AI Scribe for Infectious Disease
Document HIV follow-ups, OPAT progress, endocarditis consults, and bone/joint infections with the stewardship language reviewers and pharmacists want to see. CD4 and viral-load trends, MIC values, vancomycin troughs, and Modified Duke criteria are captured automatically.
Documentation for Every ID Visit Type
From HIV clinic to OPAT to inpatient endocarditis consults, the templates already understand what an ID note has to say.
HIV / PrEP Follow-Up
CD4 count, HIV-1 RNA viral load, ART regimen with adherence, OI prophylaxis, STI screen, and PrEP renewal documented in one pass.
OPAT Visit
Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy: weekly safety labs, line check, vancomycin trough or beta-lactam plan, and stop-date tracking.
Endocarditis Consult
Modified Duke criteria, organism plus MIC, valve involvement, embolic phenomena, surgical risk, and 4- to 6-week antibiotic plan.
Bone / Joint Infection
Osteomyelitis or septic arthritis: MRI findings, debridement status, biofilm risk, and tailored 6-week IV regimen.
Travel Medicine
Pre-trip risk assessment, vaccines (yellow fever, typhoid, JE), malaria chemoprophylaxis, and post-travel febrile work-up.
Hospital Consult
Same-day inpatient consult notes for fever of unknown origin, MDR pathogens, and source-control review with surgery or IR.
Built for Antimicrobial Stewardship
The features that make an ID note defensible to pharmacy, audit, and your own future self.
Antimicrobial stewardship in every note
Captures drug, dose, route, duration, indication, and de-escalation plan. The note records why a narrow agent was chosen over piperacillin-tazobactam, which is the language reviewers and pharmacists want to see.
CD4 / viral load trending
Pulls the last three CD4 counts and HIV-1 RNA values into the assessment automatically so you can document virologic suppression or rebound without flipping back to the chart.
Vancomycin and aminoglycoside dosing
Documents trough goal (e.g., 15-20 mcg/mL for endocarditis, 10-15 for skin and soft tissue), AUC target where applicable, and renal-adjusted dosing for CrCl tiers.
OPAT-ready progress notes
Tracks line type (PICC vs midline vs port), insertion date, weekly CBC/CMP, and stop-date countdown so you do not lose track across a 6-week course.
Modified Duke criteria
For endocarditis consults, the note tags major and minor criteria explicitly so the assessment reads "Definite IE by Modified Duke (2 major: typical organism on 2 BCx + new regurgitant murmur)."
Resistance and MIC capture
Records organism, susceptibility profile, and MIC values. If you mention "MRSA, vanco MIC 1.0," the note carries that into the plan and your billing supports the higher MDM weight.
A Real Day in ID Clinic
Why ambient documentation fits an ID workflow better than dictation.
An infectious disease day rarely looks like a primary-care day. You start at 7:30 with a stewardship round in the ICU — vancomycin troughs, source-control questions, a question from heme/onc about whether to extend the meropenem course in a febrile-neutropenic patient. By 9:00 you are in HIV clinic, where every visit is a data-rich follow-up: CD4 trend, viral load, ART adherence, partner notification, PrEP for the partner. After lunch you take three OPAT week-2 visits, an endocarditis consult on the cardiac telemetry floor, and a travel medicine pre-trip for a family flying to Tanzania next week.
The documentation problem is not volume — it is density. A single OPAT note may carry organism, MIC, antibiotic name, dose, route, frequency, duration, line type and date, weekly safety labs, vancomycin trough, renal function, and a stop date. Dictation handles this badly because you end up reciting structured data the same way you said it to the patient ten minutes earlier. Ambient capture is a better fit: the structured fields are picked up from the visit itself, and you spend your time editing the assessment, not reading lab values out loud.
PatientNotes was tuned with feedback from ID physicians in three settings — solo HIV practice, mid-sized OPAT groups, and academic consult services. The templates carry the language reviewers expect: Modified Duke for endocarditis, IDSA criteria for diabetic foot infection, "virologically suppressed" phrasing for HIV, and explicit de-escalation rationale on every antibiotic. If you want to see this on your own visits, the 7-day trial is enough — most ID users have a usable note out of their first OPAT visit.
