How to Choose an AI Scribe for Your Allied Health Practice

Full disclosure: I founded CliniScribe, an AI scribe for allied health, so weigh my view with that in mind. This is the checklist I'd want as a clinic owner, whichever product you choose.

For many clinicians, an AI scribe is the first AI tool that genuinely gives time back. But they aren't all the same, and a demo tells you very little. Here's what to check.

Start with your consultations, not the demo

A demo is designed to go well. Your Tuesday afternoon isn't.

Trial any scribe on your own consultations, with patient consent, for at least a week. Include the awkward ones: the talkative patient, the complex history, the session where you dictate findings mid-treatment. Then compare the drafts with what you would have written.

Check it understands your profession

Allied health notes aren't GP notes. A physiotherapy note has special tests, ranges of motion, outcome measures, exercise prescription and a lot of shorthand. Podiatry, psychology and occupational therapy notes have their own conventions.

Look closely at the details that matter most. Does it keep left and right straight? Does it record only what you found, not everything that was discussed? Can it tell conversation from your own dictation? Does it use your profession's terms, and your clinic's shorthand, correctly?

Small errors here aren't small. They become part of a legal record.

Know exactly where the data goes

Ask every vendor the same questions:

• Where is the data hosted, and does it leave Australia?
• How long are recordings kept, and can you control that?
• Is your data used to train the vendor's models, or anyone else's?
• Which third parties can access it?
• What happens to your data if you leave?

These are the questions Australia's privacy regulator recommends asking of any AI product, and Ahpra expects you to know the answers. If a vendor is vague, move on.

Make consent easy

Patients should know AI is involved, and recording generally needs their consent, as I explain in what Ahpra expects. Good tools make it simple to record consent, and easy to work without recording when a patient says no.

Check it fits your practice software

A great note you then copy and paste into another system has only solved half the problem. Check whether the scribe connects directly with your practice management software, and whether the note lands in the right patient's file without extra clicks. Integration is often the difference between a tool people love and one they abandon.

Look beyond the progress note

Much of allied health paperwork isn't the daily note. It's referral letters, GP updates, treatment plans patients can follow, insurer and workers' compensation forms, and NDIS reports.

Ask what else the tool can draft from the same consultation, and apply the same standard to all of it: you review it, you can explain it and you sign it. A recent NDIS tribunal decision showed what happens when AI-drafted reports go out unchecked.

Make review fast

You must check every note before it's saved, so editing matters as much as the first draft. Is it easy to correct a sentence? Can you adjust templates so the same fix isn't needed every time? A tool that makes review quick is a tool that gets reviewed properly.

Read the pricing, terms and support

Check the price per clinician, what's included and whether you can trial it on real consultations. Look for month-to-month options, simple cancellation and a way to export your data; lock-in is a warning sign. And ask who you'll talk to when something breaks at 8am on a Monday, and whether they know allied health.

---

Whichever scribe you choose, you still check every note and own every word.