palmER vs Nabla.

Nabla is an ambient documentation platform used across different specialties and clinical settings.

palmER was built specifically for emergency medicine and urgent care by emergency physicians. The two products take different approaches to the EMR, data retention, and what happens after the initial patient conversation.

At a glance

Two different approaches to the EMR

Nabla offers EHR integration and structured export for supported systems. palmER takes a different approach: it works alongside any EMR without requiring an integration.

With palmER, you review the generated documentation, make any changes you want, and decide exactly what enters the medical record. You can use the same workflow regardless of which EMR you encounter or where you practice.

How the documentation reaches the EMR also affects how much control you have over the workflow and your data. Ask what information exists outside the final chart, where it is stored, and how long it remains.

What happens after the bedside conversation?

Ambient documentation captures the initial encounter. In emergency medicine, the chart keeps developing after that conversation ends.

Results return. Treatment takes effect. The patient is reassessed. Consultants weigh in, and the disposition takes shape.

When the workup is complete, palmER uses the full encounter to build the MDM. Nabla's public materials describe ambient documentation, structured notes, dictation, and customization, but the MDM after the workup is not part of that described workflow.

palmER also helps you manage multiple workups throughout the shift, reviews charts for missing documentation, helps with consultant communication, generates the documents your patients need for discharge, and includes the palmEM emergency medicine reference.

What gets retained?

Data retention deserves its own comparison because EHR workflow and data flow are not the same thing.

Nabla states that audio is not stored by default, that retention is configurable, and that its models are not trained on customer data.

palmER does not store encounter audio. Patient data automatically deletes within 24 hours, and nothing you enter is used to train AI models.

Whatever tool you use, ask what happens to the audio, transcript, generated notes, prompts, questions, and anything else you enter. What is stored? For how long? What remains outside the chart?

We cover those questions in more detail in What Does Your AI Scribe Save?.

Which one fits?

If you want a general ambient documentation product with EHR integration, Nabla is one option.

If you work in emergency medicine or urgent care and want a private and secure platform that works alongside any EMR and is built for the entire shift, palmER was built for that.

Try palmER free for 30 days. No credit card required.

Or see the full palmER vs. Nabla comparison.