Start a consultation
A consultation is the container for a single clinical encounter — its capture, transcript, draft note, and follow-up actions.
Purpose
Begin a new consultation attached to the correct patient, ready to capture.
Before you start
- You are signed in and your microphone works.
- You know which patient the consultation is for.
- You’re ready to confirm consent before recording. See Recording & consent.
Steps
Start a new consultation
From your workspace, start a new consultation.
Select and confirm the patient
Choose the patient, then confirm identity with a second identifier such as date of birth. If the patient is new, create their profile first. See Patient profile.
Choose the consultation type
If prompted, pick the consultation type. This can influence how the draft note is structured.
Review context
Take a moment to review the patient’s context and previous consults. See Using patient context.
Confirm consent and begin capture
Confirm consent, then start capture. See Ambient capture.
Safety notes
Confirm the patient before you begin. Everything you capture and draft attaches to the selected patient’s record. The wrong patient here is costly to unwind.
Common mistakes
- Starting a consultation on a similarly named patient.
- Beginning capture before confirming consent.
- Not creating a profile first for a genuinely new patient.
Troubleshooting
- Can’t find or select the patient? See Missing patient context.
- Selected the wrong patient? See Incorrect patient selected.