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Why Use CoVet to Summarize a PDF?
Have you ever been presented with 50+ pages of medical history for a patient 2 minutes before walking into a room?
Perhaps you've received multiple files from multiple different facilities and want a cohesive overview of the case that incorporates all documentation?
Maybe you're even summarizing your own medical records in order to send a quick, concise overview to someone else?
These are all great use-cases for CoVet's ability to summarize PDFs. Just follow the steps below to learn how leverage this feature to help your day-to-day practice!
Upload Your PDF File(s)
From the New Case screen, click "Add other content".
From the Add other content menu that appears, select "New PDF" at the top.
Click "Upload PDF" when that options appears
Browse to and select the file or files you would like to summarize using the Finder (Mac) or Explorer (PC) window that appears.
You can hold Command (Mac) or Ctrl (PC) on your keyboard to multi-select if you would like to upload and summarize multiple files for the same case.
You can rename the PDF document if you like using the PDF Name text field, and you should also see a preview of your PDF load below.
You can repeat this upload process if you would like to upload more files (and didn't already multi-select all the files you needed). When done, click "Save to case" at the bottom of the screen.
You will now see a PDF appear in the Case Content area of your case page, and the name of the case will automatically update based on the content of the PDF (you can always rename the case manually if you like). At first the PDF will appear in the "processing" state, but it should quickly change to "processed" within about 30 seconds.
Generate a Summary for Your File(s)
Similar to how you generate a record from a case containing an audio recording, the next step is to hit the "Generate" button in the bottom right hand corner.
You'll be presented with an option to select the template you want to use. When summarizing a medical history file, we recommend browsing to the Summary tab at the top and selecting one of the following templates:
Medical History - Brief Summary
This template will provide you with a brief summary of all documentation that is 1-2 paragraphs long.
Medical History - Detailed Summary
This template will provide a more detailed summary, broken out into sections including vaccinations, medications, adverse reactions, etc. The case overview at the bottom of this record will also contains more detail than the one generated using the Brief Summary template.
You can multi-select in the template selector, so feel free to generate both summary types for a given case until you decide which style you like best!
Click the checkboxes next to whichever template(s) you would like to use, and hit "Generate" on the bottom right.
You will now see a separate entry for each summary you've generated in the Case Content area of your case screen.
Click on any summary line to view the summary document itself. On this screen you can edit text directly in CoVet, and you can use all of the normal export features to move this summary into your practice management software or any other program you like.
As a summary tool, CoVet selectively condenses information from the original document(s) to provide a concise final report. These reports are designed to offer you a high-level overview of a case, ensuring you have the essential details at a glance.
If you would like more details extracted from the documents for this particular case, you can use the "Ask Questions" button on the case page. It's just like chatting back and forth with someone who knows this case really well!
FAQ About Summarizing PDF Files
Are there ways to summarize files not represented by the templates listed above?
Yes! CoVet's standard templates cover the most common use cases, but the system is infinitely flexible. You can create your own custom template that tells CoVet how to summarize a document, or you can free type a description of what sort of summary you would like.
To do this, select the "Description" option that appears in the template selection screen after you click the "Generate" button. Note that the generate from description is only available for the Summary and Email tabs.
Can I use this feature to summarize lab results?
You can use CoVet to summarize a PDF containing lab results, but we recommend using caution when doing so. To do this, use the Lab Results - Summary template after uploading your PDF file(s). At present, we find this summary template performs extremely well when verbalizing results through an audio recording, but can be error prone when used to summarize a PDF file. You should be sure to double check your report as a result.