palmER Colab

You're halfway through a chart and need to know whether this patient's cardiac history warrants a cardiology consult. Or you need discharge instructions for the patient that's waited hours for CT. Normally, you'd switch apps, lose context, and waste precious minutes.

palmER Colab is a contextual sidebar assistant built into every page of palmER AI Suite. It already knows what you're working on in the main chat window. Ask your question, get your answer, and keep charting — all without leaving the page.

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What is palmER Colab?

palmER Colab is a slide-out chat panel that lives alongside your primary assistant. It functions as a second AI assistant that automatically receives context from your main chat window — whatever you most recently sent and received in HPI, Physical Exam, MDM, or any other assistant.

This means you don't need to copy-paste your chart into Colab. It already sees it. Just ask your question.

Key characteristics:

• Always available — accessible from any assistant page via the chat bubble icon in the breadcrumb bar
• Context-aware — automatically sees your most recent main chat exchange (no re-explaining the case)
• Persistent — your Colab conversation stays intact as you switch between assistants (HPI, Exam, MDM, etc.)
• Independent — Colab has its own chat thread, so it won't interfere with your main documentation workflow

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How to Use palmER Colab

Opening and Closing

• Open: Click the chat bubble icon in the breadcrumb bar (visible on desktop when the panel is closed)
• Close: Click the X button in the Colab panel header
• The panel remembers its state — opening it again shows your previous Colab conversation

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Context Sharing

This is what makes palmER Colab powerful. When you ask a question in Colab, it automatically includes your most recent exchange from the main chat window — the message you sent and the response you received.

What this means in practice:

You paste a chart into the MDM Assistant and generate an MDM. Then you open Colab and ask What follow-up should this patient have? — Colab already knows the patient's presentation, workup, and assessment because it received that context from your MDM conversation. No need to re-explain the case.

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Persistence Across Assistants

One of Colab's most useful features is that your conversation persists as you move between assistants.

Example workflow:

1. Start in the HPI Assistant — generate an HPI for your patient
2. Open Colab and ask about return precautions
3. Switch to the Physical Exam Assistant — generate the exam
4. Colab still has your previous conversation (the return precautions question and answer are still there)
5. Ask a follow-up in Colab: Also include work restrictions for this patient

Your Colab conversation continues seamlessly. The context updates to reflect whichever assistant you're currently using, but the conversation history remains.

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When to Start a New Colab Chat

Start a new Colab conversation when you move on to a new patient. Your previous patient's Colab conversation is no longer relevant, and starting fresh ensures Colab's context is clean.

Two ways to start a new Colab chat:

• Click the new chat icon (pen icon) in the top-right corner of the Colab panel — this resets only the Colab conversation
• Click New Chat in the main window — this resets both the main assistant chat and the Colab chat

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Clinical Use Cases

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Pro Tips

• Ask naturally. Colab understands clinical context. You don't need to re-state the patient's chief complaint or history — it already has that from your main chat.
• Use it for quick side questions. Colab is designed for the rapid-fire questions that come up during charting. Keep questions focused and specific.
• Start a new Colab chat for each patient. This keeps the context clean and ensures Colab's responses are relevant to the current case.
• Colab works with all assistants. Whether you're using HPI, Physical Exam, MDM, ConsultER, Chart CheckER, or palmEM AI — Colab is always available.

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