikaans', and a Template selection menu.
4. Select a note template
Location: Nora panel › Template selection
Click 'Template selection' and choose the note format you want Nora to write into: 'SOAP Note', 'H & P', or 'Behavioural Health Session Note'.
5. Click 'Start Recording'
Location: Nora panel
Click 'Start Recording'. Nora begins listening, shows a 'Listening...' status and a running timer, and gives you Pause and Stop and Upload controls. If you start again from scratch, click 'Discard' first.
Nora keeps recording as you move through the other consultation tabs, you don't need to stay on Clinical Notes. Narrate what you observe as you examine the patient (for example: "Abdomen is soft, no tenderness, bowel sounds present") since Nora can only document what it hears.
Note: Nora needs at least 10 seconds of audio to process a recording, stopping sooner shows a reminder to keep going. Obtain the patient's consent before you start recording. Nora currently supports English and Afrikaans only; if you consult in another language, dictate a recap to Nora in English afterwards instead. If you switch to a different patient while a recording is still running, Nora automatically pauses it and notifies you, if you then try to stop or manage the recording from the new patient's file, it redirects you back to the original patient's active recording instead.
6. Click 'Stop and Upload'
Location: Nora panel
When you're done, click the red 'Stop and Upload' button. Nora uploads the audio and works through three stages: 'Processing Audio', 'Summarising consultation', and 'Generating notes'.
7. Review the generated notes
Location: Consultation › Clinical Notes tab
Once all three stages show a checkmark and the panel reads 'Notes Available', your structured note appears in the 'Capture general clinical notes' field, timestamped to the moment it was generated. Read it over and edit anything you want to adjust before finishing the consultation. If something looks off, click 'Regenerate Notes' to have Nora reprocess the same recording.
You should see: a note written in the template you chose (for example, a SOAP note with Subjective, Objective, and Assessment & Plan sections) built entirely from what was said during the recording.
Nora replaces manually typed notes, it doesn't merge with them: If you type anything into the 'Capture general clinical notes' field and then run Nora, its generated note completely replaces what you typed the moment processing finishes, even if Nora's recording captured little or nothing clinically useful. In our testing, a manually typed note was fully wiped and replaced with "(All sections were omitted as the transcript did not contain any clinical information.)" once Nora finished. Decide before you start a consult whether you're typing or using Nora for that note, don't do both.
Get the best results from Nora
- Recording device, most devices you run Healthbridge Clinical on already have a built-in microphone. If yours doesn't, or you move around a lot during consultations, a compatible external microphone works too.
- Audio quality, place your device close to both yourself and the patient, and speak clearly. Nora can only document what it hears clearly.
- Recording length, only start recording once the patient is in the room, and pause if you step away or stop talking, to keep the recording focused and the note accurate.
- Consultation Mode vs Dictation Mode, Consultation Mode ambiently records the full conversation between you and the patient. Dictation Mode (limited to 3 minutes) is for speaking a summary or key points yourself, ideal for a quick recap after the patient leaves.
- Choose your default note format, click your 'Account' button in the top-right corner, go to Settings, and pick your preferred note template from the available professional formats. Remember to save your selection.
Frequently asked
Q: Will Nora fill in the Examination tab vitals for me?
No. Nora writes to the Clinical Notes tab only. Vitals and examination findings on the Examination tab still need to be entered manually, even if you mentioned them out loud during the recording.
Q: Do I need to tell the patient I'm recording?
Yes. Obtain the patient's consent before you click 'Start Recording'.
Q: What languages does Nora support?
English and Afrikaans. If you consult in another language, dictate your notes to Nora in English after the consultation instead of recording live.
Q: Why won't Nora let me stop recording right away?
Nora needs at least 10 seconds of recorded audio before it can process a note. If you stop sooner, you'll see a reminder to keep recording a little longer.
Q: If the note isn't quite right, do I have to record again?
Not necessarily. Click 'Regenerate Notes' to have Nora reprocess the same audio, useful if the first pass missed something. You can also edit the generated text directly in the Clinical Notes field. If the audio itself was the problem (too quiet, cut off), you'll need to re-record.
Q: Do I need a special subscription to use Nora?
Yes. Nora is managed under its own subscription tiers (Lite, Premium, and Pro), separate from the Clinical Assistant document generators. Your available note templates and features depend on your current tier.
Q: What happens to notes I typed manually before starting Nora?
They get overwritten. Nora doesn't add to or merge with existing text in the Clinical Notes field, once it finishes processing, its generated note replaces whatever was there, even if that was your own typed note. Pick one approach per consultation: type it yourself, or let Nora write it.
Q: What happens to my recording if I open a different patient's file?
Nora automatically pauses the recording and notifies you, so you don't accidentally capture the wrong consultation. If you try to stop or manage the recording from the new patient's file, Nora redirects you back to the patient whose recording is still active.