At a glance
- Runs on-site. Speech recognition and the language model run on a Curaeon appliance in your practice.
- Drafts, never decides. It writes Subjective, Objective and Plan for the clinician to review and sign. No Assessment, no MBS item suggestions.
- Keeps working through outages. Consults, drafting and the local record carry on without internet.
- We monitor the appliance, not the records. Telemetry is limited to health signals such as heartbeats, temperatures and software versions.
Why on-premises?
Most AI scribes available to Australian GPs are cloud services. The better ones process and store data in Australia, and that matters. But the consultation still leaves the practice: it travels to a vendor's servers, is processed there, and is kept for a period under the vendor's controls.
An on-premises scribe removes that step. The practice already holds its patients' records. With the scribe on the same network, the most sensitive part of the day, the conversation in the consult room, is processed where those records already live, under the practice's own physical and network controls.
How a consult flows
- The patient agrees to the scribe. The clinician explains it and records consent before anything is captured. On-site
- The consult is captured on the clinician's workstation and sent across the practice network to the appliance. On-site
- The appliance transcribes and drafts Subjective, Objective and Plan using models running on its own hardware. On-site
- The clinician reviews, edits and signs. Nothing enters the record as a note until they do. On-site
- The note is stored in the practice's own database, and every opening of the chart is recorded in an audit log. On-site
- Only what must leave, leaves. A Medicare claim, an eScript or a referral goes to its service because it has to. Appliance health telemetry goes to Curaeon. Leaves, by design
What the scribe will not do
Some limits are part of the design, not missing features:
- No Assessment. The scribe does not write a diagnosis or an Assessment section. The draft note has no place for one, and a check scans the Plan and Objective for diagnostic statements before a draft reaches the clinician. The clinician writes the Assessment.
- No MBS item suggestions. A Medicare claim is a legal statement by the billing practitioner, and what was done in the consult is not all in the transcript. Curaeon lets you search the full schedule and flags consults that were not billed or priced, but it never picks an item for you.
- No training on your consults. The models run on your appliance. Your consultations are not sent to us to improve a model.
The first two also keep the scribe on the documentation side of a line the TGA has drawn: a scribe that goes beyond transcription and summary, for example by proposing a diagnosis, may be a regulated medical device.
What stays on-site, and what leaves
| Data | Where it lives |
|---|---|
| Consultation audio | Practice network only; deleted after the retention period the practice sets |
| Transcript and draft note | Practice network only |
| Patient records and signed notes | The practice's own database |
| Chart access audit log | The practice's own database, append-only |
| Medicare and DVA claims, eScripts, referrals | Sent to the relevant service when you submit them |
| Appliance telemetry (heartbeats, temperatures, versions) | Sent to Curaeon, so we can spot a failing appliance |
When the internet goes down
A cloud scribe stops when the connection does. Because Curaeon's scribe and records are on the practice network, consultations carry on: the clinician records, the appliance drafts, the note is signed and saved. Anything that has to reach an outside service, such as a claim or an eScript, waits and goes when the connection is back.
Cloud scribe or on-premises scribe?
| Cloud scribe (Australian-hosted) | Curaeon on-premises scribe | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the consult is processed | Vendor's data centre in Australia | Appliance in your practice |
| Works during an internet outage | No | Yes, for consults and notes |
| Who holds the audio | The vendor, under its retention policy | The practice, under its retention policy |
| Hardware in the practice | None | One appliance, installed and monitored by Curaeon |
| Setup | Sign up and install a browser extension or app | Appliance install as part of onboarding |
Cloud scribes are quicker to start, and for many practices that is the right trade. Curaeon is for practices that want the consultation to stay on their own network, or that cannot rely on their internet connection.
Updating your privacy policy? From 10 December 2026, some uses of software to make or support decisions about patients must be described in it. Read our guide to the new rule →
Questions
What is an on-premises AI scribe?
An AI scribe whose speech recognition and language model run on hardware inside the practice, rather than in a vendor's cloud. The consultation audio, transcript and draft note are processed on the practice network.
Does it work without internet?
Yes for consultations: recording, drafting and the local record keep working through an outage. Medicare claims and eScripts wait for the connection to return.
Does the scribe diagnose or suggest MBS items?
No. It drafts Subjective, Objective and Plan for the clinician to review and sign. It does not write an Assessment and it does not suggest MBS items.
Can Curaeon see our patients' records?
No. We monitor the appliance through health telemetry such as heartbeats, temperatures and software versions. Patient records and consultation content are not part of it.
How long is consultation audio kept?
For the retention period the practice sets. A scheduled sweep then deletes the audio and records that it has gone.