A clinical tool is a special type of clinical note designed to collect and track data, such as questionnaires, forms or annotatable images. You can use clinical tools for clinical assessments, food diaries, weight trackers, body charts and more.
While Halaxy has a library of preset clinical tools you can import, you also have the flexibility to create a custom clinical tool for use in your practice group.
Note
Clinical tools are used for clinical notes that contain set questions and answer fields. If you are looking to use dynamic terms or create editable templates with primarily text-based input (such as for letters or reports), you can create a clinical note template.
Tip
If your patient has activated their patient portal, you can assign them the clinical tool so they can complete the tool themselves. Alternatively, you can create a patient intake form and attach the tool, then send to patients, allowing them to complete the tool without a patient portal.
-
Click Settings > Clinical.
-
On the top right, click New Template.
-
In the pop-up, under Create New, click New tool template.
-
In the template editor, configure the following:
-
Template Name: Enter a title to label your template so you can quickly find it in your template list.
-
Category: Select the category for your template to appear under in the template list. You can create your own category.
-
Description: Enter a short description for your template. The description appears when you hover your mouse over the template in the template list.
-
Status: Select whether this template is Active or Archived. Only Active templates can be used in clinical notes.
-
Scoring: Select how you want to score your clinical tool. In score calculation, you can also create assessment levels to quickly interpret the score outcomes. (Tip: It's recommended to set up scoring after you have finalised your questions.)
-
No scoring: No score is calculated for the tool.
-
Entire tool: A single score is calculated for all questions in the clinical tool.
-
Per section: An individual score is calculated for each separate section in the tool. Also calculates a score for the entire tool.
-
Custom: A score is calculated for custom categories you create with assigned questions, regardless what section in the tool they are in. Also calculates a score for the entire tool. See a more detailed guide on custom scoring below.
-
-
Hide template score from patients (optional): When ticked, patients cannot see the clinical tool score if it is shared with them. If you want patients to be able to view their score, untick this checkbox.
-
Enable manual final score (optional): When ticked, you can manually add your own custom final score for the entire tool. This is recommended if your clinical tool requires you to perform calculations externally.
-
Assessment levels (optional): Add assessment levels to assign a label to a score (e.g. Mild, Moderate, Severe). See more details on assessment levels below. (Tip: It's recommended to set up assessment levels after you have finalised both your questions and scoring.)
-
Section: You can divide your tool into sections, each containing their own sets of questions.
-
To add a section, click Add Section.
-
To re-order sections, click the
up and down arrows in the section heading bar.
-
To delete a section, click the
X icon in the section heading bar.
-
-
Questions / Fields: Add as many questions as you need in each section. You must configure an answer type and answer scoring for each question. For more details on adding questions, see below.
-
-
(Optional) To preview your clinical tool, click Preview.
-
Click Save.
Your clinical tool is saved to your template list in Settings > Clinical, and ready for use in your clinical notes.
Tip
Want to use an existing clinical tool as a starting point? Select any tool from your group template list, then click the copy icon to create a duplicate.
For clinical tools, sections can organise questions according to topics or divide longer templates into more manageable parts. For intake forms and surveys, sections appear in their own separate pages.
Image: Example of sections in a clinical tool in use
To add sections and questions, follow the steps below.
-
If you don't already have an existing section, click Add Section.
-
Section Heading: Enter the name for this section.
-
Description (optional): Enter a quick description or completion instructions for the section.
-
For Questions / Fields:
-
Click Add question.
-
In the Question / Title field, type the question or input field you wish to add. (For complete instructions on setting up questions, see: Guide to clinical questions)
-
If you have already used this question or field before, it will appear in a dropdown list for you to select.
-
If this is a new question, you must scroll to the bottom of the list and click Add a new template question. In the pop-up, select the Answer Type for this question and configure how this question should be answered. Then select Save.
-
-
(Optional) Tick the Mandatory checkbox if you require the patient to answer this question.
-
(Optional) Click the
split arrows icon to add a conditional question. This allows you to add a follow-up question based on the answer to this question.
-
-
Add as many sections and questions as you need. Use the
up arrow and
down arrow to change the order of questions.
-
To save your additions or changes, click Save.
Tip
You don't have to create everything from scratch - let Halaxy save you time! Use clinical questions to reuse questions from other clinical tools. You can also use data sets to reuse sets of answer options.
Custom scoring allows you to create your own scoring categories, control how they are calculated, and select the questions to score under them. You can select questions from any section, and any question can be selected for multiple categories. Each category can also have its own assessment levels.
Image: Example of custom scoring different categories in a clinical tool in use
After you have set up your questions, follow the steps below.
-
For Scoring, select Custom.
-
Click Add Category.
-
Configure your scoring category with the following:
Image: Example of a category with questions selected from the clinical tool
-
Category name: Enter a name for the category / criteria / parameter you want to score.
-
Category calculation: Select how you want to calculate the data tabulated from the questions in this category - Average, Median or Total.
-
Category weight: Enter the weight percentage of this category's score to contribute to the total score of the clinical tool. (Example: If the category score is 10, a category weight of 50 (%) means that the contribution of this category is 5 to the total score.)
-
Description (optional): Enter a short description for the category.
-
Category questions: Select the questions from the clinical tool to score under this category. (Note: If you have already added your questions, but cannot find them in the dropdown, save the clinical tool to refresh the page.)
-
Assessment levels (optional): Add assessment levels to interpret this category score. See more details on assessment levels below. (Tip: It's recommended to set up assessment levels after you have finalised both your questions and scoring.)
-
-
To save the category, click the
tick icon.
-
To add another category, click Add Category and repeat step 3 and 4.
-
Click Save.
If your clinical tool calculates a score (or multiple scores), you can use assessment levels to quickly interpret scores for anyone who uses the tool. For example, if a clinical tool produces a score between 0 to 100, assessment levels can be set up to label scores from 0 to 33 as Mild, 34 to 66 as Moderate, and 67 to 100 as Severe.
Image: Example of an assessment level interpreting a clinical tool score
You can add assessment levels depending on the scoring option you select - for the entire tool, per section or per custom category.
To set up assessment levels, follow the example below.
-
In your clinical tool, first select a scoring option and add your questions. Ensure that the answer options to the questions have corresponding scores (i.e. points). (For more detailed guides in configuring questions and answers, see our articles on clinical questions and data sets.)
-
In the Scoring section, click Add Assessment Level. (Note: This is to add assessment levels for the entire clinical tool.)
Image: Examples of assessment levels with colours
-
For your first assessment level, configure the following:
-
Level Name: Enter a name for this assessment level, which interprets a range of scores. (Examples: Mild, Severe, Low, High)
-
Description: Enter a short description for the level, which appears as a tooltip in the published clinical tool.
-
Range: Enter the range of scores that fall under this level. Ensure your range values do not overlap with the range values of another assessment level.
-
Colour: Select the font colour of this assessment level. (Examples: red for Severe, yellow for Moderate, green for Mild.)
-
-
To add another assessment level, click Add Assessment Level and repeat step 3.
-
If you set Scoring to Per section or Custom, you can also create assessment levels for each section or each custom category.
-
Click Save.
When you complete the clinical tool and publish the clinical note, each score displays its corresponding assessment level in the font colour you selected.
Updated