SummarizeAI gives you a clear, structured overview of a patient's medical history without scrolling through years of records. It analyzes notes, vitals, medications, lab work, and visit records to generate an organized summary in seconds. This helps teams prepare for appointments, understand long term history, and make informed decisions quickly.
Navigate to: Admin > Clinic Settings > Practice Management > AI Settings to enable SummarizeAI.
What You Need to Know
SummarizeAI must be enabled in Admin > Clinic Settings > Practice Management > AI Settings before it can be used. AI features can be enabled or disabled individually per clinic.
Summaries are read-only and not part of the medical record. They are a live, on-demand view generated from data in Shepherd — not a static document, and not printable, exportable, or client-facing.
SummarizeAI only reads data entered directly in the Shepherd record. Uploaded documents, attachments, PDFs, and scanned records are not included.
Take A Look
How to Use SummarizeAI
First, you can access SummarizeAI in two places:
Patient Profile page in the Patient History Summary section
Active SOAP notes at the top of the S, O, A, and P tabs
Generate a Summary
Open a patient profile or start a SOAP (button available on top of S, O, A, and P tabs)
Click the blue SummarizeAI button
Wait for the summary to generate. This usually takes 10 seconds to 2 minutes depending on the size of the patient record.
Review the summary. It remains visible until the underlying patient data changes.
During generation you will see:
A Summarizing patient history message in the Patient History Summary section
A progress indicator (Activity Queue) in the lower right corner of your screen
You can navigate away. The summary will be ready when you return.
What the Summary Includes
Each summary contains five sections. All sections can be expanded or collapsed. All content is drawn from data already entered in the Shepherd patient record — uploaded documents, attachments, and scanned records are not included.
Summaries are read-only; to change what appears, update the patient record and regenerate.
Clinical Summary
The Clinical Summary section provides a high-level snapshot of the patient's medical background. It includes:
Patient signalment
Alerts
History of major/chronic problems
Vaccinations
Medications and preventatives
Behavior, lifestyle, and diet summary
Visit Recap
The Visit Recap section lists all visits by date, with the most recent first. Each visit includes SOAP details, and selecting a visit name takes you directly to that SOAP.
Medications and Supplements
The Medications and Supplements section organizes the patient's current and past medications into four categories:
Prescriptions
Treatments
Preventatives
Supplements
OTC
Lab Work (coming soon)
The Lab Work section will display recent lab results with dates, indicators for high or low values, and links to full lab reports. This section is not yet available.
Behavior and Lifestyle
The Behavior and Lifestyle section surfaces behavioral notes, lifestyle details, and diet information documented across the patient's record.
When a Summary Becomes Outdated
If any part of the patient record changes after a summary is generated, a notification appears letting you know that new data is available, what data has been added, and when the summary was last generated.
Click SummarizeAI if you want an updated version. Summaries do not refresh automatically so that you control when new processing occurs. Each regeneration creates a new summary; previous versions are not stored.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can use SummarizeAI?
Any team member with access to patient profiles or SOAP notes can use SummarizeAI — no special permissions are required to generate summaries. Managing AI Settings in Admin requires the AI Settings permission, which is configured in Roles.
Where do I manage SummarizeAI settings?
SummarizeAI settings are managed in Admin > Clinic Settings > Practice Management > AI Settings. From there, you can enable or disable SummarizeAI and other AI features individually. Only users with the AI Settings permission in their User Role can access this area. (Admin > Users > Roles > Permissions, Admin Tab.)
Does SummarizeAI read uploaded documents, attachments, or scanned records?
SummarizeAI only reads data already entered in the Shepherd patient record. It does not read uploaded documents, PDFs, attachments, scanned paper records, or handwritten notes. Information imported as a patient note is included. If something is missing from the summary, confirm it has been entered directly into the record in Shepherd.
Is the summary part of the patient's medical record?
No, the SummarizeAI summary is not part of the medical record. It is a live, on-demand view generated from the data in the record — not a static document. It cannot be natively printed, exported, or shared, and it is not visible to clients.
My summary looks incomplete or shows missing information. What should I check?
If the summary appears incomplete, first click the SummarizeAI button to regenerate it — the summary may not have been refreshed after recent notes were added. If information is still missing after regenerating, confirm that it has been entered directly into the patient record in Shepherd. SummarizeAI does not read uploaded documents, attachments, or scanned records.