Before you start
The Health Diary is a place to note how you feel, as often as you like, in your own words. Each time you write, you get a short answer and some next steps. What you wrote is saved as a diary entry with the date.
The answers are general information, not medical advice. Every answer ends with a reminder to check with a healthcare professional. If you are worried, talk to a doctor. The diary always shows you a way to do that.
1Write how you feel
Where: Health Diary › Chat
- Type in the box at the bottom, for example "I have had a headache since Tuesday". Write the way you would talk.
- Press the Send button. Your message shows at once, and you see a sign that an answer is coming.
- The answer usually arrives within a few seconds. It can take up to a minute.
Not sure how to start? Tap one of the suggestions above the box: Fever, Headache, Stomach pain or Can't sleep.
A note can be up to 2,000 characters. The counter under the box turns red when you go over, and you cannot send until you shorten it.
Each conversation keeps going until you start a new one. To start fresh, click New above the list of conversations.
2Read the answer
Each answer has three parts:
- The answer itself, in plain words.
- A reminder at the end: "This is general information, not medical advice. Please check with a healthcare professional."
- Up to three buttons with next steps, for example Talk to a Doctor or Find Care. See Care Options is always one of them.
Sometimes a button says Track and a topic, for example "Track Headaches". Click it to make a folder for that topic. The conversation moves into the folder so you can find it later.
3Speak instead of typing
- Click the microphone next to the message box. The first time, your browser asks if Kulcare can use your microphone. Choose Allow.
- Speak. The screen shows how many seconds you have left. A voice note can be up to two minutes. Recording stops by itself at two minutes.
- Click the microphone again to stop.
- Listen back if you want to. Then click Send voice note, or Discard to throw it away and start again.
Your words appear as a message in the conversation, then the answer arrives. Check the words we heard, especially the names of medicines. If something is wrong, write a correction in your next message.
If you choose Block when the browser asks, or your device has no microphone, the page says so. You can still type.
4Keep things in folders
Folders show above your conversations. You start with four: General Health, Diabetes, Back Pain and Personal Notes. Click a folder to see only its conversations. Click All to see everything.
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Make a folder | Click New (the + button in the row of folders), type a name, and click Create. |
| Rename or remove a folder | Click the three dots next to it. The four starting folders cannot be removed. |
| Move a conversation | Click the three dots on the conversation, then choose a folder under Move to. The folder it is in now is shown but greyed out. |
| Rename a conversation | Click the three dots on the conversation, then Rename. |
| Delete a conversation | Click the three dots, then Delete. This removes the conversation and its messages, and cannot be undone. Diary entries it created stay in History; delete those there if you want them gone too. |
When you remove a folder, you do not lose anything. Its conversations move to General Health.
5Look back at your history
Where: Health Diary › History
Every time you write, the diary saves an entry with the date, what you said and a short summary. Entries get labels such as "headache" or "sleep" so you can find them.
- Click a label to show only entries with it. Click more labels to narrow the list further.
- Click Clear to remove all the labels you picked.
- To delete an entry, click the bin icon on it. You are asked to confirm first.
6Prepare for a doctor's visit
Where: Health Diary › History › Before your visit
Before an appointment, make a short summary of what you have recorded, written so a doctor can read it quickly.
- Click Prepare summary. It takes a few seconds.
- Read it. The top shows how many days and entries it covers, and when it was prepared.
- Click Print to print it or save it as a PDF, or show it on your phone at the appointment. The printout is the summary on its own, without the menu or the rest of the page.
You need at least one diary entry for a summary. With none, the page tells you there are not enough entries yet.
From your dashboard
The Health Diary card on your dashboard has its own box: "How are you feeling today?". Type there and press the arrow. The diary opens with what you wrote already in the message box, so you do not have to type it twice.
For a family member
If you manage the care of someone else, for example a child or a parent, you can keep their diary too. Use the switcher in the sidebar to change to that person first. The page then shows their diary, not yours.
- Each person's diary is separate. What you write while switched to your mother goes in her diary, not yours.
- When you switch, anything you had typed but not sent is cleared, and so is an unsent voice recording. The page tells you so.
- A message you sent just before switching still goes to the right person. It appears in their diary, not in the one you switched to.
When something goes wrong
When a message cannot be answered, a card under it says what happened. Your words stay on the screen either way. Whether the message itself was saved depends on what went wrong, and the card tells you: it only says Your note is saved when it was.
Languages
You can type in your own language, for example Hindi or Tamil, and the answer usually comes back in the language you wrote in. The reminder at the end of each answer is in English.
On the website, voice notes understand English only for now. If you speak another language, please type instead.
Your privacy
- Your diary is yours. Other patients cannot see it. The only other people who can see it are family members set up to manage your care in Kulcare, for example a parent managing a child's account.
- Recordings are not saved. A voice note is turned into text, and only the text is saved in your diary.
- What you type on the dashboard card is passed straight to the diary. It is not put in the page address.
In an emergency
If you have chest pain, trouble breathing, signs of a stroke, heavy bleeding, or thoughts of harming yourself, call your local emergency number or go to the nearest emergency department now.
The diary looks for a short list of warning signs written in English, such as chest pain or trouble breathing. When it finds one, the answer starts with a red Get help now message and a Talk to a Doctor button. It does not recognise every emergency, and it does not recognise warning signs written in other languages. The diary is not a way to reach emergency services, so do not rely on it to spot an emergency.