Using the AI Charting Assistant for Telehealth

In this article:

• Before You Begin
• Enabling Session Recording
  • Practice Better Telehealth
  • Zoom Meetings
• Choosing a Summary Format
  • Overriding the AI Summary Format for Individual Services
• Starting and Stopping a Recording
• Accessing Your Recording and Summary
  • Giving Team Members Access to Your Session Recordings
• Reviewing Your Session Recording
• Editing a Transcription
• Sharing a Recording With Your Client
• Last Session Recap

Before You Begin

The AI Charting Assistant add-on must be included in your subscription before you can use this feature. 

See Getting Started With the AI Charting Assistant →

Enabling Session Recording

Before your first session, you'll configure how recordings are initiated. The steps differ slightly depending on whether you use Practice Better's built-in telehealth or Zoom.

Practice Better Telehealth

To have the recording start automatically at the beginning of every session:

1. Go to your Settings (gear icon) and select Telehealth & Messaging.
    
2. Under Telehealth Video Chat, set the default video chat application to Use Practice Better.
   
    
3. Under the AI Charting Assistant section, check Enable recording of Practice Better telehealth sessions on start.
   
    
4. Click Save Changes near the top-right.

📍 Note: If you and your client will be speaking a language other than English, check Auto-detect language before your first session. Transcription is supported in Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Ukrainian. AI Summaries and action items are always generated in English.

Zoom Meetings

Alternatively, you can integrate your Zoom account with Practice Better to conduct all of your scheduled telehealth sessions through Zoom, while keeping your scheduling in Practice Better. 

1. Go to your Settings (gear icon) and select Telehealth & Messaging.
    
2. Under Telehealth Video Chat, set the default video chat application to Use Zoom.
   
    
3. Click Save Changes near the top-right.
    
4. Click the Edit Settings button, which will open your Zoom settings page in a new tab.
   

For the transcript and summary to display in Practice Better, you'll need to enable three settings in your Zoom account. Make sure your Zoom plan supports cloud recording before proceeding.

Enable the following in your Zoom account settings:

• Cloud Recording — follow the steps in Zoom's help center →
• Record audio-only files — follow the steps in Zoom's help center →
• Create audio transcript — follow the steps in Zoom's help center →

To auto-enable recording for all Zoom meetings, follow the steps in Zoom's help center to enable Automatic recording and select Record in the cloud.

Two additional settings help ensure recordings are associated correctly and accessible to Practice Better:

• Disable the Personal Meeting ID (PMI) for scheduled meetings in your Zoom dashboard. This ensures each recording is tied to a unique meeting room.
  
• If you require a passcode for cloud recordings, make sure the passcode is embedded in the shareable link. Otherwise, Practice Better will be unable to retrieve the recording.
  

Choosing a Summary Format

Your session summary can be generated in one of three formats. The default format applies to all sessions, but you can override it for individual services.

To set your default format:

1. Go to Settings & Preferences > Telehealth & Messaging.
    
2. Under the AI Charting Assistant section, select your preferred option from the Recording summary format dropdown.
   
    
3. Click Save Changes near the top-right.

The three built-in formats are:

• Narrative notes: a paragraph-style summary of the session.
• Outline notes: key topics and supporting bullet points.
• SOAP notes: structured sections for Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan.

💡 If you use the SOAP format, additional placeholders become available in your note templates for each SOAP component. This is useful if your note template separates these sections into individual text boxes.

Overriding the AI Summary Format for Individual Services

You can override the default format for specific services. For example, you may prefer a narrative summary for discovery calls and a SOAP note for follow-up consultations.

1. Go to My Practice > My Services and click Edit on the relevant service.
    
2. Under Booking Options, select your preferred option from the Recording summary format field.
   
    
3. Save your changes.

Starting and Stopping a Recording

Practice Better Telehealth

Recording starts automatically when you click Start session if you've enabled the auto-record setting above. Your client will be notified that a recording is in progress when they join.

📍 Note: If it's your first time launching this session, you may see a secondary Start session button within the telehealth window. Click it to begin.

You will see the recording indicator in the top left corner of the telehealth window, and the recording button will be solid red.

To manually start or stop recording during a session, click the Start recording button at the bottom of your telehealth screen.

