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Using templates

A template defines the shape of the note CleverConsult produces — the sections, the order, the level of detail. You are not limited to one.

You can have as many as you need​

Set up a separate template for each kind of interaction you have: consults, follow-ups, procedure notes, and anything else your practice does. There is no cap, and there is no expectation that one template stretches to cover everything.

Most practices end up with a handful — a consult template that is thorough, a follow-up template that is much shorter, and one per procedure type.

You do not have to write them from scratch. The Smart Templates Gallery (Templates → Templates Gallery) holds templates shared by other CleverConsult users, which gives a sense of how finely people split them:

The Smart Templates Gallery, showing community-shared templates for follow-ups, triage, IBD consults, colonoscopy, pain consults and more

Open any card to read it in full, then Copy to Clipboard to adapt it, or Use this template to import it and start using it immediately.

How a template is written​

A template is not a rigid form. It is ordinary prose with instructions in square brackets:

The template editor, explaining that square brackets contain instructions for the AI and text outside them appears literally in the note

The rule is exactly as the editor states it: text inside [ and ] is an instruction to the AI; text outside the brackets appears literally in the finished note. So this line —

Thanks for referring along [patient name], a [patient age] [patient gender] for [patient condition].

— produces the sentence verbatim with the bracketed parts filled in.

That is why templates can be as loose or as strict as you want. An instruction like [list labs as a single paragraph, grouped by date, and showing most recent first. do not list any labs greater than 18 months old] is just a sentence telling the system what you want.

You do not have to pick one before each visit​

CleverConsult selects the template automatically. If the appointment is booked as a consult, you get your consult template; if it is booked as a follow-up, you get the follow-up template.

This is the normal path, and it means there is no extra step before a visit.

Changing it manually​

Automatic selection is occasionally wrong — rarely, but it happens, usually when the booked visit type does not match what the appointment turns out to be.

When that happens you can change the template manually. The selector sits at the top of the generated note, next to the "Generated Note" heading:

The generated note view, with the template dropdown next to the Generated Note heading

Pick a different template from that dropdown and the note is re-rendered against it.

You do not have to build them yourself​

Two routes to a working template:

  • Self-serve — write or adapt it yourself, using the gallery as a starting point.
  • CleverConsult builds it for you — hand over how you want your notes to read and it gets set up on your behalf.

The editor also has a review box that flags likely errors in a template as you write it, so a malformed instruction gets caught before it produces a bad note.

Working without a template​

There is no dedicated "no template" mode — CleverConsult organises the note around a template, so there is always one in play.

If what you want is a plain summary of what was said rather than a structured clinical note — the Otter or ChatGPT-style output — you can get it by making a template that does exactly that. Create a template, name it something obvious like Otter, and give it a single instruction:

[summarize exactly what is said]

Selected for a visit, that template gives you an unstructured summary. It is a template in name only, which is the point — and it works precisely because instructions are written in plain language rather than chosen from a fixed list.

The gallery's MD Advice template ("summarized conversation when provided phone advice") is a real example of the same idea.