Generate a Referral Letter

The AI-Powered Referral Letter automatically drafts structured, clinically detailed referral letters for specialists. It intelligently pulls relevant data from the patient's record to ensure the specialist receives a comprehensive overview, enhancing your professional image and ensuring seamless continuity of care.

Generate a Referral Letter

What: Referral Letter is an AI generator in the Clinical Assistant panel that drafts a structured specialist referral, pulling the most relevant data from the patient's timeline.

Why: It curates demographics, allergies, medications, history, and recent lab results tailored to your stated reason for referral, saving you from assembling all of that by hand.

When: Whenever you need to refer a patient to a specialist, from the Patient Overview, or mid-consult from the Plan tab.

Steps

1. Open the patient's file

Location: Calendar, Waiting Room, or patient search

Open the patient's file from your schedule, the Waiting Room, or the search bar. You can generate a Referral Letter from the Patient Overview at any time, or from the Plan tab's 'Letters' section while a consultation is open, both use the same generator.

Patient overview for Brian Nkosi showing conditions, medications, and the lightbulb Clinical Assistant icon in the right sidebar

2. Open the Clinical Assistant panel

Location: Right sidebar

Click the Lightbulb icon in the right-hand sidebar. Under 'Generate documents', click 'Referral Letter'.

Clinical Assistant panel open, showing Generate documents section with Visit Summary, Custom Document, Medical History Summary, Motivation Letter, and Referral Letter cards

3. Describe the reason for referral

Location: Referral Letter dialog

A dialog titled 'Referral Letter For [Patient name]' opens, with tabs across the top for all five document types. In the field labelled 'Indicate the specialist, reason for referral, or details to emphasize', describe the purpose clearly, this is the single most important instruction, since it tells the AI what to prioritise. For example:

"Referral to a cardiologist for assessment of recurrent palpitations and chest pain."

"Please refer to a dermatologist for management of persistent eczema, unresponsive to topical steroids."

Referral Letter dialog with document type tabs at the top and the reason for referral typed into the instructions field

4. Click 'Generate'

Location: Referral Letter dialog

Click the orange 'Generate' button. The AI drafts the letter from the patient's timeline, demographics, allergies, medical history, medications, and recent lab results, structured around the reason you gave.

Referral Letter dialog before generation, showing the empty document area with 'Click Generate to create your document'

Don't leave the instructions field empty: Clicking 'Generate' with nothing typed in the instructions field doesn't fail with an error, it gets stuck on 'Generating Referral Letter...' indefinitely and never produces a letter. If a referral letter seems to hang forever, close the dialog, reopen it, and make sure you've typed a reason for referral before clicking Generate again.

Referral Letter dialog stuck on 'Generating Referral Letter...' with a spinner, because the instructions field was left empty

Location: Referral Letter dialog

Read the draft, structured with a subject line, reason for referral, history of presenting illness, and key clinical findings. If it needs changes, add a follow-up instruction (e.g. "Please include the full blood count results from last week") and click 'Regenerate'. Use the thumbs up/down icons to rate the result. When you're satisfied:

'Email', send it directly to the specialist's email address.

'Download', save it as a document to attach or print.

Generated Referral Letter showing a subject line, Reason for Referral, History of Presenting Illness, and Key Clinical Findings sections, with Email, Download, thumbs up/down, and Regenerate options

You should see: the letter is also saved automatically to the patient's timeline for future reference, you don't need to save it separately.

Advanced AI feature: The Clinical Assistant panel requires the Advanced AI subscription to be enabled on your account. If the panel doesn't load or the lightbulb icon is missing, your practice's Business Consultant can help activate it.

Frequently asked

Q: How does the AI decide what information to include in the letter?

The AI intelligently curates the most relevant clinical information based on the reason for referral you provide. For example, a referral to a cardiologist will automatically prioritise cardiovascular history and related test results, while a referral to a dermatologist will focus on skin conditions and treatments.

Q: Can I edit the letter after it has been generated?

Yes. The AI provides a comprehensive first draft. You always have full control to manually edit the text, add your own insights, or remove any information you feel is not relevant before finalising and sharing the letter.

Q: Why is 'Generating Referral Letter...' stuck and never finishing?

The instructions field is almost certainly empty. Close the dialog, reopen 'Referral Letter', type a reason for referral, and click Generate again. If your browser is blocking pop-ups, that can also interfere with 'Email' or 'Download' after the letter is ready, check for a pop-up-blocked notice in the address bar.

Q: Can I write a referral letter manually instead of using AI?

Yes. On the Plan tab's Letters section, under 'Referral letter', click '+ Add referral letter' to select a specialist from the Address Book and draft a referral manually without AI assistance.

Generate a Referral Letter