Heidi Team
"It's really allowed me to focus and be more present when I am having a conversation with the parent or with the client." — Vicky Lo, Clinic Owner and Speech Language Pathologist, STEPS Therapies
Key outcomes:
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STEPS Therapies is a multidisciplinary clinic based in Okinawa, Japan, providing speech therapy and occupational therapy services to children and families. Led by Vicky Lo, a Speech Language Pathologist and clinic owner, the practice balances hands-on clinical care with the demands of managing and growing a team across disciplines.
As the clinic expanded and demand for services increased, Vicky needed to find ways to protect both clinician wellbeing and her own capacity to lead. STEPS Therapies serves a predominantly paediatric caseload, with sessions that are both cognitively and physically demanding, requiring clinicians to be fully attentive at all times.
As the clinic scaled, documentation began to impact not just workflows, but clinician focus, recovery time, and Vicky's ability to lead and grow the business.
"Before we started using Heidi, it was very much more of a manual traditional process." — Vicky
Across both speech and occupational therapy sessions, clinicians were taking notes live while trying to stay fully present, often dividing their attention during critical interactions with patients and families.
"I would do my notes during my lunch break, eating and then doing my notes at the same time." — Vicky
With back-to-back sessions, note-taking spilled into breaks, leaving little time to reset, particularly in a clinic environment where sessions can be both cognitively and physically demanding.
"We love seeing clients, but everyone hates doing paperwork." — Vicky
As STEPS Therapies grew, Vicky needed more bandwidth to focus on clinic management, team oversight, and expansion planning. With documentation demands eating into every part of the day, stepping back from the day-to-day admin felt impossible. The business could not scale if its owner was perpetually catching up on notes.
Vicky first discovered Heidi through a fellow speech therapist while visiting Sydney, where she saw firsthand how another clinic was using it to manage back-to-back sessions more efficiently. After researching available options, she decided to introduce Heidi to her team at STEPS Therapies.
"I took a template that was already available on Heidi and tweaked it to suit how I would like it. You don't need to reinvent the wheel if it's already there." — Vicky
The team started with existing templates and customised them to match their documentation style and EMR workflow. While there was an initial learning curve in fine-tuning templates, Heidi quickly became embedded in daily operations across the clinic. Equally important was the support behind the product. With a highly responsive team, Vicky and her clinicians were able to troubleshoot quickly, adapt workflows, and build confidence using Heidi from early on.
"That price comes with excellent communication and very great support. Your team has been really helpful." — Vicky
Custom templates were what made it click. Dr Hisham built his own around the way he runs new sessions and reviews, and uploaded them without friction.
The template system flexed to unusual situations too. When a couple booked back-to-back sessions in the same room, Heidi's team supplied a purpose-built template designed for two patients sharing a consultation space. Two sessions, one workflow, both notes clean. The kind of customisation that turns an edge case into a solved case.
Vicky’s favourite Heidi features:
"It gives back more time for me to do more important admin stuff, emails and other assessment reports." — Vicky
With Heidi in place, the impact extended well beyond time savings. The way care is delivered has shifted across the clinic, for clinicians and for the families they work with.
Key outcomes:
"It's really allowed me to focus and be more present when I am having a conversation with the parent or with the client." — Vicky
Clinicians can now give their full attention to patients without dividing focus between note-taking and the conversation in front of them. The shift has meaningfully changed the quality of every session.
“I feel like there’s a little bit more wiggle room within my schedule.” — Vicky
For Vicky, the time returned by Heidi has directly expanded her capacity to run and grow the business. Freed from documentation pressure during the day, she can now focus on clinic management, team leadership, marketing and expansion planning in Okinawa.
"You almost always respond within 24 hours." — Vicky
Responsive support has been critical in helping the team adopt Heidi confidently and maintain momentum. Fast turnaround on troubleshooting removed the friction that can stall adoption early.
“It doesn’t feel like I have to split my attention anymore.” — Vicky
Beyond time savings, Heidi has reduced the mental strain of juggling care and documentation across both disciplines, creating a more sustainable day-to-day experience for everyone in the clinic.
"I'm hoping that my therapists feel like they can have 100% focus on the time the patient is here, and not have to worry about note-taking and writing notes." — Vicky
With Heidi in place, Vicky is now focused on scaling STEPS Therapies, building a clinic where clinicians can give their full attention to care while she invests more time into leadership, operations and future expansion.
"Once you have such a great system going on and then you suddenly don't have it, I think I'd be pretty sad." — Vicky
With documentation handled in the background and reliable support keeping the clinic running smoothly, the whole team can finally be present where it counts. Heidi is helping STEPS Therapies grow in a way that puts people first.
Dr. Hisham Badaruddin
Founder and Longevity Medicine Doctor
Heidi Team
Laura O'Byrne
Co-founder and Principal Physiotherapist
Heidi Team
Andrea Chong
Psychodynamic Psychotherapist
Heidi Team