Transcribing an appointment

Rebrief transcribes the appointment with this computer's mic and writes the clinical note while you work. Findings you say with a tooth number also go on the tooth chart. Probing depths go on the perio chart once you start charting.

Starting

A new appointment starts transcribing on its own, with a soft chime. If you open an ended appointment later, press Resume to carry on in the same note.

On a phone, a bar may ask you to Tap to start transcribing. Tap it once.

How to tell it's transcribing

On a computer or tablet, the status line at the top centre of the page shows it.

• It reads Started and the time, with End beside it and a count such as 4 min elapsed.
• While people talk, a saffron glow along the top edge moves with their voices.
• The Note tab shows a small mic.

The mic button at the far right of the status line shows which mic is in use. Click it to pick another. Switching keeps the transcript going, and this computer remembers your choice.

On a phone, the bar at the bottom of the screen holds End while Rebrief transcribes.

Where the words go

• Rebrief writes the note on the Note tab. It uses headings such as Clinical findings, Diagnosis, Procedure and Plan / Next visit. A heading appears only when the visit gives it something.
• Anything you type in the note stays as you wrote it.
• The Transcript tab keeps the words themselves.

A note you add on one of your templates gets its own tab. Rebrief keeps writing the Note tab.

Rebrief refines the note as you work

In a longer appointment, Rebrief gives the note a careful pass every so often. It fixes misheard words and numbers, adds facts the note missed, combines repeated lines and moves facts to the right section. It also takes out what the conversation doesn't support.

While a pass works, Refining shows on the note's bar. The words it changed take a saffron highlight, which fades once you've seen it. Undo on the note's bar takes back a whole pass in one step. What you typed is never changed.

On other pages

Rebrief keeps transcribing when you go to another page.

• A Scribe card in the bottom right corner shows what it heard last. Open takes you back. End ends the appointment.
• The Scribe row near the foot of the left rail shows it too. Click it for Open and End.

If the room goes quiet

After 3 minutes with no words, a warning appears: No audio detected, with a countdown. You have three choices.

• Keep transcribing carries on.
• End appointment ends it now.
• End and start a new appointment ends it and starts the next one.

Saying anything also carries on. The status line offers Still here, which does the same. If nobody answers within 3 more minutes, the appointment ends by itself.

A soft chime sounds when the warning appears, and a quick triple chime 10 seconds before the end. In the Windows app, the warning shows over every other window, even when Rebrief is minimized. Clinics connect their practice software to Rebrief through the Windows app, the Rebrief app installed on a clinic computer.

For long quiet procedures, switch off Auto-end in Settings › This computer. While it's off, an appointment keeps transcribing until someone ends it.

If the mic is the problem

When sound isn't reaching Rebrief properly, the status line reads Check mic input. Use the mic button to pick another mic, or check its mute button and cable.

If transcribing stops

Sometimes transcribing stops without End. For example, a browser tab hidden behind other windows can stop after 20 quiet minutes. The status line then reads Stopped, with Resume and End.

A stopped appointment ends by itself 10 minutes later unless you press Resume. Typing or clicking on its page restarts that clock.

When you press End

End stops transcribing, saves the note and the chart, and finishes the note from the whole visit.

• If Rebrief refined the note during the appointment, End reads the last part and makes one more careful pass.
• If not, End transcribes the whole appointment again, more carefully, and rewrites the note from both transcripts.

Either way, anything you typed stays as you wrote it. The status line reads Refining note, then Note ready. Then Rebrief checks the note and the chart. Ending an appointment has its own article.

Press Resume to carry on with the same appointment later. The next End finishes the note again.

English and French in the same room

Multilingual transcription, in Settings › Notes & dictation, is for clinics where English and French are spoken in the chair. It applies to every computer in the clinic. It follows both languages, at some cost in accuracy for dental terms.

Tips

• Add the brands, materials and abbreviations you use to My dictation dictionary, in Settings › Notes & dictation. The note spells them your way.
• Write your usual steps under My standard protocols in the same place. Say "procedure completed uneventfully" and those steps go into the note.