We're building something we genuinely care about, and we want you in early — before it's finished, while your reaction can still shape it.
Intro
caidal is an app to help people get more out of their doctor visits: walk in prepared, understand what actually happened, leave with a clear plan, and carry the whole story into the next visit. Most of us leave appointments foggy, forget half of what was said, and start from zero every time. caidal is our attempt to fix that.
Here's why we're asking you specifically: the first handful of people to try something are the ones who shape what it becomes. Your confusion, your “wait, what does this do?”, even your “I'd never use this” — that's the most valuable feedback we can get while it's still soft clay. It's ~15–20 minutes, you can't break anything, and “I didn't get it” is genuinely useful. Thank you — it means a lot. 🙏
caidal's model
caidal has a simple model, and it's all about one thing: supporting your visit experience so it's done thoroughly and reliably. A few ideas make that work.
- Visits are organized by problem. caidal groups your visits under the problem they address, so it can follow the whole journey — and each visit is aware of the ones before it. Continuity of care, built in.
- Your health data lives in four types — clinical records, personal data, documents, and notes. Attach any of them to as many related visits as you like, to give caidal evidence and sharpen the answers it produces for that visit.
- Visits produce episodes and documents — recordings you make and files you add. From these, caidal extracts alerts (things worth paying attention to), findings (what was learned about you), and actions (steps to take for your health). Crucially, every extraction is grounded in the wider context — the visit itself and all of your data — not just the single recording or page.
caidal's heartbeat
Two simple rhythms run through the whole app. Feel them once and everything clicks.
Draft → Discuss → Finalize. Almost everything caidal makes for you follows this beat. You kick off a draft right where it belongs — ask it to prepare you for a visit from the chat, or pull alerts, results, and next steps from your recordings and documents inside the visit. From there you discuss the draft in the chat — refine, add, reshape — with the follow-up actions appearing as buttons just above the message box, then you finalize, and it lands in its hub entry, ready to use.
The visit hub is home base for a single visit: Preparation, Visit, Alerts, Results, Next steps — each one both shows what you've finalized and is where you draft it. Rule of thumb: right after you finalize, open the matching hub entry to see what you locked in.
Capture → Refine → Save. The second rhythm is getting your health story in with zero friction, through Scribbles. The moment something comes to mind — a symptom, a worry, a measurement, a question — jot or speak a quick Scribble — or snap a quick photo. Don't organize it, don't make it perfect; just get it out of your head while it's fresh. Later you shape it into a Note or a Personal Data point — or even an Alert, a Result, or a Next step — and attach it to any visit. The more complete your story, the more personal and accurate caidal becomes.
caidal's storytelling
Because your visits are organized by problem — and each one remembers the ones before it — caidal can tell the story of your journey, not just hand you a pile of records. Ask for the whole arc across a problem's visits, or zoom into a single thread built from one kind of data: how a symptom has progressed, how a measurement has trended, or how a treatment has worked over time.
That story is there for the two moments that matter most: reminding yourself what actually happened between appointments, and conveying it to your doctor — a clear, grounded recap instead of “um, I think it got a little better?”
Optional first move (one tap)
caidal can pull your real medical records straight from Apple Health with a single button — instant, realistic data to explore with. Totally optional, though: if you'd rather not, or you don't have any records in Apple Health, that's completely fine — nothing here is required, and skipping it won't break or block anything.
And if you do pull them: your records stay on your device, and caidal only reads what you approve (read-only). Nothing is ever sent anywhere unless you personally choose to share a specific item with the assistant.
Before you dive in
The app comes preloaded with example visits and data, some of which you'll use at the end of the walkthrough. For now, stick to the walkthrough script and explore more later.
The tasks for you to try (≈15–20 min)
Pick a “case.” Think of a health thing you've dealt with — a trick knee, migraines, blood pressure, a recent check-up. Nothing comes to mind? Make one up (say, recurring headaches). That's your storyline.
1 · Start a visit — your way
- A brand-new visit gently nudges you that it has no data yet and offers to add some. For this walkthrough, skip it (tap Not now) — we'll add data on purpose in Step 3.