Zoom Meetings

To manually enable recording during a Zoom meeting:

1. Click the Record button at the bottom of your screen.
2. Select Record to the Cloud from the options provided.
   

To auto-enable recording for all Zoom meetings, see the Zoom configuration steps in the section above.

Accessing Your Recording and Summary

Recordings are available shortly after your session ends; however, processing times may vary. You'll receive a notification in your portal, and an Instant Alert on your desktop or mobile device if enabled.

For Zoom meetings, the recording will appear in your portal shortly after you receive a notification from Zoom that the audio transcript of your cloud recording is ready.

You can access a recording from these places:

• The Session Details page for the relevant session.
  
   
• The client's Notes & Recordings section in their client record, under the Recordings tab.
  

Clicking View from the recording opens a floating recording hub in your page, which you can drag, minimize, and expand while working on notes, protocols, and other resources.

Learn more about Reviewing Your Session Recording →

Giving Team Members Access to Your Session Recordings

By default, session recordings are only visible to the practitioner who recorded them. 

💡 You can control recording access on a per-team-member basis using the Advanced option in Team Member Access settings. See Understanding Team Member Access to Client Work →

To allow other team members to view your recordings, three settings must all be enabled:

1. In Settings & Preferences > Telehealth & Messaging, under the AI Charting Assistant section, check Allow team members to access my telehealth recordings. 
   This grants other team members permission to access your recordings specifically.
   
    
2. The team member must have View access for Clients: Recordings in their role permissions. (Only the Practice Better account owner or practice admin can set team member permissions).
    
3. The team member must have Team Member Access set to include other team members, not just themselves. (Only the Practice Better account owner or practice admin can update team member access).

⚠️ Important: All three settings must be active for access to work. Enabling this checkbox alone is not sufficient if the team member's role permissions are not also configured correctly.

Reviewing Your Session Recording

Once you have your session recording open, this modal will stay open as you navigate around your Practice Better portal, like a Client Hub. This enables you to reference your recording while you work. You can have more than one session recording open at once, collapse them into the top bar, and click and drag the top bar to move the session recording hub around your screen. 

Summary

The summary gives you a quick overview of the session's key themes without reviewing the full transcription. With outline-style notes, clicking a bullet point jumps to the moment in the transcription when that topic was discussed.

📍 Note: Summaries are a one-time generation and cannot be regenerated after processing.

Action Items

Action items are the to-dos you and your client discussed during the session. Click an action item to create a task for yourself or your client. For booking-related action items, you'll have the option to schedule the next session directly, or click the Send invite to book icon to invite your client to book themselves.

Bookmarks

Each recording includes auto-generated bookmarks for key moments in the session. Click a bookmark to jump to that point in the transcription. 

To add your own bookmark, hover over any chat bubble in the transcription and click the Add bookmark icon in the top-right corner. Click this icon again to remove a bookmark. 

Viewing Recordings While Working With Notes

If a recording is linked to a note, click View recording at the top of the note page to open it. You can also access all recordings for a client through the Client Hub within the note or the client record.

Downloading a Recording

To download the audio or transcription from the Session Details page, click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the recording and select your preferred download option.

To download from within the recording hub, click the More Options menu (3 dots) in the bottom-right corner of the hub.

Editing a Transcription

Background noise or crosstalk can occasionally affect transcription accuracy. You can edit the transcription at any time to correct names, terms, or other details.

1. Open the recording and click the Edit transcription icon in the top-right corner.
   
    
2. Click the portion of text you want to edit and make your changes inline.
    
3. Click the checkmark to Save your corrections.
   
    
4. Switch between the edited and the original transcript by using the toggle to the right of the search bar within the recording hub.
   

To get the best transcription results from the start:

• Conduct your session in a quiet environment to minimize background noise.
• Avoid talking over your client, as overlapping voices make it harder to distinguish speakers.
• Use a headset or noise-canceling microphone where possible.

Sharing a Recording With Your Client

Session recordings are only accessible in the practitioner portal. To share a recording with your client, download the audio file and upload it to the client's Notes or Documents section.

📍 Note: Clients do not have direct access to session recordings.

Last Session Recap

When conducting a telehealth session with a client who has a previously recorded session, a Last session recap button appears in the bottom-left corner of your screen. Click it to view the summary and action items from the previous session without leaving the telehealth screen.