Notes & formats
SOAP note
Standard four-part clinical note: Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan.
SOAP is the canonical structured-note format in medicine: *Subjective* (what the patient reports), *Objective* (exam findings, vitals, labs), *Assessment* (the clinician's working diagnosis or differential), and *Plan* (medications, orders, follow-up). It's the default output format of essentially every ambient scribe.
The format is so universal that "generates SOAP notes" is rarely a differentiator. What differs between tools is how cleanly each section is populated — particularly the Objective and Assessment, where hallucination risk is highest.
Therapy and behavioural-health workflows often use related but distinct formats (DAP, BIRP, GIRP, PIRP) instead.