- Create a new visit for your case (e.g. “Headaches — primary care”). It opens straight into a chat with a short intake form.
- Try both paths (the big new thing we'd love your read on): either fill it in — only Title and Chief complaint are required — and tap Submit; or tap Skip form and just talk, describing what's bothering you and what you want out of the visit in your own words.
- Either way, the message box opens and you're chatting — tell caidal what's on your mind and ask whatever you want.
2 · Get prepared (the heartbeat)
- Whenever you feel ready — right away, or after a few back-and-forth messages — tap the ⋯ menu (top-right) → “Prepare me for the visit”. That's the one command in that menu; caidal drafts your prep from the conversation so far.
- Discuss the draft in the chat — refine it, add a question, reshape it until it feels like your briefing (the follow-up actions show up as buttons just above the message box) → then finalize. Open the Preparation hub entry to see what you locked in. (The pattern everywhere: once you finalize, check the matching hub entry.)
- Heads-up: anywhere inside a visit (a hub entry, Alerts, and so on), a blue chat button sits bottom-right, just above the round Scribble button — tap it any time to jump straight back to this visit's chat.
3 · Give it context
- Attach related data to the visit via ⋯ menu → Data → Add — a personal data point (a measurement, a symptom) or a medical record (if you pulled from Apple Health). Old or rough is fine; we just want the flow.
4 · “Attend” the visit
- Open the Visit hub entry and record an episode — hit record and talk for a bit, saying some doctor-visit-sounding things out loud. Stop, and check the transcription. (Record as many episodes as you like.)
- Right there on the episode, pull out what was said: draft its Alerts (things worth a closer look), Results (findings), and Next steps (actions) → discuss → finalize. Each lands in its matching hub entry.
5 · Pull insights from a document
- Add a document inside the visit: ⋯ menu → Data → Add → Document — a lab or test result, a post-visit summary, or a discharge note (an old real one is perfect).
- Then extract from it inside the matching hub entry: open Alerts to pull its alerts, Results to pull its findings, and Next steps to pull its actions — each via draft → discuss → finalize. A great way to make sense of dense labs, test results, and after-visit paperwork.
- New — no PDF needed: choose Scan document (camera) or Photos and caidal reads the text right on your device, so a snapshot of a lab or letter works just like a file.
- New — scan & extract straight from the chat: tap + (add data) → Documents → Add & extract, pick what to pull (Alerts, Findings, or Actions), then Extract → discuss → finalize. Right after finalizing, tap the View button that appears in the chat to see exactly what you saved — no digging.
6 · Try Scribbles (quick capture)
- Create a text scribble about your case → convert it into a Note.
- Create an audio scribble — just speak out a health observation (e.g. “Slept badly again, morning headache about a 6 out of 10”) → convert it into Personal Data.
- Create a photo scribble — snap a picture of something health-related (a pill bottle, a home reading, a rash) → convert it into Personal Data too.
- Add them to your visit.
7 · See the journey (continuity of care)
- From the Problems tab, open Ankle sprain — four example visits for the same problem, laid out on the journey map: each visit a stop along the path, the newest ringed. Tap between them, toggle map / list, and check the legend (“what the dots mean”). (You can also reach it from inside any visit via ⋯ menu → “Show full visits trail.”)
- New — follow a single thread: pinch to zoom and each visit bubble blooms into a card (why it happened · what was found · how it affects you). Switch the thread between Symptoms, Measurements, and Treatments to trace just that one thread across every visit, each with a short summary — or tap See full journey for the whole story stitched together.
- Open the latest and notice it already knows about the earlier ones. That “it remembers, so you don't have to” thread is the heart of the whole app.
Do as much or as little as you like — even steps 1–2 are a huge help. And once you've finished, feel free to roam: explore the example visits, dig through the ⋯ menu, break things. When you're done, screenshot anytime inside TestFlight (it'll offer to send it to us with a note) or just text/email us: what confused you, what you liked, what felt slow or pointless. Brutal honesty is a gift.
Thanks for being early. 🙌 — the caidal team
