☝️ Identity-verified forms is currently in beta — and needs to be switched on per-account.
If you'd like access, please let us know via the chat bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.
As you probably already know, Finger-Ink allows in-clinic form filling and a check-in kiosk through our purpose-built iPad app.
You probably also know that we offer the ability for your patients to fill out their forms prior to their appointment, on their own devices — we call these web forms.
Previously, web forms were only accessible via the same URL for any patient. Anyone with the URL could fill out the form, and Finger-Ink would do a matching process (once the patient completed the form) to figure out where, in Cliniko, to send it.
New in May 2025, we're introducing Identity Verification for forms — allowing you to track in-progress forms.
Identity Verification for forms
Identity verification works by leveraging Cliniko's confirmation template placeholders to insert the patient ID into the URL for a Finger-Ink form when it's sent out.
When a form detects a patient ID in the URL, it will start a process to confirm the patient's identity. Once confirmed, identity verified form filling can begin! This has a number of advantages over the previous flow:
The patient ID is associated with the form they're filling out — so there's absolutely zero chance that our system will attempt to match to a different patient.
The form being filled out out is pre-populated with their patient record — making form filling quicker, and obvious who the form is for (if there are many family members using one email address).
Forms can be filled out over time — 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there, etc. The patient can close the form at any time, picking up where they left off at a later time.
You, as the clinic, can see any in-progress, identity-verified web forms — so you know who's currently filling out their forms, and how far through they are.
How do I setup identity verification?
All you need to do is change the URLs in your confirmation templates to URLs that initiate identity verification.
Here's an example of a booking confirmation email template in Cliniko using the identity verification URL structure:
You can see that it uses the usual URL structure:
But includes some important additions (in bold):
https://forms.finger-ink.com/finger-ink/example-intake/p/{{Patient.IdentificationNumber}}
The /p/ part tells us to expect a patient ID next, then the {{Patient.IdentificationNumber}} part will be replaced with the patient's actual ID when the email is sent.
‼️ It's super important that you remove the automatic link that Cliniko adds when you paste in your form URL. Without removing the automatic link, when your patients click the link they'll be taken to the non-identity verified form flow.
When you paste in any URL into Cliniko's template editor, it automatically converts this URL into a clickable link. In this case we do not want this to happen. So it needs to be removed.
Highlight the entire link, then click the little chain icon to bring up the edit link dialog:
Once the dialog is visible, click the remove link button:
When the colour and underline have been removed from the URL in the editor, you know it's worked:
Once that link has been removed, you can add the rest of the URL, like so:
And here it is, ready to go — no red colour, no underline, and no spaces in the URL:
What does the patient see?
Even with the link removed from the Cliniko template, your patient's email client (Gmail, Outlook, Mail etc.) will see the URL and make it clickable, like this:
Clicking that link will open up the first page in the patient identity verification flow.
Step one — entering their email address
When the user first clicks that link in the email — the one that includes their patient ID — it redirects them to a different state page than if they were to click the link without their patient ID. This one asks for their email address. It might look something like this:
☝️ Privacy & Security
When the patient enters their email on this page, we never tell them if the entered email address was correct — nor do we tell them if they visit the form URL with a non-existent patient ID. Instead, we still tell them to check their inbox after they enter in an email — even when we know (behind the scenes) that we haven't sent an email.
This is slightly worse, usability-wise, than giving them nice error messages telling them that the ID or email address is incorrect. But it's a trade-off we needed to make in order to protect the privacy of both your Cliniko account, and the patient records therein.
We also have additional security measures in place to make sure we don't "accidentally" let slip when a patient ID or email is correct, or that the generated code can be brute-forced. If you're interested in more, feel free to contact us and we'll gladly share all the nerdy details. 😅
Step two — entering in the special code
After they enter the correct email address that's connected to their patient record, a special code is emailed to them. Here's an example of how the page changes when they enter in any email address (see privacy & security note above):
And here's an example of what that email might look like if they enter in the correct email address:
To continue, the patient should copy that code and paste it into the page waiting for the code, or click the button to continue, within 5 minutes — or they'll need to go through this flow again.
Step three — fill out the form
Once the code has been entered correctly, they'll start the form — and it will show that progress has been restored:
Any standard patient fields (such as name, address etc.) are all pre-filled, and patients can just hit the next button on those screens — saving time.
As a bonus, their progress is automatically saved in the Portal as they make their way through the form — that means they can pick up where they left off at any time.
What do you see in the Portal?
As the patient goes through their form, the Current In-progress forms page will update to show their latest progress — with the status indicator in green to show they're currently filling out their form:
If they stop filling out the form for any reason, you'll see the latest progress with a yellow indicator:
What if the patient loses their booking email?
Use the copy link button from the Current In-progress forms page to let them continue their form:
They'll need to go through the identity verification flow again — but once verified they can pick up where they left off.
Themes are respected
We know that some of you use Themes as a way to separate multiple brands you may have under one Cliniko account. Because of this, we conform to your forms' themes — both when showing the identity verification flow, and when sending the email with the code.