Dr. Ben Albert × Heidi at a Glance
I like my notes to be very specific. Heidi let me make templates that sound like me, and then I stopped thinking about formatting.”
Dr. Ben Albert
Key outcomes
- Reduced pre-op documentation time from 15–20 minutes to a few minutes. “That process now can take me a couple minutes.”
- Patient-friendly after-visit summaries that reflect his voice and tone. “It’s still me because I templated it.”
- Hybrid clinic workflow: ambient capture for visits, targeted dictation for surgical assessments and plans.
- Seamless teamwork: nurse practitioner begins notes, Dr. Albert completes them mid-visit or afterward.
- Comprehensive pre-surgical templates capturing risk factors, instructions, and billing evidence without extra clicks.
Background
Dr. Ben Albert runs a focused orthopedic surgery practice specializing in hip and knee replacements. As a solo practitioner with a nurse practitioner in clinic and a PA assisting in surgery, he balances high patient volume with hands-on involvement in every visit.
A long-time early adopter of AI in medicine, Dr. Albert had experimented with several dictation tools before trying Heidi. What stood out immediately was the flexibility.
“I’ve used AI for years. I want my notes to be very specific. Heidi let me customize them to exactly what I wanted.”
With that flexibility, he transformed documentation from a chore into something that worked seamlessly around his clinical rhythm.
Challenges
- Maintaining precision and personality: Dr. Albert wanted notes that mirrored his language, particularly in assessment, plan, and patient explainers -“Warm and friendly, common language, don’t use medical terms.”
- Capturing complex pre-surgical details: Pre-op visits required a mix of labs, risk factors, detailed instructions, and billing documentation.
- Asynchronous team workflow: His nurse practitioner often starts visits, and he finishes later. The process needed to flow cleanly without repetition or data loss.
- Cognitive fatigue from formatting and repetition: He wanted to think about care—not spacing, phrasing, or whether key information was included.
Solution
Dr. Albert built roughly twenty visit-specific templates in Heidi. He began by drafting initial frameworks in ChatGPT, then refined each within Heidi until every section—from pre-op notes to after-visit summaries—reflected his preferences.
- Ambient capture allows him to focus fully on the patient during conversations while Heidi listens in the background. “I talk, it listens. Then I review instead of writing from scratch.”
- Targeted dictation captures physical exams and assessments exactly as he speaks them.
- Structured pre-op templates include spacing, risk-factor capture, disposition, and time/billing attestations. “That’s my longest note… Now the review can take a couple minutes.”
- After-visit summaries mirror his tone: warm, encouraging, and easy to understand. “It’s an expression of me.”
- Quick-call templates document phone encounters with patients or referring providers.
- Operative note generation creates indication and plan sections that can be appended to hospital reports.
“It’s ambient when I want to just talk, and dictation when I need precision.”
Workflow Walkthrough
Before the visit: The nurse practitioner begins the encounter, initiating Heidi to record the patient history. Imaging information is added later during review.
During the visit: Dr. Albert engages directly with the patient, focusing on discussion and decision-making. He completes dictation immediately after stepping out.
After the visit: Heidi structures the note automatically. After the visit Dr. Albert’s medical assistant and/or nurse practitioner makes minor edits, before Dr Albert finalizes it.
Pre-op visits: The pre-surgical template ensures every essential element is included: relevant labs, comorbidities, patient-specific risk factors, instructions, and disposition. A built-in time/billing block helps substantiate higher-complexity visits.
“It gets everything in there… all the evidence that I spent the time with the patient.”
Impact
Time that finally stays in the day
Pre-op note reviews that once took 15–20 minutes now take only a few.
“That process now can take me a couple minutes.” He finishes documentation within clinic hours instead of catching up at night.
Notes that don’t miss a thing
Each record captures the right risk factors, instructions, and follow-up details—no more reconstructing decisions after the fact.
“There are times my note will recommend a test I mentioned and forgot to order.”
Clear, human communication with patients
After-visit summaries reflect his voice, warm, plain, and encouraging, so patients actually read and understand them.
“It’s still me because I templated it.”
Cognitive relief for a busy surgeon
Formatting, spacing, and structure no longer compete for attention.
“My cognitive load is better spent thinking about their treatment plan, not formatting a note.”
What’s Next
Dr. Albert plans to continue refining his orthopedic templates and expand the same structure across every visit type. He’s also exploring new ways to capture patient intake information before the visit—so clinical time centers on care, not data collection. He believes this combination of thoughtful automation and human nuance will define the next era of orthopedic practice.
“Put in the work up front, then you set it and forget it.”
