How Ona's AI works with your data

Ona uses AI in several places in the dashboard, including Ona Assistant, AI-supported note editing, and visit recordings with transcription. These tools help draft, summarize, polish or suggest information. Treat AI output as something to review, not as a final clinical decision.

What is Ona's AI?

In the dashboard, Ona Assistant opens from the bottom-right dock, while AI note suggestions and recording tools appear on visit pages.

Use the Chat history (1) button to reopen an earlier conversation. Use the New chat (2) button to start over without the current thread. Use Attach files (3) when the assistant needs a PDF or image along with your question. Use Close (4) to close the assistant.

On patient, visit, and other dashboard pages, Ona Assistant can use the page context you already have open. In notes, AI can fill an empty AI field, revise selected text, or suggest answers for a note block. It can also suggest a paragraph block, and keeping that suggestion can turn the paragraph into text that joins adjacent text blocks. In visits, saving a recording can start transcription.

The important distinction is that assistant replies stay in the chat, while note suggestions appear in the note for clinician review before they are kept. Treat AI output as draft support, not as a final clinical decision.

For how to open and use the assistant, see Using Ona Assistant. For note review, see Reviewing AI revisions and proposals in a note and Reviewing and signing an AI-drafted note.

When should I use AI features in Ona?

In the dashboard and on visit pages, use Ona's AI when you want help turning available context into a draft, suggestion, or transcript that someone on your team will still review.

Common uses include asking Ona Assistant a question while you are viewing a patient or a visit, attaching a file to a chat, polishing note text, filling a note answer, or saving a visit recording so transcription can begin. These features can speed up drafting and review, but they are not a shortcut around clinician judgment.

How does Ona Assistant use the page I'm viewing?

In the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name, or click Visits, then click the visit, and then click Open Ona Assistant in the bottom-right dock to chat with the context of the page you already have open.

Use Patients (1) in the left sidebar when you want to open a patient chart first. Use Open Ona Assistant (2) to open the assistant from the dock on that page.

Attached page context appears as badges in the chat. On visit pages, those badges can show both patient and visit context, and on other dashboard pages they can show that page context too, so you can see what the assistant has available for that conversation.

You can remove a context from its badge before you ask your question. You can also reopen an earlier conversation, or choose New chat to start a fresh one.

For how to open and use the assistant, see Using Ona Assistant.

How do file attachments work in Ona Assistant?

In the bottom-right dock, click Open Ona Assistant when your question depends on a document or image, not only on page context.

Use Attach files (1) to add files before sending your message. Use Ask anything (2) to type your question. Use Send (3) after the files finish uploading.

You can also drag files into the assistant or paste them into the message box.

You can attach images in JPEG, PNG, WebP or HEIC format, plus PDFs. Each file can be up to 10 MB, and you can attach up to 5 files to one message.

Files upload before the message is sent. If a file does not meet the type or size rules, Ona does not attach it and shows an error. If you add too many files, Ona shows Too many files. If an upload fails, Ona shows Upload failed and Remove failed files and try again.

A message can include text, attachments, or both. After you send it, image and file attachments appear in the conversation.

How does AI help with notes?

In the left sidebar, click Visits, then click the visit. On the visit page, AI works on a specific target at a review point instead of rewriting the whole note without review.

Use the first Add a note (2) control and the second Add a note (3) control to start working in the note area shown in this screenshot.

A suggestion can target an inline AI element, a selected passage, a note block, or a paragraph block. Ona can fill an empty target, Regenerate existing content, or Polish a selected passage. It can also suggest answers for structured note blocks.

If Ona has nothing to add to an empty AI field, the note can show Left empty by Ona with Nothing in the record to fill this with. From there, you can choose Try again or Write by hand.

Ona keeps track of what was there before the suggestion. A clinician reviews the suggestion in the note, then either keeps the AI wording, restores the prior content, or edits the proposed wording. If the clinician edits what Ona placed, that counts as keeping the changed version. For selected passages, keeping removes the revision marker from the note. For a paragraph block, keeping can settle the paragraph into the surrounding text so it joins adjacent text blocks.

If a fill, regenerate, or polish request comes back with nothing to change, nothing is added to the note. Review the result in the note before you keep it in the chart.

How do visit recordings and transcription work?

In the left sidebar, click Visits, then click the visit. On the visit page, recording controls appear in the visit dock and can capture audio through the browser microphone.

Use Start recording (1) to begin capture. Use the Mode (2) area to see whether the visit is In person or Video call. Use the Visit (3) area to see recording progress and review state.

A recording in progress stays attached to the visit it started on while you move around the dashboard. If you are viewing another patient's visit when you try to resume a recording, Ona asks you to confirm before it resumes so you do not send the audio back to the wrong chart. The back link in the dock shows the pinned patient's name in that case, so you can see which chart the recording belongs to.

After you stop an in-person recording, you can play it back, change the Label, choose Discard, or choose Save recording.

When a recording uploads, the dock shows upload progress with the title Saving recording, the label Recording upload, and a Finishing… status while it completes. If saving fails, the recording stays in review and shows Save failed.

If the browser blocks microphone access, Ona shows Mic blocked and asks you to allow microphone access in the browser.

If you try to leave the clinic dashboard for a page outside it while a recording is in progress, Ona warns that the recording stops and its audio stays on this device and comes back when you return. If you try to sign out, Ona shows a separate warning titled Sign out with a recording in progress? and says the audio stays on this device and comes back when you sign in again.

For the full recording workflow, see Recording visits with Ambient Scribe.

How does transcription work during a live video call?

On the same page, in Video call mode, the dock can show a transcription setting. If the call is already in progress, changing that setting requires confirmation.

The warning explains that changing the recording setting restarts the meeting room. Everyone currently in the call, including the patient, is disconnected and has to rejoin using the same link.

To leave the setting unchanged, choose Keep as is. To continue with the change, choose Turn on and reconnect or Turn off and reconnect.

What can't I do here?

Ona Assistant replies stay in the chat, and AI note suggestions are not final charted content on their own. Clinicians review AI-generated note content before keeping it in the note.

On archived patients or archived visits, the visit dock does not offer recording or call-join actions.

While a recording is in progress, you cannot leave the clinic dashboard or sign out without deciding whether to keep the audio on this device or discard it. Leaving the dashboard uses Leave with a recording in progress? with Stop and leave. Signing out uses Sign out with a recording in progress? with Stop and sign out.

If you try to resume a recording while viewing another patient's visit, Ona opens a confirmation flow before it resumes so the recording stays with the pinned patient's chart.

If you change the transcription setting during a live Video call, the meeting room restarts and everyone in the call has to rejoin.

Common questions

Does AI add information to the chart automatically?

Assistant replies stay in the chat. In notes, AI suggestions are something a clinician reviews in the note before keeping them. On patient, visit, and other dashboard pages, Ona Assistant can also use the page context you already have open.

Can a message include only attachments, or do I need text too?

A message can include text, attachments, or both.

What happens if a file upload fails?

Ona marks the upload as failed and shows Upload failed with Remove failed files and try again. Remove the failed file before you send the message.

What happens after I save a recording?

Ona shows upload progress in the dock with Saving recording, Recording upload, and Finishing… while the file finishes uploading. If saving fails, Ona keeps the recording in review and shows Save failed.

What happens when I keep a paragraph suggestion in a note?

Ona settles the paragraph into the surrounding text so it joins adjacent text blocks.

Can I discard an AI note suggestion?

Yes. Discard restores what the target held before the AI suggestion. If the suggestion made no change, discarding removes the review marker for that suggestion.