Use of Heidi Health Ambient Voice Technology

Heidi Health is a digital tool that listens to your consultation and turns it into a draft clinical note or letter. Some people call this an “ambient scribe”.

It’s designed to free up your clinician’s time so they can focus on you, rather than typing notes. Heidi Health does not make decisions about your care, give a diagnosis, or replace your clinician’s judgement. Every note it produces is checked, edited if needed, and approved by your clinician before it goes into your health record.

Watch a video about how Heidi works

We use Heidi Health to:

• Make clinical notes more accurate.
• Free clinicians from administration, so they have more time for patients.
• Help letters and referrals go out more quickly.
• Improve your experience during consultations.

During your consultation, Heidi Health listens and creates a written transcript of the conversation.  This may include:

• Your name and other details that identify you such as Full name, DOB and NHS number.
• What you tell your clinician about your symptoms, medical history, medications and treatment.
• Anything your clinician records as part of your care.

Your clinician checks and confirms this information before it’s added to your medical record.

Heidi Health processes this information in a secure system that meets NHS Digital and UK GDPR requirements.

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust are responsible for your information – in data protection terms, we are the “Data Controllers”.

Heidi Health processes information on our behalf, under a contract that says it can only use it in the way we instruct (this is called being our “Data Processor”).

Heidi Health will not share your information with anyone else without your consent, unless the law requires it (for example, safeguarding).

Your information is encrypted and stored securely and only authorised healthcare staff at our Trusts can access your information.

We use your information under UK data protection law because it’s necessary to provide you with health and social care, and to manage health services:

UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) – necessary for carrying out a task in the public interest.

UK GDPR Article 9(2)(h) – necessary for providing health or social care and managing health services.

Keeping your information safe is important to us. Heidi Health has strong security in place, including:

• Encrypting data in transit and at rest.
• Restricting access to authorised users only.
• Meeting UK data protection requirements.
• Independent security checks and recognised certifications.
• Logging and monitoring who accesses your information.

No. Heidi Health does not use your consultation data, transcripts or clinical notes to train its AI models. Your information stays under the control of the Trust using the service.

Heidi Health stores data in the UK and operates its systems to meet UK GDPR and other data protection requirements. The output of a consultation will be held in your clinical record. The transcripts are retained for a period of 28 days for quality assurance purposes and then automatically deleted. Transcripts may be kept longer if deemed necessary for legal, complaint or safety investigations. Audio is not held.

Information from Heidi Health only becomes part of your clinical record once your clinician has checked it. Beyond that, we’ll only share it under normal NHS information-sharing rules for your care, or where we’re legally required to (for example, safeguarding).

We do not sell your information, and neither does Heidi Health.

Your clinician will tell you if Heidi Health is being used during your consultation.

If you have any concerns, speak to your clinician where you can raise an objection- we can discuss other options. Your care will not be affected if you raise concerns or ask us not to use it. If you choose not to use Heidi Health, your clinician will record this preference in your clinical record if the objection is upheld.

Under UK data protection law, you have rights over your personal information. You can:

• Be told how your information is used.
• Access your personal information.
• Ask us to correct information that’s wrong.
• Ask us to restrict how we use your information in some circumstances.
• Object to how we use your information.
• Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information.

For more information about your rights, visit: www.ico.org.uk

Please email (addresses below) to make an application; we aim to respond to any request within a month of receiving it, this may take longer if your request is complex.

Email:  wht.heidihealp@nhs.net

You can also read each Trust’s full Privacy Notice on their website:

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Privacy Notice
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust Privacy Notice