How Does Note Designer Differ from Other AI Note Programs?

There are now many AI note-writing tools out there for therapists, but Note Designer was built by clinicians with special attention to the ethics (not just the legalities) involved in using AI in mental health documentation. Note Designer has been helping clinicians complete their documentation well before AI ever entered the scene and we are committed to ensuring that fellow clinicians maintain their professional integrity while making good use of this new technology.

Though Note Designer includes AI assistance for all kinds of note writing and reports, using it remains completely optional – the clinician chooses whether to use it on a note-by-note basis. (And for clinicians who wish to opt out of using AI altogether – we offer Note Designer Classic).

Unlike some programs that record your sessions or use patient data to “train” their AI, our Ethical AI never records, stores, or shares your information. Everything runs securely in your own browser. You stay fully in control of what gets written, and your clients’ privacy is protected.

Most of the AI programs out there record private sessions to create a transcript that then gets turned into a note – we are opposed to this on ethical and clinical grounds in mental health practice and, at present, there is not sufficient oversight nor regulation regarding how clinical information is managed by these big technology companies. Some of the companies also use ChatGPT or other third-party AI systems that have been known to sometimes leak or mishandle information (that is not a chance we think is wise to take with mental health information).

Our AI system is privately hosted and there is no third-party managing the inputs and outputs. For further information about our perspective on AI in mental health practice here are the links to my other blog posts about this important topic:

What We Lose When We Outsource Our Minds: The hidden cost of AI scribes in therapy documentation

The Silent Third Party: Ethical Dilemmas of AI-Powered Transcription-Based Documentation and its Potential Threat to the Therapeutic Process

Note Designer’s Ethical AI

Photo of Patricia C. Baldwin Co-Founder of Note Designer Inc.

Patricia C. Baldwin, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychologist

Co-Founder of Note Designer Inc.

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