Home / Allied health / Draft de-identified SOAP notes with AI (physio guide)

Draft de-identified SOAP notes with AI (physio guide)

Turn quick shorthand after a session into a structured SOAP note, without putting patient data at risk.

7 min read · Tool: Claude or a clinical AI scribe

You can save serious time by letting AI expand your shorthand into a full SOAP note. The trick is to never give it identifying details, and to treat its output as a draft you check line by line.

Privacy firstCheck your organisation's policy and your registration body's guidance on AI before using it with any clinical information. General-purpose chatbots are not designed for identifiable health records.

How to do it

  1. Write your shorthand straight after the session. Leave out name, date of birth, address, Medicare number and anything else that identifies the patient.
  2. Paste the shorthand into the prompt below.
  3. Check every clinical detail. Delete anything the AI added that you didn't observe.
  4. Copy the finished note into your practice management software and add identifiers there.

The prompt

You are helping a physiotherapist write a clinical note. Expand the de-identified shorthand below into a concise SOAP note.

Shorthand:
[e.g. 34M, R knee, wk 6 post ACL recon. Pain 2/10 stairs. ROM 0-125. Quads lag minimal. SL squat ok to 60deg. Progressed to SL leg press 3x10 40kg, lateral step-downs. HEP updated. Review 1/52.]

Rules:
- Use standard physiotherapy terminology and abbreviations.
- Only include information from the shorthand. If something is missing, write [not recorded] — do not guess.
- Keep the Plan section as dot points.
Replace the [brackets] with your details
🩺 Get the full Allied Health AI Prompt Pack 30 privacy-first prompts for notes, reports, patient handouts, clinic admin and CPD. Instant PDF download.
Buy for $19 AUD

Tips

  • Dedicated AI scribes (with Australian data hosting and a signed agreement) are worth comparing if you write more than 15 notes a day.
  • Keep a list of your favourite abbreviations and add it to the prompt so notes match your style.

More for allied health professionals