How to dictate a letter with the Doctor Portal

The Dictation app in the Doctor Portal lets you record voice dictations against a patient booking and upload them to HealthTrack, where they are transcribed by AI and added to the patient's clinical record.

Before you begin

The Dictation app uses your Diary Sync Configuration to determine which bookings are visible. Set up your Diary Sync Configuration before using Dictation. To do so, please see How to view your appointments remotely.

Grant microphone access

The Doctor Portal requires microphone access to record dictations. Grant this permission before your first recording.

Android

On your first recording, Android will prompt you to allow microphone access. Select Allow. If you decline, a red error message appears — update the permission in your browser's site settings.

iPhone

Microphone permission must be granted at the start of each session in Safari. If you reopen the Doctor Portal, you will be prompted again. To set Safari to always allow access:

1. Open the Doctor Portal in Safari.
2. Tap the Page Settings icon to the left of the URL.
3. Tap the … options button at the bottom right.
4. Locate the Microphone permission setting and change it from Ask to Allow.

Computer

If your computer has a microphone, open the Doctor Portal website in your browser and allow microphone access when prompted.

Open the Dictation app

From the Doctor Portal, tap Dictation. The app displays a list of your bookings in Day view by default. Use the ☰ menu to switch between Day, Week, and Month views.

Bookings with recorded dictations show a status icon on the right:

Record a dictation

To start a dictation, tap a booking from the list. For a patient without a booking, tap the microphone icon at the bottom right of the screen and select Dictate for Patient, then search for and select the patient.

1. Select the patient from an existing booking, or use Dictate for Patient to search for a patient without a booking.
2. Select the Type of letter to create (e.g. letter to GP, referral, consult note). The last used type is pre-selected.
3. Tap the red New button at the bottom of the screen.
4. Begin dictating.
5. Tap the black Pause button to pause. Tap Continue to resume.
6. When finished, tap Done.

Manage your recordings

After tapping Done, you can manage the recording before uploading it.

Listen to a recording

Tap the recording, then tap the play icon. Drag on the timeline to jump to a specific point.

Record an additional part

Tap New to add another recording. Parts are numbered Part 1, Part 2, and so on.

Rename a recording

Tap the pencil icon next to a recording and enter a new name when prompted.

Reorder recordings

Tap and hold a recording, then drag it up or down to reposition it. The order determines how parts are merged in the final .mp3.

Overwrite part of a recording

Drag the timeline to the point you want to overwrite, then tap Continue. Confirm when prompted — everything from that point onward is replaced.

Delete a recording

Tap the recording, then tap Delete in the bottom left. Confirm when prompted.

Upload and create the letter

When your recording is complete, tap Create Letter in the top right corner. This combines all recordings into a single .mp3 file and uploads it to HealthTrack.

What happens next

After uploading, HealthTrack transcribes the recording using voice-to-text AI and creates a Clinical Record on the patient's file:

If a Clinical Record already exists for the booking, the transcription is added to it.

If no Clinical Record exists, a new one is created automatically. If no Clinical Record type has been nominated for the booking type, the Medical OUT folder is used by default.

The .mp3 recording is attached to the Clinical Record and can be played directly from HealthTrack using the Play button, or opened in an external media player from the Attachments tab.