Abridge for Patients

Recording my appointments has been amazing, especially since my limited memory is a chronic issue. I wish I could export the information, especially as a text file so it could be incorporated into my text-based chronic health journal. The conversations can be shared with another person, but only within the app. I could play the audio and let my phone write it down (voice to text) but this seems like something that is a realistic addition for future versions of this app. The existing transcription is incomplete (only transcribes subsections of the conversation), and it doesn’t have perfect selection of which sections are the “important” information. The library of medical jargon didn’t recognize about half of the medical terms mentioned during the appointment, so I had to go in and change those manually. I noticed this occurred more often with abbreviations of diagnoses, including diagnoses that were recognized by the app when saying the full name.

I love this app and have found it SUPER helpful for my medical appointments. As someone with a chronic illness that involves several systems in the body, I have a bunch of appointments and sometimes they can be overwhelming with a lot of new information thrown at me. It is easy to miss some details that may be important. That is where Abridge comes in because you record the appointment and can go back to listen to either the whole appointment or go back to a certain part of the conversation. The app transcribes the recording and even picks out “meaningful moments” to make it easier to go back and find certain things mentioned like medications. I highly recommend this app especially for anyone who is chronically ill or for your elderly parents etc. The recordings can be shared with family members to keep them in the loop so everyone is on the same page in caring for you and/or your loved one.

This is a game changer when it comes to remembering things your doctor said, but not having to later sort through a long audio file without meaningful moments highlighted if you simply made a voice memo. Also allows for handy organization of all your visits so you don’t have to think “when was that when we...” with the titles and tag functions. Especially if you don’t have anyone to accompany your doctor appointment, to be able to debrief with afterward, this is super helpful to be able to be present in the moment with the doctor and have a meaningful discussion, without being distracted by trying to take notes and remember everything that was said during the visit. It will revolutionize your doctor appointment experience!! Especially if you have a complex medical history and a lot of doctor appointments, like me. But even for simple cases, it keeps everything organized and right at your fingertips. Can’t recommend it enough! If skeptical, just try it, it’s free!