Dictum vs Heidi Health: AI Medical Scribe Comparison

Quick comparison

Primary use case

Both tools aim to reduce the time clinicians spend on documentation after patient encounters. Heidi Health is popular in Australia and has been expanding into other markets. Dictum serves clinicians across multiple regions with both ambient recording and post-visit dictation workflows.

The core promise is similar: record or capture the encounter, then receive a structured clinical note draft for review. Differences emerge in how each tool handles specific workflows, offline access, template control, and security posture.

Documentation types

Both Dictum and Heidi Health generate SOAP notes, patient summaries, and referral letters from encounter recordings. Dictum also supports user-created clinical templates, allowing clinicians to define custom note structures beyond the standard SOAP format.

For clinicians who generate multiple document types from a single visit — a SOAP note for the chart, a summary for the patient, and a referral letter for a specialist — Dictum produces all three outputs from one recording. See how Dictum handles AI SOAP notes and referral letters in detail.

Specialty workflows

Both platforms offer specialty-adapted templates that adjust note structure based on the clinical context. Dictum covers more than 20 specialties with templates that clinicians can customize further — adjusting section headings, subsection ordering, and expected content for each field.

Clinicians who work across multiple specialties or need granular control over their note format may find Dictum’s template system more flexible. Explore specialty-specific workflows and custom clinical templates for more detail.

Mobile and offline access

Both Dictum and Heidi Health offer mobile apps for iOS and Android, allowing clinicians to capture encounters from a phone or tablet. Where they differ is connectivity requirements.

Dictum supports offline recording, which means clinicians can capture a full encounter even without an internet connection. The recording is stored locally and processed once the device reconnects. This matters for clinicians working in rural clinics, hospital areas with unreliable Wi-Fi, or during home visits. Heidi Health requires an active connection for its documentation features based on publicly available information.

Security and privacy

Dictum uses zero audio retention — recordings are processed in real time and not stored on servers after transcription. Patient data is not used for model training, and a Business Associate Agreement is available for HIPAA-covered entities. Additional details are on the HIPAA compliance page.

For Heidi Health’s specific security practices, data handling policies, and compliance certifications, check heidihealth.com directly. Security posture can change as vendors update their infrastructure, so verifying current claims is always worthwhile before making a decision.

Pricing

Dictum offers a free tier with 5 sessions per month, which is enough to evaluate the tool with real encounters before committing. Paid plans start at $29.99/month and include higher session limits along with additional features. Full plan details are on the pricing page.

Heidi Health also offers a free tier with limited sessions and paid plans at different price points. Check heidihealth.com for their current pricing, as plan structures and limits may have changed since this page was last updated.

Where Dictum may be a better fit

Clinicians who need offline recording capability — for rural clinics, home visits, or facilities with spotty connectivity — will find that Dictum addresses a gap Heidi Health does not currently fill. The same applies to clinicians who want extensive template customization, including the ability to create entirely custom note structures beyond SOAP.

Dictum also produces multiple documentation outputs from a single encounter recording. If your workflow involves generating a chart note, a patient summary, and a referral letter from the same visit, you can do that without re-recording or re-dictating.

Where Heidi Health may be a better fit

Clinicians already embedded in Heidi Health’s ecosystem — who have existing templates, workflows, and team configurations set up — may prefer to stay within that platform. Heidi Health also has stronger local support in Australia and certain other regions where it has been established longer.

If your practice already uses Heidi Health integrations with specific EHR systems, switching may introduce workflow friction that outweighs the differences in feature sets. Evaluate based on what matters most to your daily documentation routine.

How to choose

Feature tables are useful for narrowing the field, but the most reliable test is running both tools on the same real encounter. Record a typical patient visit with each tool, compare the output quality, review the editing experience, and see which draft gets you to a finalized note faster.

Pay attention to how each tool handles your specialty terminology, multi-problem visits, and the specific note format your practice requires. The tool that consistently saves you the most editing time on your actual encounter types is the better choice — regardless of what any comparison page says.