I'm excited to share with you my latest project - a software system called Tenalog™, specifically designed to aid speech language pathologists (SLPs) in writing their notes efficiently and improving patient progress tracking.

Around 4.5 years ago, I set out to develop a solution that would help SLPs extract structured data from their patient notes to track patient progress over time. The initial version of this software, a visit note editor, included advanced keyboard shortcuts to streamline this process. Though it was a significant step forward in data collection and progress tracking, the steep learning curve for the keyboard shortcuts and the conventions posed an initial challenge to our users.

Inspired by this feedback, I moved to the next iteration where I incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically extract structured data. This change dramatically alleviated the burden on the therapists, cutting down the time it took to write a comprehensive note and further enhancing the ease of progress tracking. However, I still felt there was more to be done.

A question that continued to linger in my mind was: what if the note could write itself? What if the SLP could dedicate 100% of their attention to their patient during the session? Personally, I struggle with multitasking, so I wanted to devise a solution that would allow individuals like me to be entirely present in the session, without the background stress of trying to remember the details of the ongoing proceedings.

This line of thinking led to the creation of Tenalog™ (tenacious logging). To utilize Tenalog™, all the therapist needs to do is record the session. Tenalog™ then auto-generates a complete transcript with speaker labels, a visit note, detailed progress tracking data, a parent summary, the next session's plan, as well as links to evidence-based practice references relevant to the patient's current goals.