Sample AI-Generated ID Note
An HIV follow-up visit drafted from a 28-minute encounter. Edit, sign, paste into Epic.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE FOLLOW-UP — HIV CLINIC Patient: 42M, established on ART since 2019. Last seen 12 weeks ago. Date of service: 2026-04-22 Visit type: 99214 (Established, moderate MDM) SUBJECTIVE: Doing well overall. No fevers, night sweats, weight loss, or diarrhea since last visit. Adherence: 100% by self-report and pharmacy refill audit (Walgreens, last fill 2026-04-09). No new sexual partners in 6 months; condom use inconsistent. Declines PrEP discussion for partner — partner already on TDF/FTC. Sleep, mood, and energy are at baseline. Denies neuropathy or rash. ROS otherwise negative. CURRENT REGIMEN: - Bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide (B/F/TAF) 50/200/25 mg PO daily — tolerated well, no GI side effects. - TMP/SMX DS 1 tab three times weekly (PCP prophylaxis — held since CD4 >200 x2 readings, see Plan). - HBV vaccine series complete 2021 with anti-HBs >100 mIU/mL. OBJECTIVE: Vitals: BP 124/76, HR 72, T 36.8C, Wt 78.4 kg (stable), BMI 24.9. Gen: Well, NAD. HEENT: Oropharynx clear, no thrush, no oral hairy leukoplakia. Lymph: No cervical, axillary, or inguinal lymphadenopathy. Skin: No rash, no Kaposi lesions. CV/Resp/Abd/Neuro: Unremarkable. LABS (today, point-of-care + same-day send-out): - HIV-1 RNA: <20 copies/mL (target of detection) — virologically suppressed, 7th consecutive value. - CD4 absolute: 642 cells/uL (38%) — up from 588 at last visit. - CMP: Cr 0.95, eGFR 92 mL/min/1.73m^2 — stable on TAF. - Lipid panel: TC 188, LDL 112, HDL 44, TG 142. - Hep B sAg neg, anti-HBs >100 mIU/mL (immune). - Hep C Ab neg. - Syphilis (RPR): non-reactive. - GC/CT (urine, rectal, pharyngeal NAAT): pending. - HbA1c: 5.4%. ASSESSMENT: 1. HIV infection (B20), virologically suppressed on B/F/TAF — 7 consecutive undetectable VLs; CD4 nadir was 198 in 2019, now 642. Continue current regimen; no resistance concerns; no archived M184V on prior genotype. 2. PCP prophylaxis: now safe to discontinue. CD4 >200 x2 sustained readings, no AIDS-defining illness. 3. Cardiovascular risk on integrase inhibitor: ASCVD 10-yr risk 6.4% — borderline. Lifestyle counseling today; statin not yet indicated. 4. STI screening up to date today; will follow up GC/CT NAAT results. 5. Health maintenance: Tdap due 2027, flu vaccine given today, COVID booster declined (had recent infection 2 months ago). PLAN: - Continue B/F/TAF 50/200/25 mg PO daily. Refill x90 days. - Stop TMP/SMX prophylaxis effective today. - Repeat HIV-1 RNA and CD4 in 6 months; CMP in 6 months. - Notify patient if GC/CT NAAT positive; treat per CDC 2021 STI guidelines. - Reinforce condom use given inconsistent barrier protection. - ASCVD risk re-evaluated annually; recommend Mediterranean dietary pattern. - Bone health: DEXA at next visit given long-term TAF and prior low vitamin D. - Anal cytology: due (interval 3 yrs in sustained suppression). - Mental health screen (PHQ-2): 0/6 — negative. - Vaccines reviewed: mpox vaccine 2-dose series complete 2023; influenza given today. - Follow-up: 6 months, sooner for symptoms. PATIENT-FACING SUMMARY (auto-generated for after-visit handout): Your HIV is well controlled. Your viral load is undetectable for the seventh time in a row and your CD4 count went up. We are stopping the antibiotic you take three times a week because your immune system is strong enough. Continue your daily HIV pill in the morning. Lab work and follow-up in six months. Time spent: 28 minutes face-to-face, including 12 minutes of MDM-relevant counseling. Billing: 99214. ICD-10: B20, Z21, Z79.899 (other long-term drug therapy). Signed: PatientNotes Clinical Team (draft) — pending physician review.
Real templates also ship for OPAT week-2, endocarditis consult, osteomyelitis, and travel medicine.
Intelligent ICD-10 Suggestions
The codes ID consultants reach for most often, surfaced as you document.
