How do I use the Quinn Patient Assistant to ask questions about a patient?
Quick answer: Open a patient and select the Ask Quinn tab, then type a question about that patient's record. Quinn reads the full chart — exams, prescriptions, billing, appointments, messages, and more — and answers without you switching tabs.
Who this is for: Clinical and front-office staff at practices where the Quinn Patient Assistant is enabled. If you don't see an Ask Quinn tab, the feature isn't turned on for your organization yet — contact Barti Support.
Before you start, you'll need:
A patient open in Barti
The Quinn Patient Assistant enabled for your organization
A microphone, only if you want to use voice mode
Steps
Ask a question from the patient record
Open the patient you want to ask about.
Select the Ask Quinn tab in the patient's tab row (between Personal Info and Notes).
Type your question in the box at the bottom — it reads Ask Quinn about this patient...
Press Enter to send. Use Shift + Enter if you want to add a line break instead of sending.
Questions are limited to 320 characters. A live counter next to the send button shows how much you've used.
Use a Quick Access question
Quinn ships with saved starter questions so you don't have to type common ones.
On the Ask Quinn tab, select any of the suggested question chips shown under the welcome message. Quinn sends it immediately.
Once a conversation is underway, the chips are no longer on screen. Select the Quick questions icon at the bottom-left of the question box to open the same list in a menu, then select a question to send it.
Barti's default Quick Access questions are:
IOP max values for OD and OS?
Last CPT codes?
Diagnosis list history?
Ask Quinn from the patient sidebar
The patient sidebar gives you Quinn without leaving the screen you're on — useful during an exam.
Open the patient sidebar (it appears alongside an active exam, and can be opened from other screens such as an invoice).
Select the Ask Quinn tab in the sidebar's tab row.
Ask your question the same way as on the full tab.
The sidebar panel and the full Ask Quinn tab each hold their own separate conversation. If you have both open for the same patient, they don't share history.
Switch to voice
Select the microphone icon at the bottom-right of the question box (its tooltip reads Switch to voice).
Allow microphone access if your browser asks.
Speak your question. An indicator shows Listening… while Quinn hears you and Speaking… while it answers.
Select the microphone icon again — now labeled Switch to text — to return to typing.
While voice mode is active the text box is disabled and shows Voice mode active — tap the mic to type. Your conversation carries over when you switch between voice and text, so Quinn keeps the earlier context.
Change your Quick Access questions
Quick Access questions are saved per staff member, so your list follows you and doesn't affect anyone else.
Open the patient sidebar settings (Patient Sidebar Settings) Gear Icon .
Select the Ask Quinn tab.
Under Quick Access Questions, type a question in the field and select Add. New questions are added to the top of the list.
To change an existing question, select the action menu next to it and choose Edit, make your change, then select Done. Choose Delete to remove it.
Select Save to keep your changes, or Cancel to discard them.
Keep saved questions under 320 characters so they can be sent as-is.
What you'll see when it works
The Ask Quinn tab opens on a welcome message — Welcome to the Barti Quinn Assistant! — with your Quick Access questions listed below it as selectable chips.
After you send a question, Thinking... appears with an animated Barti logo while Quinn looks up the record. The answer then appears in the conversation above your question box.
Quinn formats answers for scanning rather than as long paragraphs:
Wide record lists — exam history, prescriptions, claims, invoices, optical orders — come back as tables, one row per record.
Data recorded across visits, such as diagnoses, CPT codes, or intraocular pressure, comes back as a list with the newest date first.
Values recorded per eye show OD and OS as separate lines.
Dates appear in MM/DD/YYYY format, matching the record.
Quinn answers only from what is actually in that patient's chart. If the record doesn't contain the answer, Quinn tells you it isn't on file rather than guessing.
What Quinn can answer
Quinn is scoped to the one patient you have open. It cannot look up a different patient, and it can't be pointed at another chart from inside the conversation — to ask about someone else, open that patient and start there.
Within the open patient's record, Quinn can pull from:
Patient summary and demographics
Exam history and individual exam details
Clinical history — diagnoses (ICD-10), procedures (CPT), and findings over time
Insurances
Prescriptions
Appointments
Patient notes
Claims and invoices
Optical orders
Billing tied to a specific visit or optical order
Text messages and call logs
Intake forms, letters, and uploaded files
Tasks
Quinn surfaces what's in the record. It does not give medical advice or make treatment decisions.
Troubleshooting
Why don't I see an Ask Quinn tab?
The Quinn Patient Assistant is controlled by a setting on your organization, and it also requires AI exam history to be turned on. When it's off, the patient sidebar shows an AI History tab instead of Ask Quinn, and there's no Ask Quinn tab on the patient record at all. Contact Barti Support to have it enabled.
Why does the question box say "Connecting..." and won't let me type?
Quinn opens a live session when you enter the tab, and the box stays disabled until that session connects. Give it a moment. If it doesn't connect, close and reopen the tab, and check that you aren't on an unstable network connection.
Why did my conversation disappear?
Each conversation lives for as long as you have that surface open — it isn't saved to the patient's chart. Leaving the Ask Quinn tab, closing the sidebar, or reloading Barti starts a fresh conversation. The sidebar panel and the full tab also keep separate conversations from each other.
Why can't Quinn find information I know is in the chart?
Quinn only reports what the record actually returns. If it says something isn't on file, check that the information was saved to this patient and to the area you expect — for example, a finding entered in an exam that was never completed, or an intake form that was never submitted, may not be there yet. If you can see the data in the patient's chart and Quinn still can't, contact Barti Support.
Why won't voice mode start?
Voice needs microphone access and a live session. If your browser blocked the microphone, allow it in your browser's site settings and try again. Voice also stops on its own when you switch away from the Barti browser tab, so the microphone isn't left open — select the microphone icon again to resume.
Why did my saved Quick Access questions not stick?
Quick Access questions only save when you select Save in Patient Sidebar Settings. Selecting Cancel, or closing the panel without saving, discards your changes.
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