Getting Started With Opal
Learn the basics on how to get the most out of Opal with this 7-part tutorial and start managing your first client.
Part 1: Creating an Opal Account
In this section, we are going to describe how to create an Opal account as a provider
Go to app.heyopal.com
Click Sign Up. You can create an account in 2 ways:
Type in your information
If you have a gmail that you would like to link to Opal, you can easily do this through the “sign in with Google” button
And now you have successfully created your Opal Account as a provider. Now you can see your dashboard.
Part 2: Opal Dashboard Overview
Opal is a client-based platform. What this means is that each client has their own separate space where their progress notes, journal logs, etc. are all stored in the same area.
As such, Opal will continually learn about each of your patients over time to write increasingly insightful progress notes.
This is slightly different than other AI note takers, which are session based. We will explain in future modules why this is important!
Your client list is found in the right pane of the dashboard, and you can click through them here.
The left two panes of your dashboard are there for you to create session notes, which we will get to in the next session
Part 3: Note Generation
Great, now that you have a general idea of how the platform is layed out, we will get into Opal’s note writing functionality.You have 3 ways that you can generate progress notes for your session:
a. Post Session Dictation: You can do a dictation on your session by setting “Audio Type” to “Dictation” and hit record.
💡 Tip: Opal continually learns about your patients overtime, so you can focus on reporting session-specific changes. All existing patient background will be automatically included in generated notes. Pretty cool!
b. Session Recording: If you and your patient are comfortable recording your sessions, you can do so by setting “Audio Type” to “Session” and hit record before you start the session.
✅ Reminder: Client consent is managed all by Opal, so you don’t have to worry about collecting this during your session.
c. Written Note: If you wish to write notes about your patient, you can do so in the section of your dashboard labeled “Provider Notes”.
2. Now that you have your note/recording ready to submit, select the client you wish to apply it to, and click submit. In ~1 minute a progress note will be generated for you, which can be found when you click on the client.
💡 Tip: You can change the Note template to the type of note you wish to generate (ie. SOAP, DIRP, Headway, Rula, Grow Therapy).
💡 Tip: If you don’t create a progress note immediately after a session, you can set the custom date to when the session happened so that it will be properly reflected in the note that is written up.
3. Click on the client for which we just created a note for, we can see the full note.
💡 Tip: you can make edits to each section that is generated. When you make these edits Opal will learn from your editing style to write in your tone/style for future notes. We generally see that after 3/4 edits made, therapists edit rates drop down to zero.
4. When you are ready to copy over the note to your other platform, click the big copy button in the upper right corner.
Part 4: Fine-Tuning Note Writing Settings to your Practice
In this section, we want to point you to a very important section of Opal: Provider settings. This can be found in the upper right corner of the dashboard.
There are various settings you can adjust to fit Opal to the specifications of your practice, but we want to point your attention to a key few settings:
Clinician Reference in Notes: This allows you to change how you are referred to in the notes that are generated. This is by default your name or some providers prefer to be referred to as therapist, or provider.
Client Reference in Notes: This allows you to change how your clients are referred to in the notes that are generated. This is by default the name of your client, but some providers prefer to be refer to clients as client or patient for their notes.
Session Retention: This feature enables you to change how long notes and information stays stored on Opal. We recommend keeping this atleast at 3 months so Opal can have some time to learn about a patient.
Part 5: Adding a New Client
1. In the upper right corner of your dashboard, you will see a button “New Client”. Fill in the client’s information.
💡 Tip: You can fill in the client’s pronouns, which will then utilize those pronouns in the notes that are generated.
2. Once you hit submit, a welcome package will be sent to the client’s email which contains consent registration, and a link the Opal companion app. We will detail this out more in the next section.
3. For now, you will see the new client populate in your list of clients on the dashboard.
Part 6: Client’s Smart Journal
Once you sent an invitation to a client to use Opal, they will now have access to the Opal companion app. Information on how to access the client app is sent to the email you provided for the client.
When the client opens their email, they will be asked to read through the consent form. Once they select, “Sounds good, let’s get started” they will be directed to the Opal Client Web app to create their own account (Name + Password)
Once their account is created, the client will be prompted to verify their email address (in their email inbox), just as a security measure.
Finally, clients will get a pop-up message to link with you, their provider. The client will then link to you by accepting the invite.
Now any information that is written in the smart journal will be available to you as the provider.
Clients can now do a session with Opal by clicking, “Talk To Opal”. Opal works by using motivational interviewing techniques. These interactions will then be avaliable to you as a therapist before your next session.
✅ Reminder: If a patient starts talking about a dangerous topic, Opal will end the session immediately and suggest they call 988. Try this out for yourself!
Part 7: Reviewing Intersession Journal Logs
1. Before your next session with your client, you can check any interactions they had with Opal between the last session.
2. Click on the client in your client list, and you will see the list of journal logs and notes under the “Sessions” section.
💡 Tip: Sessions that are labeled “Journal” are journal logs. Sessions that are labeled “Telehealth” are Telehealth sessions.
3. Clicking on a session, you will get a recap of the interaction in the form of SOAP note (or whichever note form you specify).
💡 Tip: We have seen that providers really enjoy using the P of the SOAP note for suggestions on how to conduct their upcoming session with their client. In this way, it enables providers to have a little more context going into session.
4. If you scroll down to the bottom, you can read the full transcript of the journal log that the patient had with Opal.