B20Human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] diseaseZ21Asymptomatic HIV infection statusI33.0Acute and subacute infective endocarditisM86.9Osteomyelitis, unspecifiedM00.9Pyogenic arthritis, unspecifiedA41.9Sepsis, unspecified organismA04.7Enterocolitis due to Clostridioides difficileB37.7Candidal sepsis (candidemia)CPT companions: 99244-99245 (outpatient consult), 99221-99223 (initial inpatient), 99231-99233 (subsequent inpatient), G2212 (prolonged service). Suggested per-visit based on time and MDM.
How ID Physicians Actually Use It
Three composite cases drawn from real PatientNotes accounts. Names changed.
Dr. Mira Patel
Solo HIV/STI clinic, Phoenix AZ
Mira sees 18-22 patients a day in her boutique HIV practice. Before PatientNotes she stayed past 8pm rebuilding viral-load trends and adherence narrative for each chart. Now she records the visit on her phone, the note arrives with CD4/VL trends pre-pulled, and she edits and signs from the parking lot. She kept the cost off her IT budget by paying personally — $50/month is below her old transcription bill.
Dr. James Liu
OPAT and ID consult group, 6 physicians, Raleigh NC
The group runs a busy OPAT clinic alongside hospital consults. They standardized on a shared OPAT week-2 template inside PatientNotes so every physician documents line type, weekly labs, and stop-date the same way. The pharmacy stewardship committee stopped flagging missing rationale fields. The group pays group billing of about $55/seat/month and saved roughly 11 physician-hours a week across the team.
Dr. Aisha Rahman
Hospital-employed ID consultant, 480-bed academic center
Aisha covers inpatient consults during weeks on service. Her hospital uses Epic. She found Nuance DAX too rigid for the rapid-fire consult cadence — every endocarditis consult required the same Modified Duke walk-through. She uses PatientNotes on her personal phone for the dictated portion, paste-bridges the result into Epic, and her sign-out time per consult dropped from 14 to 5 minutes. She still uses the hospital DAX license for clinic days but PatientNotes for consult weeks.
Coming from Microsoft Dragon Medical One?
Honest comparison. Dragon is mature, EHR-integrated, and many ID physicians know it well. The decision is dictation versus ambient.
Microsoft Dragon Medical One has been the default for ID dictation for almost two decades. It is mature, integrates with Epic and Cerner SmartPhrases, and many infectious-disease attendings learned to chart on it during fellowship. We do not pretend it is going away tomorrow. The honest distinction is dictation versus ambient: with Dragon, you talk and it types; with PatientNotes, the conversation between you and the patient becomes the note. For ID consults — where the work is reasoning out loud about MIC values, renal dosing, and Duke criteria — having the conversation transcribed and structured is materially less work than dictating the same content twice.
| Dimension | Dragon Medical One | PatientNotes |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $99-200/month per provider (perpetual or subscription via Nuance/Microsoft). | $50-70/month per provider on annual plan. No vendor minimums. |
| Setup | Microphone, voice profile training, IT-managed install. | Sign in on phone, web, or laptop. No hardware. Same day. |
| Style | Dictation. You speak the note out loud after the visit. | Ambient. Listens to the patient encounter and writes the note. |
| EHR write-back | Deep Epic / Cerner integration via SmartPhrases. | Clipboard paste, Chrome extension, SMART-on-FHIR (rolling out 2026). |
| ID-specific templates | You build them. | HIV, OPAT, endocarditis, bone/joint, travel, hospital consult shipped. |
| Best for | Solo dictators with established Dragon workflow and Epic SmartPhrase library. | ID physicians who want the note written from the visit conversation, not redictated. |
How to switch in 3 steps
- Sign up at patientnotes.ai and pick the Infectious Disease specialty during onboarding so the right templates load.
- On your next OPAT or HIV visit, record on your phone in your coat pocket. Keep Dragon open in parallel for a week if it helps your nerves.
- After two weeks, compare your Dragon notes against the PatientNotes drafts. Most ID physicians cancel Dragon at the end of the second week and keep the savings.
Detailed switch guide: Dragon Medical One vs PatientNotes.
PatientNotes vs Abridge and Nuance DAX
The ambient scribes you will hear about most in academic ID. Where each one wins.
