🇦🇺 Australia · Heidi Health — AI Clinical Documentation for Doctors
Status: 🟩 COMPLETE 🟦 LIVING Section: 10 — AI and LLMs
| Vendor | Heidi Health |
| Country/origin | 🇦🇺 Australia (Melbourne; founded 2019) |
| Recommended for AUS? | ✅ Strongly yes — Australian company; Australian-built for Australian clinical workflows; AHPRA-aware design |
| Privacy summary | Australian Privacy Act compliant; data stored in Australia (AWS Sydney); SOC 2 Type II; HIPAA capable; consent-driven; clinicians control patient data |
| Free tier | ✅ Free for individual clinicians (with limits) |
| Paid tiers | Pro tier (~$99 AUD/month) for unlimited use; enterprise tiers for clinics and hospitals |
| First released | 2019 (founded); major product launch 2022; rapid Australian healthcare adoption 2023-2026 |
| Last reviewed | June 2026 |
| Official site | https://heidihealth.com |
What it is
Heidi Health is an Australian AI startup that has become one of the most widely-adopted clinical documentation tools across Australian general practice, allied health, and specialist clinics. It listens to clinical consultations (with patient consent) and automatically generates accurate clinical notes — letters, referrals, prescriptions, and structured documentation — saving clinicians enormous amounts of time previously spent on paperwork.
The problem it solves: Australian clinicians spend up to 50% of their working hours on documentation rather than patient care. Notes after consultations, referral letters, care plans, progress notes — paperwork dominates clinical practice. Burnout from administrative load is a leading cause of clinician attrition.
Heidi’s approach:
- The Heidi app (browser or mobile) listens to the consultation (with patient consent)
- AI in real-time transcribes the conversation
- After the consultation, Heidi generates structured clinical notes formatted to standard templates (SOAP notes, progress notes, GP referral letters, specialist letters, etc.)
- The clinician reviews and edits as needed before saving to their practice management system
The output isn’t a transcript — it’s properly structured clinical documentation following Australian clinical conventions.
Why this matters for Australian healthcare
This is one of the most genuinely impactful AI deployments in Australian healthcare:
- Australian GP visit time: Standard Medicare-rebated consultation has been ~15 minutes for decades, with most going to documentation
- Heidi can reduce documentation time from ~5 minutes per visit to ~30 seconds of review
- Reclaimed time per GP: estimated 1-2 hours per clinic day
- Used by thousands of Australian clinicians by mid-2026
Beyond efficiency, the quality argument: rich, contextually accurate clinical notes can be more comprehensive than what a tired clinician writes between patients.
What you’d use it for (as a clinician)
- GP consultations: Standard, long, mental health (BBP, MHCP), chronic disease management, care plans
- Allied health sessions: Physiotherapy, psychology, podiatry, occupational therapy
- Specialist consultations: Variable templates by specialty
- Referral letters to other clinicians
- Progress notes for ongoing care
- Initial assessment notes
- Care plan templates (GPMP, TCA, mental health treatment plans)
How to access (Australian clinicians)
- Go to https://heidihealth.com
- Register with your AHPRA registration number
- Verify your professional credentials
- Download the app or use the web version
- Configure your templates (Heidi offers many Australian-specific templates out of the box)
- Integrate with your practice management system (Best Practice, MedicalDirector, Genie, Cliniko, Splose, Halaxy, etc.)
Important consent step: Before recording any consultation, inform the patient that AI documentation is being used and obtain their consent. Heidi provides patient information materials.
What it costs
| Plan | Price | Use case |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Individual clinicians; limited monthly consultations |
| Pro | ~$99 AUD/month | Individual clinicians; unlimited consultations |
| Clinic | Custom | Multi-clinician practices; admin features; shared templates |
| Enterprise | Custom | Hospital systems; SSO; advanced compliance |
For a typical Australian GP doing 30+ patients per day, the time savings dramatically outweigh the subscription cost — typical ROI within days.
How it compares to alternatives
| Tool | Country | Australian-specific |
|---|---|---|
| Heidi Health | 🇦🇺 | ✅ Built for Australian workflows |
| Lyrebird Health | 🇦🇺 | ✅ Australian competitor |
| Pulse | 🇦🇺 | ✅ Newer Australian entrant |
| Suki AI | 🇺🇸 | ❌ US-focused |
| DAX Copilot (Microsoft) | 🇺🇸 | ❌ US-focused |
| Augmedix | 🇺🇸 | ❌ Originally human-supported scribes |
| Nuance DAX | 🇺🇸 | ❌ Microsoft-owned; US |
Why Australian-specific matters:
- Different consultation patterns (15-min standard rebated, longer mental health, etc.)
