Same day as the visit, capture weight, diet/training context, and clinician headline impressions.
List abnormal labs or imaging keywords—even shorthand beats losing them in PDFs alone.
Record explicit recheck windows (“recheck T4 in 6 months”) inside the note body.
Next year diffing two abstracts is cheaper than rescanning entire packets.
Annual snapshot (four lines in one note)
- Weight and body condition (one tactile sentence)
- Chemistry/CBC etc.: abnormal item names (full transcription optional)
- Imaging/cardiac listen: keyword conclusions
- Clinician plan: recheck month + what to watch daily
Next year open last year’s note—cheaper than digging paper folders.