Your patient is using OpenHand. Here is what that means for you.

A note from our Clinical Lead

I'm a board-certified practicing physician and one of the founders of OpenHand. I've been on your side of this: a patient arrives having read something, or with an app they want to use, and the first thing you think is whether it is going to cost you time and energy you do not have.

Simply put, OpenHand is a patient tool. Your patient runs it on their own computer during a telehealth visit. There is nothing for you to install, no account to make, and nothing that connects to your EHR. It will not message you and it will not write to the chart.

It listens only when your patient starts it, and if you would rather they did not use it, they should turn it off.

A decade-plus of clinical practice has taught me that care goes well when there is mutual understanding. When patients are prepared and empowered during and after their visits, the plan we agreed on actually gets followed. Clarifying terms and anticipating questions in the room means less time spent on the back end. OpenHand Sidekick supports this directly: it takes notes and explains terms as they come up, so the harder questions get asked and answered while the visit is happening instead of spilling into after-visit messaging.

What I hope you notice with the use of OpenHand is a patient who arrives already knowing what was discussed at a previous visit. Most of the follow-up messages I get are not new problems. They are a question I already answered, from somebody who was overwhelmed in the room. When a patient can go back and read what was said in language they understand, that conversation happens once instead of three times.

There are AI tools being built for clinicians, and there are AI tools being built for patients, but what we believe at OpenHand is that the tools that matter most are the ones that sit at the interface between the two. That is where trust in this new technology is actually being formed, and it is why we built OpenHand to support that human interaction rather than replace it.

What your patient is using

During the visit, OpenHand Sidekick follows the conversation and explains medical terminology as it comes up. Afterwards it gives the patient a plain-language summary and the next steps, in their own words rather than yours. It does not diagnose, treat or prescribe. It prepares your patient for the conversation with you and helps them act on it afterwards. Sidekick is a desktop app. This release works only for telehealth visits your patient takes on a computer, not on a phone and not for in-person appointments. Our mobile app is what will cover those, and it is not out yet.

That summary is a personal reference. It is not a clinical record and it does not try to stand in for one. Every summary a patient receives opens with this disclaimer:

What OpenHand asks of you

Nothing. To be specific:

• No account, no login, nothing to install.
• No EHR or portal integration. Nothing touches your systems.
• Sidekick will not message you, and it will not write to the chart.
• Sidekick does not diagnose, treat or prescribe. You provide the medical expertise.
• Sidekick only runs when your patient starts it.
• You run the visit exactly as you would otherwise.

Why consent is appreciated

We ask patients to let you know they are using OpenHand, and to switch it off if you would prefer. All of the clinicians we have spoken to are supportive of Sidekick once they know what it is for.

1. 1Helps patients ask better questions and engage more thoughtfully in their care conversations with you.
2. 2Supports patient follow-through on care plans when they can review visit details afterward.
3. 3Promotes clarity by helping prevent misunderstandings about what was discussed.

Where it goes

It belongs to your patient. It is encrypted in transit and at rest on enterprise-grade infrastructure, and every vendor who touches it has a business associate agreement with us. Your patient reads their own visit in full. Protected health information is stripped out of the technical logs our engineers use to find and fix problems. We do not sell it, we do not advertise against it, and we do not share it without your patient's consent.

OpenHand is not a covered entity under HIPAA, because your patient is using it independently rather than as a service your practice engaged. We hold ourselves to that standard regardless.