- Different referral letter conventions
- PBS-aware prescribing context
- Medicare item number context
- AHPRA professional standards
- Australian English
Heidi is Australian-built, Australian-deployed, Australian-data — these are real, meaningful advantages for Australian clinical practice.
Privacy and consent — critical considerations
This is the most important section for any clinician considering Heidi:
Patient consent
- Always required. Patients must consent to AI listening to and processing their consultation.
- Best practice: Verbal consent at start of consultation, documented in the notes
- Some patients will decline — respect this; have a non-AI workflow available
- Vulnerable populations: Be especially careful with consent in mental health, child/adolescent, or capacity-affected consultations
Data storage
- Australian data residency: Heidi stores Australian patient data in Australia (AWS Sydney region)
- Encrypted in transit and at rest
- Patient information not used to train AI models without explicit institutional consent
- Audio recordings are deleted after note generation in default workflows
Australian Privacy Act compliance
- Sensitive information: Health data is “sensitive information” under the Privacy Act with heightened protections
- APP 11 security obligations: Heidi addresses through SOC 2 Type II controls
- Cross-border disclosure (APP 8): Australian data stays in Australia; this is core to Heidi’s positioning
AHPRA professional considerations
- Clinical responsibility remains with the clinician — AI generates notes; clinician reviews and is accountable
- Notes must accurately reflect the consultation
- Patient interests primary — including their right to refuse AI use
State-specific health records laws
- Victoria: Health Records Act 2001
- NSW: Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002
- Other states have similar legislation
- Heidi’s design addresses these but verify for your specific use case
Workflow integration
Heidi integrates with major Australian practice management systems:
- Best Practice (BP Premier) — most common Australian GP system
- MedicalDirector (Pracsoft) — major alternative
- Genie — popular in specialist practice
- Cliniko — common for allied health
- Splose — allied health
- Halaxy — multi-disciplinary practices
- Direct copy-paste to any system not specifically integrated
The clinician’s review-and-save step is preserved — Heidi doesn’t auto-commit notes without review.
Templates and customisation
Heidi includes Australian-specific templates for:
- GP consultations: Standard, long, mental health
- Care plans: GPMP (General Practitioner Management Plan), TCA (Team Care Arrangement), MHCP (Mental Health Care Plan)
- Referral letters: To specialists, allied health, hospital, etc.
- Progress notes for ongoing care
- Discharge summaries
- Specialty templates: Cardiology, dermatology, psychiatry, paediatrics, etc.
Clinicians can customise templates to their preferred format and language.
Gotchas
- Consent is non-negotiable. Recording without consent is unacceptable and would breach Privacy Act, state law, and AHPRA codes. Make consent verbal, documented, and routine.
- Notes still require clinician review. AI generates a draft. The clinician is responsible for what’s saved.
- Accents and rapid speech. Heidi handles Australian English well; very strong accents, multiple speakers talking over each other, or very rapid speech can reduce accuracy. Speak clearly when AI is listening.
- Privacy in shared spaces. If your consultation room has thin walls or others could overhear, AI listening compounds privacy concerns.
- Patient questions about AI. Have a clear explanation ready: how Heidi works, where data goes, that they can decline, that you remain responsible for their care.
- System integration complexity. First-time setup with your practice management system takes some configuration. Heidi has support; allow time for it.
- Don’t over-rely. Especially for complex consultations, nuance, body language, and subtle cues are still your job to capture. AI captures words, not the full clinical picture.
The Australian healthcare AI moment
Heidi sits at a remarkable moment in Australian healthcare:
- Government priority: Australian Digital Health Agency strategic plans support clinical AI
- Workforce crisis: Australia has GP workforce shortages exacerbated by burnout; AI documentation is one part of the response
- Patient acceptance: Growing — most Australian patients are open to AI use when properly explained
- Funding context: Medicare item numbers don’t (yet) explicitly recognise AI-augmented care, but practical use is widespread
- Indemnity: Medical defence organisations (Avant, MIPS, MIGA) are catching up on AI clinical use guidance — verify your indemnity covers AI documentation
For Australian clinicians, Heidi represents one of the genuinely high-impact AI deployments worth understanding even if you don’t adopt it yourself.
See also
- openevidence — clinical knowledge AI for clinicians
- hippocratic-ai — patient engagement AI (different category)
- speech-to-text — underlying transcription technology
- australian-privacy-considerations — privacy law context
- australian-ai-scene — Australian AI context
Sources
- Heidi Health official: heidihealth.com
- AHPRA Code of Conduct for medical practitioners
- RACGP guidance on AI in general practice (2024)
- AMA position on AI in clinical practice (2024)
- TGA — AI as medical device guidance
- Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles
- Avant, MIPS, MIGA professional indemnity guidance on AI use
- Australian Digital Health Agency strategic plan
- AFR and Healthcare IT News coverage of Australian clinical AI (2024-2026)