Abridge and Nuance DAX (Dragon Ambient eXperience) are the two enterprise ambient scribes most often deployed at academic medical centers where ID divisions live. They are excellent products for the right buyer. The honest comparison: if you are a hospital-employed ID consultant and your CIO has already paid for DAX or Abridge, use it. If you are in a community ID group, OPAT clinic, HIV practice, or doing locums, the procurement, setup, and per-provider cost gap is significant.
| Dimension | Abridge / Nuance DAX | PatientNotes |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Enterprise contract; effective per-provider $200+/month, often bundled into a system-wide deal. | $50-70/month per provider. Annual or monthly. No procurement. |
| Time to first note | Weeks to months — IT scoping, deployment, training cohort. | Same day. Sign up, record one visit, edit, sign. |
| Ownership of the note style | Standardized to the system template. | Customize templates per physician or per visit type. |
| Works on personal phone | Generally no — managed device only. | Yes. iOS, Android, web. BYOD friendly. |
| EHR integration | Deep Epic integration including write-back and orders linkage. | Clipboard / extension today. SMART-on-FHIR write-back rolling out 2026. |
| ID-specific tuning | Generic medical model; specialty fine-tuning on roadmap. | ID templates and antimicrobial stewardship phrasing built in. |
| Best for | Hospital-employed ID consultants at large IDNs already on Epic + DAX/Abridge. | Community ID, OPAT, HIV, travel medicine, locums, and academic ID physicians who want a personal scribe alongside the institutional tool. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Specifics for ID physicians evaluating an AI scribe. Updated April 2026.
Does PatientNotes work for infectious disease?
Yes. PatientNotes was tuned on real ID workflows including HIV/PrEP follow-ups, OPAT (outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy) visits, endocarditis consults, osteomyelitis, and travel medicine. It captures CD4/viral-load trends, antimicrobial regimens with MIC data, vancomycin trough goals, and stewardship rationale without you re-typing them.
How much does an AI scribe cost for infectious disease?
PatientNotes is $50-70 per month for a single ID physician on an annual plan. Group ID practices and academic divisions get volume pricing. Comparable specialty scribes range from $99/month (Suki) to $200+/month (Nuance DAX), and Abridge is sold mainly to health systems with custom pricing.
Is Abridge or Nuance DAX better than PatientNotes for infectious disease?
Abridge and Nuance DAX are stronger if you are a hospital-employed ID doctor with a heavy Epic deployment and need IT to push the scribe to every workstation. PatientNotes is the better fit for community ID, OPAT clinics, and travel/HIV practices that want to start the same day, pay $50-70/month instead of enterprise rates, and keep the workflow lightweight. We do not pretend to compete on enterprise procurement; we compete on speed-to-value and price.
Can ID-specific notes be auto-generated?
Yes. PatientNotes ships templates for HIV initial intake, HIV follow-up, PrEP visit, OPAT week-2 check, endocarditis inpatient consult, bone/joint infection, travel pre-trip risk assessment, and post-exposure prophylaxis. Each template carries the data fields ID actually needs: organism, MIC, antibiotic name and dose, duration, target trough, and de-escalation plan.
Does it integrate with Epic and Cerner for hospital consults?
Yes. PatientNotes paste-bridges into Epic Hyperspace and Oracle Cerner via the clipboard or our Chrome extension, and we are rolling out a SMART-on-FHIR write-back during 2026. For ID consult services on EHRs that lack open APIs, the clipboard flow is what most consultants prefer anyway because it lets them edit before signing.
Will it help me bill ID-specific CPT codes correctly?
Yes. The note generator suggests E&M levels based on time and MDM (medical decision making) complexity, including 99244-99245 for outpatient consults, 99221-99223 for initial inpatient, and 99231-99233 for subsequent inpatient. For prolonged ID consults it adds G2212. The MDM ladder reflects the real complexity of multi-drug-resistant organisms and renal-adjusted dosing, which is why ID consults frequently bill at the 99245/99223 level.
How do I switch from Dragon Medical One to PatientNotes?
Dragon Medical One is a dictation tool: you talk, it types. PatientNotes is ambient: it listens to the conversation and writes the note. To switch, sign up at patientnotes.ai, record one OPAT or HIV visit on your phone, paste the resulting note into Epic, and compare. Most ID physicians cancel Dragon within two weeks once they no longer have to dictate the antibiotic plan twice.
Is it HIPAA compliant for infectious disease?
Yes. PatientNotes is HIPAA compliant, signs a BAA with every paying account, encrypts audio and notes in transit and at rest, and lets you set a zero-retention policy so audio is purged after the note is generated. This matters for HIV and STI documentation where 42 CFR Part 2 protections may also apply.
Spend the consult thinking about the bug, not the chart.
7-day free trial. No credit card. ID-specific templates ready to go on first sign-in.
$50-70/month after trial. HIPAA compliant. BAA on every paying account.