A Broken Thumb Didn't Stop Her Patients From Being Seen
- Case Study: Dr. Mary Tablizo, Sleep & Pediatric Medicine
Documentation does not pause for life. A physician can be exhausted, behind on notes from three days ago, or simply dealing with something unexpected, and the charting still has to get done before the next patient walks in.
For Dr. Mary Anne Tablizo, MD, FAAP, that unexpected thing was a fractured right thumb from a biking accident. With her hand in a cast, typing or writing notes the usual way was not really an option. She kept seeing patients anyway.
What made that possible
Dr. Tablizo, who owns a sleep program in Fresno, California, had recently started using Empathia's AI Scribe. The feature captures a visit in real time through voice and turns it into a structured note, so documentation does not depend on typing or handwriting at all.
A few pieces work together to make that possible:
AI Scribe — listens during the encounter and builds a structured draft as the conversation happens
Voice Dictation, in either Verbatim (literal capture) or AI-assisted (cleaner, structured output) mode
Smart Style with AI Learning — adapts to a clinician's tone, structure, and formatting over the first several encounters
Customizable Templates — organize notes the way a physician already thinks about a visit, by specialty or by personal preference
Access from mobile, tablet, or web, so documentation is not tied to sitting at a keyboard
In her own words
Dr. Tablizo described it simply:
"It made things so much easier and allowed me to continue seeing patients."
She noted that without the tool, keeping up with her patient load during the recovery would have been much harder. The injury did not stop her practice. It just meant she needed a way to document that did not depend on her hands working the way they normally do.
Why this matters beyond one injury
An injury is an extreme version of a problem every physician already deals with in smaller ways. Long clinic days, complex visits, and the general backlog of notes all compete for the same limited time and energy. A workflow that does not require typing changes what is possible in all of those situations, not just the dramatic ones.
For solo physicians and specialists, it means documentation keeps up with the visit instead of piling up for later, whether the day is ordinary or not.
For group practices, it means one physician's unexpected circumstances do not have to slow down the whole clinic's charting.
For sleep medicine and pediatrics specifically, where visits often involve detailed histories and follow-up notes, structured, specialty-level templates keep that detail organized without adding typing time.
A practical place to start
Physicians usually do not need to change their whole workflow at once. Starting with AI Scribe on a handful of visits, letting Smart Style adjust to personal phrasing over the first few encounters, is enough to see whether the workflow fits before expanding it further.
Final thoughts
Dr. Tablizo's story is a reminder that documentation tools are not just about saving a few minutes here and there. At their best, they remove a dependency, in her case, the physical act of typing, so that seeing patients does not have to wait for everything else to go right first.
FAQ
What is an AI scribe?
An AI scribe listens during a patient visit and turns the conversation into a structured clinical note in real time, reducing or removing the need to type or write the note manually.
Does an AI scribe work if a physician can't type?
Yes. Because Empathia's AI Scribe and Voice Dictation are voice-based, documentation can continue even when typing or handwriting is difficult, as in Dr. Tablizo's case after a hand injury.
How does the AI scribe adapt to a physician's own style?
Smart Style with AI Learning refines tone, structure, and formatting to match how a specific clinician documents, typically within the first several encounters.
Can documentation happen away from a desktop computer?
Yes. Empathia is available on mobile, tablet, and web, so documentation is not limited to sitting at a keyboard.
