Nephrology dictation software for CKD, dialysis and kidney consult notes

Nephrology runs on three kinds of note. CKD clinic notes track the glomerular filtration rate, albuminuria, potassium and bicarbonate, and the kidney protective drugs. Dialysis rounding notes record the treatment, the access, fluid removal and the anemia and bone mineral plan, many times a week. Hospital consults for acute kidney injury, hyperkalemia or a new nephrotic syndrome need a clear assessment fast. Drug names such as patiromer, finerenone and sodium zirconium cyclosilicate are where general tools slip.

Nephrology words general dictation gets wrong

General dictation software is trained on everyday speech, so nephrology terms come out as near misses. Each row below is a misheard form listed in the VoicePrivate Healthcare dictionary and the term it is corrected to:

Drug names get extra care. A misheard word that sounds like a drug in the dictionary is matched to it, but a real drug name is never changed into another drug, so dapagliflozin is not turned into empagliflozin.

What choosing Nephrology changes

In the Mac app, Settings has a Medical specialty picker with 32 specialties plus General. Choosing Nephrology does two things on your computer:

• It gives recognition the 22 Nephrology core terms to expect: chronic kidney disease, glomerular filtration rate, albuminuria, proteinuria, nephropathy, hyperkalemia, patiromer, sodium zirconium cyclosilicate, finerenone, dapagliflozin, sodium bicarbonate, darbepoetin, calcitriol, sevelamer, hyperparathyroidism, hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, arteriovenous fistula, hydronephrosis, glomerulonephritis, nephrotic syndrome, acute kidney injury.
• A long misheard word that is a near miss of one of those core terms is matched to it instead of a general word.

The Healthcare dictionary tags 1,225 terms to Nephrology, counted October 2026, and all 74,000+ medical terms stay available whichever specialty you choose. On Windows there is no specialty picker: the full medical dictionary and its corrections apply to every note.

Nephrology notes by type

Example: dictating a CKD clinic follow up

Here is the visit dictated one section at a time. Every bold term is in the VoicePrivate medical dictionary.

1. In the HPI box, press Command+Shift+Space and say: "Sixty seven year old with diabetic chronic kidney disease stage 3b, here for follow up. No edema." Press the hotkey again.
2. In the data section, press Command+Shift+Space and say: "Estimated glomerular filtration rate 38, stable. Urine albumin to creatinine ratio 420, consistent with albuminuria. Potassium 5.6, hyperkalemia." Press the hotkey again.
3. In the plan, press Command+Shift+Space and say: "Continue dapagliflozin 10 milligrams daily. Start finerenone once potassium is below 5. Start patiromer 8.4 grams daily. Continue sodium bicarbonate." Press the hotkey again.
4. Still in the plan, press Command+Shift+Space and say: "Discussed dialysis options including peritoneal dialysis. Vein preservation in the left arm for a future arteriovenous fistula. Return in 3 months." Press the hotkey again.

Each time you press the hotkey to stop, VoicePrivate transcribes on your computer and pastes the finished text at your cursor. Text does not appear while you are still speaking. It arrives in one block when you stop, so read the values and doses once and sign.

Getting the text into your EHR

VoicePrivate works with any EHR that accepts a paste, because it pastes through the clipboard rather than through a plug in. That includes Epic, Oracle Health (Cerner), athenahealth, eClinicalWorks and NextGen. Dialysis units often chart in a separate dialysis system; if it has a note field you can click into, VoicePrivate pastes there too. The workflow is the same everywhere:

1. Click into the note field, such as the HPI, assessment or plan box.
2. Press Command+Shift+Space on Mac or Ctrl+Shift+Space on Windows and dictate.
3. Press the hotkey again. The text is pasted where your cursor is, and with Auto-copy to clipboard off, the default, your previous clipboard contents are put back.

If your EHR runs inside Citrix or another remote desktop, the remote session must allow clipboard redirection from your computer. Most IT teams can turn this on per user. VoicePrivate runs on the local Mac or PC, not inside the remote session. The EHR dictation guide covers each system.

Privacy, stated as facts

VoicePrivate processes speech on the computer it is installed on. Audio never leaves the computer and nothing is sent to a cloud service for transcription. Your notes live in your EHR, the same as if you had typed them. Your practice still decides how the EHR itself is secured and what agreements it has with vendors. With Auto-save transcriptions on, which is the default, each dictation is also kept in the app's Library on that computer. Turn it off in Settings if you do not want a Library copy. Auto-copy to clipboard is off by default; if you turn it on, the text also stays on the clipboard after it is pasted, so leave it off if the EHR should hold the only copy.

Price

Healthcare Edition is $297 a year or $34.99 a month for one clinician, on Mac or Windows. Every specialty vocabulary is included. There is no free trial. Individual monthly and annual plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first payment. Practices with 2 to 20 clinicians can buy team seats.

Nephrology dictation questions

Nephrology overlaps with endocrinology dictation for diabetic kidney disease, urology dictation for stones and obstruction, cardiology dictation for cardiorenal care and vascular surgery dictation for dialysis access.