🧠 Ask Tandem & Clinical Decision Support (CDS)

Note: Ask Tandem is under development and its behaviour may change as we continue to improve it. It is not currently available to all users.

1. Overview

Ask Tandem is the chat interface in Tandem. Clinicians use it to ask free-text questions and edit notes through conversation.

Inside Ask Tandem, Clinical Decision Support (CDS) answers clinical questions with source-linked guidance from validated medical sources. CDS is CE marked under EU MDR as a Class IIa medical device.

Together, they bring relevant guidelines, local protocols, and clinical knowledge in one chat, so you can reason through cases, ask follow-up questions, and verify each answer against its source.

Target users: Doctors and clinical staff in primary, secondary, and emergency care.

Adding your local guidelines

CDS uses national, local, and your own uploaded guidelines to answer clinical questions. Clinic administrators can upload local guidelines so CDS can reference them when answering relevant questions.

How to upload documents:

Go to Clinic Settings
Scroll down to Ask Tandem
Click "Add document"
Add documents relevant to your clinic

The document will shortly become available for Ask Tandem to use.

Read more: Upload Local Guidelines in CDS

Keep in mind:

Keep uploaded documents up to date to ensure Ask Tandem gives accurate answers
Remove outdated documents to avoid old information being cited

2. What can Ask Tandem do?

Ask Tandem is the chat where you type free-text questions or instructions to Tandem. It includes:

✏️ Edit and adjust your note or document on request
🧠 Free-form clinical conversation

Example prompts:

”Reformat my note as a bullet list.”
”Summarise this patient case in three sentences.”
”Translate this section into Spanish.”
”Help me draft a referral letter based on this consultation.”

3. What can CDS do (inside Ask Tandem)?

When you ask a clinical question, CDS provides:

🔍 Reason through symptoms, findings, and possible interpretations
📚 Reference and cite clinical guidelines
🏥 Find local protocols, referral pathways, and contact information
✅ Provide official guidelines directly within Tandem

Example prompts:

”What differential diagnoses should be considered for these symptoms?”
”What guidelines apply to the treatment of [condition]?”
”What does NICE recommend for this presentation?”
”Is [drug] safe given [patient context]?”

4. How to use Ask Tandem

Click the Ask Tandem button on the home screen (below the Start Consultation button). The chat opens in full-screen mode — you can minimise it to a side panel or close it entirely.
Type your question or instruction
Review the response
Use the information in your clinical work

Close the chat: Click the X button in the upper right corner of the side panel.

Find older chats: Older chats are in the left menu panel under the section "All visits". Click the [...] button to filter and show only chats.

5. Best practices

Be clear and specific in your question
Include relevant clinical context (e.g. allergies, comorbidities)
Use follow-up questions to deepen reasoning
Always review the response before use
The clinician makes the clinical judgement

Tip: Use CDS the way you'd consult a colleague. Ask questions, expect clarifying questions back, then verify the answer against the source.

6. Limitations

Ask Tandem can give incorrect or incomplete answers
The quality of the output depends on the quality of the question and information you provide
Missing patient context will affect the response
Should not be used as the sole basis for medical decisions

7. Security & data handling

All data is processed within the EU
No patient data is used for model training
Chat data is deleted together with the note
CDS is CE marked under EU MDR as a Class IIa medical device
Tandem is certified under ISO 27001 (information security) and ISO 13485 (medical device quality management)

Security principles:

All responses should be verifiable against a source
The system is designed to reduce hallucinations
Clinical use always requires human review

8. Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
The chat isn't opening	Refresh the page or try again later. If the issue persists, contact support.
I can't find older chats	Older chats are in the left menu under "All visits". Use the filter button [...] to show only chats.
The response isn't what I asked for	Add more detail and context, or ask a more specific follow-up.
I want to ask a clinical question, not edit a note	Clinical Q&A is provided by Clinical Decision Support (CDS). If you don't yet have CDS enabled, contact your Customer Success contact at Tandem.