Co-developed by Sudbury physician, VisitRecap wants to empower patients to take care of their health
A pair of Ontario doctors wants to help patients take ownership of their health care with a new app aimed at alleviating some of the worry associated with medical visits.
VisitRecap uses AI to take notes on a patient’s phone during a visit with their physician. It then provides summaries on the discussion, including important decisions that were made and next steps for care.
It was co-developed by Dr. Joel Moktar, an orthopedic surgeon at Health Sciences North in Sudbury, and Dr. Pavel Antiperovitch, a cardiologist at University Hospital – London Health Sciences Centre, both of whom saw a need for the service in their respective practices.
“As someone moves through the health-care system, whether you see a pharmacist, a physiotherapist, a surgeon, or a doctor, you can keep track of different notes on this app, and it allows you to stay on top of your own health journey,” Moktar said.
“It really empowers patients to take care of their own health, because they’ll remember what was discussed.”
The duo developed their first app, QuickChart, about two and a half years ago. It’s geared toward physicians, enabling them to prepare charts, take notes, fill out forms, and more.
But they realized that while their company, and others like them, focused on health-care providers, there were fewer options available for patients.
“There’s lots of AI tools and lots of fancy technology for doctors, but the patients are still leaving the visits essentially empty-handed, and often have trouble remembering what was discussed, what they can and can’t do in terms of returning to work, when they can drive,” Moktar said.
“You know, sometimes people show up outside of the surgery room and they’re not even sure why they’re there, so we needed to build a solution that allows patients to remember what their doctor said.”
Moktar emphasized that VisitRecap is not an electronic medical record that stays with the patient’s doctor. The app takes notes and summaries of the visit without storing any audio, similar to the way a spouse or friend might jot down notes when accompanying someone to a doctor’s visit.
VisitRecap is a new app that transcribes what was discussed during doctors’ visits to help patients recall the details of the conversation. Screenshot
Though there are similar apps already on the market, Moktar believes VisitRecap has some unique features others don’t.
VisitRecap enables patients to prepare for a visit ahead of time, keeping track of questions they want to ask their doctor. Too often, Moktar said, patients aren’t sure what to ask or have used an online chatbot to search for information, leading them down “the wrong rabbit hole.”
“[VisitRecap] allows them to prepare for upcoming visits by asking reasonable questions that are grounded in Canadian health care,” he said. “During the visit, it allows them to take notes and recall what was said, and after the visit, it actually allows them to review those summaries in different languages.”
That enables the user to share the summary with anyone without language becoming a barrier.
A final feature is medication reminders. App users can take a picture of the medications they’re taking, upload it to the app, and the app will send reminders about the right time to take them.
In development for about six months before being released, VisitRecap was built using the same backend technology used in creating QuickChart, so it uses secure, Canadian-based infrastructure, Moktar said, and is compliant under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
Antiperovitch, who has two decades of software development experience, took the lead on its development, which has been all self-funded to date. Moktar said some of the revenue generated from QuickChart users has been re-invested into VisitRecap.
Currently, the app is free to use, although the partners are considering whether it could be monetized in some way. One option might be offering a free tier, along with paid tiers that offer users different options, such as more advanced summaries of their visits with references for further reading, Moktar said.
“We’re in discussions with various organizations — clinics, pharmacies, community groups — that are interested in procuring the solution for their members, and I think there may be a play there to get a larger organization to support the application rather than individual patients paying for it.”
In addition to taking notes during a medical visit, VisitRecap helps patients prepare for visits, offers the transcript in multiple languages, and reminds patients to take medications. Screenshot
Right now, the app is being used by about 500 patients across Canada. While the developers haven’t been tracking the types of patients most likely to use it, Moktar said he sees a difference among his own patients that are using the app.
They’re more educated and aware of their health, he said, in addition to being more prepared for the next visit. His office also seems to be getting fewer of the more common questions like, “How long do I wear the sling” or “When can I drive again?”
Future plans for the software include building a link between VisitRecap and QuickChart so that doctors can digitally send patients what Moktar calls “ancillary health documentation,” things like sick notes, work notes, summaries or handouts.
Papers are easily lost, he said, while emails can get swallowed up in a patient’s inbox. Each lab, clinic, organization or institution has a different patient portal and none of them talk to each other, he noted.
“Our goal for this is to turn it into a bit of a patient portal … so that you can gather, obtain, and securely store documentation on your own device as you move through the health-care system and for your own records,” Moktar said.
“The idea is that this is something that they control and they take with them, really, no different than if they have a good partner that sits beside them and takes diligent notes at all their visits. This, effectively, is using AI to help with that.”