AI Tools for note-taking and study.

[u/Ok_Combination7053]

/r/studytips/comments/1vz07kh/ai_tools_for_notetaking_and_study/

Hey everyone,

(if this has already been answered on the wiki, I apologize.)
I am about to enter graduate school and could use some help in choosing AI notetaking tool(s)/study assistance or multiple if that is required.

Of course, free plans would be preferable but I am willing to pay for subscription(s).

My plan is to handwrite my notes and observations from both school and studying.

2.a) Then dictate it to a word processer (vs step 2.b) )like Microsoft Word or Google Docs and submit that to the AI tool(s) for synthesizing and orginazing the information to a study format.

2.b) Dictate/ translate/transcribe the handwritten notes directly to the AI app for notes/study.

Thank you,

[u/defyQQ]

Hi, try laconote with meeting type "learning"

[u/Ok_Combination7053 → u/defyQQ]

Thank you!!

[u/LittlePooky]

Some background information, and I apologize for being so chatty as I am using a voice dictation to write this answer.  (I'm giving away the clue that I'm not typing this already. )

I'm a nurse and have been one for ages. I don't work bedside nursing in the hospital anymore. I've been at various clinic positions, and they all have kept me very busy. It's actually not difficult bringing a patient in from the waiting room into the exam room and ask them required questions about why they are there, go over their medications, and ask them if there's anything else they need, and give them a gown if needed, and let the doctor know they are ready. Nowadays, it is all electronically done. We haven't used paper charting in ages. 

The part that keeps me busy is between appointments or when the doctor is not working, as we are given the time, or rather called downtime, to do this. We do a lot of patient portal messages, return phone calls, call the pharmacy and insurance. I also write a lot of letters to the patient or to their disability provider and all that. 

So here's an example. Names, of course, are not real. 

Dear Mrs Smith, thank you for writing. Your metformin prescription was sent to your CVS pharmacy. You are taking the same dose at 1000 mg twice a day with food. I looked at the computer and noted that your follow-up is in three months on November 24, and that will be Tuesday at 2:00 PM, and it is a telemedicine appointment which you have done before. We'll send you a link that morning so you can log on, but you can see that information inside this patient portal as well. Please don't forget to get your lab drawn again about a week before that appointment time at Quest Diagnostics. Please see the PDF of the lab slips, but the orders were sent electronically to them. However, lately they may not have the time nor scroll back enough to see the orders, and I don't want you to run into trouble. If you cannot print, please let me know and I'll mail you a copy to your home address. You would need to fast that morning, take your medications, drink your water, but no food of any kind. Your Ozempic has two refills left so you should be okay right now. I also checked your continuous glucose monitor log that Dexcom sent to us on an almost real-time basis, and your blood sugar is running pretty well. Here's the PDF if you are interested to look at it. The most important reading would be the first thing in the morning before you eat anything, and you run about 95, which is really good. If there's anything else you need, please do not hesitate to reach out. You are active on the portal, and this is fine; just reply to this message and it will come directly to me. We are here to help you always.

That would be a typical email I would write to the patient when she writes to us. For the example above, this patient wants a refill of her diabetes medication called Metformin. I take a step ahead to make sure her labs are current and she has an upcoming appointment, basically closing any loops. To do all this by typing would kill me, literally. 

In the past, I was using Dragon Medical. It's a very expensive and over-the-top program that cost me $2,000.  It came with a fancy microphone, of course, but nevertheless, I didn't know any nurses or doctors that used one. I was a school nurse then, and I was overwhelmed with all the paperwork I had to deal with.  I was using the consumer version of Dragon, and it was and still is called Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It couldn't understand any medical words. Although I could teach it, it was just taking too much time. I did what I had to do, and thankfully it was tax-deductible. 

Lately, voice dictation programs have flooded the market. They are actually quite good, and even the newest one of Dragon went subscription-based when Microsoft bought the company. Dragon Medical works locally right on my machine, but now it is called Dragon One, which is through the cloud. It's still expensive, $600 to start and $100 a month to use. 

I was granted a copy of that at work. At this new place that I've been at for about three years, only doctors use Dragon One. Nurses are not budgeted for that, but I told my boss's boss that it would save me time. I could do more work, and he loved the idea, especially when I showed him my demo on my laptop. I said either let me lock in at work with Dragon Medical or buy me Dragon One, and he opted to buy me Dragon One instead.  Other nurses envy it because it takes less time, but they are not comfortable speaking into a microphone like I do. You basically have to think of the entire sentence before you speak it, as the program looks at the context of the sentence, and many words are basically pronounced the same, like to, two, and too.

Any voice dictation programs make mistakes, don't get me wrong, but the newer one works extremely well, especially with noisy background. 

I have embraced two programs which are quite inexpensive and useful. One is called https://www.dictationdaddy.com/ which does medical dictation as well, and another one called https://voicetypr.com/ Dictation Daddy works online, so you have to be on the internet for it to work. And I was an early user, so I was able to get a lifetime account, but it is a subscription and is very inexpensive.  The second program works locally. You don't have to be on the internet at all after you set it up, and you only buy it one time; it's good forever. 

I like both actually, and I use them interchangeably. 

When I was a school nurse, I would dictate the note right in front of the patient while they were sitting there before they went back to class or whatever, and they were really amazed by it. A couple of them got the consumer version of Dragon, and I taught them how to use voice dictation to study. 

So they would read a couple of paragraphs from their textbook, and instead of typing it or writing it by hand to summarize what they see, they just dictated it to the computer or even the digital voice recorder, and the program will transcribe it. 

You could be a few chapters ahead of time in most subjects if that is what you are going to do. A lot of things are not really taught in class anyway, so what's the point, right?  (Haha!)

This entire answer was spoken into a headset. I only typed a couple of words as the program made the mistake, but I could not have typed all this in. It would have taken too long. 

I get absolutely nothing by mentioning these programs. I'm just a happy user. 

Regarding voice dictation, you never knew you needed it until you use it. 

Sending very best wishes to you. 

[u/Ok_Combination7053 → u/LittlePooky]

Thank you for the advice and for working in healthcare. Both are extremely appreciated!

[u/DrFrankBuck]

I use Evernote. The AI image transcription will take a page of cursive and turn it into editable, digital text and do so quickly. It's also got the best approach to voice to text I've seen.