We love Cliniko. They put their heart and soul into their practice management system — and it shows. When we first integrated with Cliniko back in 2017, treatment notes were the closest thing they had to Forms — which aren't intended to be patient-facing.

In 2020, during the lock down, Cliniko released Patient Forms. Clinics that previously relied on paper, but were forced to switch to telehealth during the lock down to stay open, could take advantage of their new release to get the job done.

Around the same time, responding to the same market, we released a feature to allow our Forms to be published to the Web. This expanded upon the capabilities of the Finger-Ink iPad app. Allowing patients to fill out Forms on their own devices, in their own homes, before their appointment. We made Forms on the web look and feel the same as our beloved iPad forms.

Cliniko have a lot on their plate. They have a whole practice management system to develop! Finger-Ink's task, in comparison, is much smaller. Forms are our whole world. Our reason for being. Our sole focus. As such, we obsess over every little detail — and people notice.

The big difference between Finger-Ink's Forms and Cliniko's Patient Forms is that Finger-Ink's Forms update the patient record. Take a look:

Almost any field on the patient record can be updated through a Finger-Ink Form. That includes all the "difficult to handle" ones that might need the patient to select from a list. Unless they don't want to. Then they can specify their own, unique answer. It also includes your Referral Sources (handy for your reporting later on), and custom patient fields.

Also worth noting: our forms go direct to the Files section on the patient record, while Cliniko's go to the Forms section, and are linked on the Appointment as well.

Our forms have a unique look and feel. They're step-by-step, not all-at-once. And they can look like they're a part of your clinic. Here's what we mean:

As the patient progresses through the form, the patient is presented with some new information, or asked a new question. Here's a short video of this in action:

Apart from the look, and the fact that Finger-Ink Forms update the patient record, there are a number of other differences. Forms being our sole focus, we naturally have a few more advanced features. Cliniko, having full integration with their PMS also has a few advantages over us. I've put together a table to illustrate these below:

☝️ Finger-Ink uses Cliniko's Appointment Reminder Templates for automatic sending.