Why Using AI for Medical Notes Is Safe

(From a Veterinarian Who Has Lived Through Every Tech Transition So Far)

By Dr. Rachel Tolley, DVM

I’ve been in veterinary medicine long enough to remember handwritten medical records—complete with creative abbreviations, varying pen colors, and notes written at angles that defied basic physics. If you could read your own handwriting at the end of a long day, you were already winning.

So when the question comes up—“Is AI really safe for medical notes?”—I don’t panic. I nod. Because this concern isn’t new. It’s familiar.

We worried when we moved from paper charts to electronic records.
We worried again when we transitioned from server-based PIMS to cloud-based systems.
And now, here we are, worrying about AI.

There’s a pattern here—and spoiler alert: veterinary medicine adapts every time.

The Difference This Time: There Is a LOT of AI (And Most of It Isn’t Medical)

Here’s where the hesitation is completely valid.

AI is everywhere right now. Everyone has an “AI solution,” and most of it was not trained for medical use, let alone veterinary medicine. General-purpose AI can sound confident, polished, and very convincing—while being subtly (or wildly) wrong.

That’s why how AI is built matters more than the fact that it exists.

NectarNotes wasn’t created by scraping random internet content and hoping for the best. It was:

• Developed using the AAHA database

• Training data refined over two years

• Algorithms honed by 35+ veterinarian advisors

• Designed specifically for medical accuracy in veterinary workflows

This isn’t AI pretending to understand medicine. It’s AI trained within it.

Ask Coco Shows You the Receipts

One of the smartest—and most reassuring—things about Nectar’s AI assistant, Ask Coco, is that it doesn’t just generate notes and ask you to trust it.

Coco links directly back to the exact item in the medical history used to create the note.

So you’re never guessing where something came from. You can see the context, confirm accuracy, and make edits as needed. That transparency is critical—and frankly, refreshing.

One Simple Rule for Using AI (In Any Medical Setting)

Here’s my number one tip for using AI safely:

Always review the output.

AI is a tool, not a replacement for clinical judgment. And Nectar is very clear about that. The goal isn’t autopilot—it’s support.

What makes embedded AI like NectarNotes more accurate is that it has access to far more context:

• The full conversation

• The medical history

• The flow of the appointment

More context = better accuracy
Better accuracy = less cleanup later

And because the AI lives inside the workflow (instead of being a separate copy-and-paste situation), it reduces the risk of missing nuance or introducing errors.

Let’s Talk Data Security (Because This Is Usually the Real Fear)

If you’ve been practicing as long as I have, you remember that data security was the biggest concern when we moved off paper. Then again when we moved to the cloud.

AI is no different. With Nectar:

• NectarCalls recordings are stored in a separate database, adding an extra layer of protection

• Your data is not sold—to anyone, for any reason

In a world where data is often the product, that distinction matters. A lot.

Your medical records remain yours. Full stop.

This Isn’t Reckless Innovation — It’s the Next Responsible Step

Cloud systems turned out to be more secure than many in-house servers ever were. Electronic records became more reliable than paper charts. And now, medically trained, transparent AI is proving to be safer than trying to document everything at the end of a 12-hour day while mentally exhausted.

The real risk to patient care isn’t thoughtfully built AI.

It’s burnout.
It’s cognitive overload.
It’s finishing notes late at night when accuracy is already compromised.

NectarNotes supports veterinarians without replacing them. It protects clinical judgment while reducing the burden that pulls us away from our lives outside the clinic.

And if embracing well-built AI means practicing great medicine and getting home to my kids? That feels less like a leap of faith—and more like progress.

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