FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
General questions about what DebriefMD is and how it handles your data, each answered in a sentence or two. Where a question deserves the long version (security, sub-processors, legal terms) the answer links to it. If something has gone wrong while you were using DebriefMD, Help is the task-oriented half of the site.
Privacy and security
What happens to patient information?
Please don’t record patient details. If some are spoken anyway, the audio and the first transcript can contain them, and DebriefMD removes identifiers before drafting your notes. Automated removal can miss things, so you review every note. DebriefMD’s own hosting, transcription, processing and storage are configured in AWS’s Montréal region; email recipients’ mailboxes and files you download are outside that. Producing your assessment is automated from start to finish, so no person at DebriefMD reads a recording or a transcript in the course of making one. The privacy policy sets out what the scrub does and does not catch.
How are patient identifiers removed?
In three passes. A pattern-based pass removes structured identifiers such as health card numbers, phone numbers, dates and postal codes; a contextual AI pass catches what patterns cannot; then the pattern pass runs again. Structured identifiers are caught by layers that do not depend on the model. A bare first name, used with no surrounding cue that anyone is a patient, rests on the contextual pass alone, which is why your review before export matters and why we say so here rather than round it up. The privacy policy states the limit in full.
Is any of this end-to-end encrypted?
Not yet. Recordings and transcripts are encrypted in transit and at rest on Canadian infrastructure, but we hold the keys, and end-to-end encryption is something we are working toward rather than something shipped.
Do you train AI models on my data, or sell it?
No to both. We do not sell personal information, we do not use it for advertising, and we do not use your recordings, transcripts, or assessments to train machine learning models. The language model we use runs as a service inside Canada, in a mode that does not use submitted content to train it. The privacy policy states that commitment.
How long are recordings kept?
Audio is deleted after 30 days. The de-identified transcript and the assessment stay until you delete them.
Who can see my debriefs?
One audience at a time:
- You. A debrief is yours. Only you can open it, edit it, and sign it off, and nothing it says reaches anyone until you do.
- Your preceptor. When you send a finished note, they receive the reviewed assessment, never the transcript or the recording. They have no account and cannot browse anything.
- Your program’s administrators. Only where your program has configured an address, and it is two separate things. A notice that an assessment is ready goes automatically: it names you, your preceptor, the rotation and the date, and nothing the assessment says. The finished note itself is off by default: it reaches them only after you review and send it, and only if you turn that on in your settings or your program sets it as policy.
- Program and site leadership. They see counts for their own program and, for a named resident, only the debriefs that resident reviewed, signed off and chose to share with the program, plus a progress summary if the resident released one. Downloading or emailing a copy does not share it. Never a draft, a transcript or your self-ratings.
- Nobody else. There is no way to subscribe to someone else’s debriefs. Your self-ratings reach nobody but you: your own emailed copy of a finished debrief may include them, and no other recipient ever does.
Does DebriefMD meet PHIPA?
DebriefMD is designed to align with PHIPA and PIPEDA: Canadian data residency, encryption at rest and in transit, de-identification before storage, and access scoped to your program. We are working to confirm that we fully meet their requirements, and we would rather describe that as in progress than call ourselves certified. The Security and Compliance page and sub-processor list document the specifics.
Using DebriefMD
Does my preceptor need an account?
No. You record; your preceptor just talks. They receive nothing automatically. The only email a preceptor ever gets is the finished note, if and when you send it. Here is exactly what that email contains and how a preceptor can object.
Do I have to pick the EPAs before I record?
You pick up to 3 forms you are working on, but you do not have to steer the conversation to fit them. Your preceptor talks normally. Each form is filled from what the conversation actually covered, and any form it did not cover comes back empty and clearly marked rather than guessed at. You review everything before anything is sent.
What if I have no signal at the hospital?
Capture works offline. The recording is stored on your device and uploads on its own the next time you have a connection, so you never need to re-record. If an upload seems stuck, the help article explains every state the queue can be in.
Does it work in French?
Yes. Pick your language when you record; transcription and extraction handle English and Canadian French.
What does the AI actually do?
It transcribes the conversation, removes patient identifiers, and pre-fills your program’s assessment form from what the preceptor said. You review and edit every field before anything is exported. Nothing leaves without your sign-off.
Can I try it without signing up?
Yes. The demo records, transcribes, and fills a real form with no account.
For programs
How does a program get started?
With a paid pilot: one program, its own form template, one rotation block. We scope it together before anything starts, including what it costs. See For Assessment Leads or write to hello@debriefmd.ca.
Does DebriefMD replace our assessment forms?
No. It fills them. Your program’s existing forms are set up as templates, and every debrief maps onto their fields, so what comes out is the forms you already use. A resident can select several for one conversation, and each is filled from what that conversation covered.
Does it work alongside the assessment system we already use?
It works alongside it. DebriefMD drafts the assessment and your program keeps its assessment system as the record. DebriefMD does not connect to assessment platforms; it exports a PDF and an Excel file.
Can we have our own address, like ourprogram.debriefmd.ca?
We can arrange that. A dedicated address is something we set up with your institution during onboarding, a conversation with your IT team rather than a switch we flip alone, so residents sign in somewhere that looks like their school rather than a generic product.
Can our residents sign in with our institutional login?
We can support an institution’s preferred sign-in, such as UBC’s CWL, subject to that institution’s requirements and its IT department’s process. It is a conversation with your identity team rather than a switch we can flip alone. Until one is connected, residents sign in with an emailed link.
Didn’t find your question?
Ask a person instead, at hello@debriefmd.ca. If you are stuck mid-task rather than curious, Help walks through the problems we see most.