AI letter templates are built in the advanced letter template editor, and use information in clinical notes to generate letters, summaries, and clinical reports through PracSuite AI.

Any documentation where you want to combine a patient's clinical history with the writing power of PracSuite AI is a good candidate for an AI letter template, for example:

Go to Settings > Templates > Letter Templates, then select Add Advanced Letter Template.

Square bracket instructions are the core building block of an AI letter template. Anywhere you write an instruction in square brackets, PracSuite AI generates content in that spot based on the patient's clinical notes. Everything outside the brackets is treated as fixed template text and is never touched by the AI.

For example:

[Summarise the patient's main symptoms, their current activity level, and their treatment goals.]

While you're editing a template, square bracket instructions are highlighted in green so you can see at a glance what will be generated versus what's fixed text. This highlighting is only there to help while you write the template, it's removed once the template is saved, and it never appears on the letters generated from it, including when printed, emailed, or exported as a PDF.

You can also include patient merge fields inside your instructions, see Using merge fields in prompts and in the template below.

Not every instruction needs to generate visible text. If you want to give PracSuite AI context or a rule that should shape the rest of the letter, without it producing its own sentence at that spot, start the bracket with Context only:

[Context only: this letter is a treatment summary going directly to the patient, not to a referrer. Write in plain, everyday language rather than clinical terminology, and keep the focus on helping them understand their injury and stay engaged with their treatment plan.]

This is useful for background information, tone-setting, or conditions the AI should keep in mind throughout the letter, without leaving a stray line of generated text where the instruction sits.

If a section will always appear in the letter regardless of the patient, write its heading as normal template text, outside the square brackets, rather than asking the AI to generate it. Only the instruction for what goes under that heading needs to sit inside the brackets.

It's tempting to put a whole section's worth of instructions into a single bracket and let the AI generate the fixed headings too. This can work, but it gives the AI more to decide on each time, which means less consistent formatting from letter to letter.

Less consistent:

[Write a history section with a heading, then an assessment section with a heading, then a recommendations section with a heading, summarising the patient's condition and treatment plan.]

More consistent:

History

[Summarise the patient's presenting history and relevant background.]

Assessment

[Summarise clinical findings and current status.]

Recommendations

[Outline the recommended next steps or treatment plan.]

Because letter templates preserve formatting during AI generation, headings and structure you set up as static text stay exactly as you designed them. Letting the AI regenerate that structure inside one large bracket gives it up for no reason.

This only applies to headings you know will always be there. If a section should only appear some of the time, for example a "Medications" heading that's only relevant if the patient is on medication, put the heading inside the bracket along with the content, so the AI can generate the heading and its content together, or leave both out entirely when the section doesn't apply:

[If the patient is currently taking medication, include a "Medications" heading followed by a summary of their current medications. Otherwise, omit this section entirely.]

Merge fields automatically pull in details like the patient's name, date of birth, and practitioner information, rather than relying on the AI to know or guess them. See the full list of merge fields for everything available.

Merge fields can be used in two places:

As static fields in the document, outside any square brackets. These merge directly wherever they're placed, with no AI involved:

Dear <<RDFirstName>>, RE: <<FullName>> <<DateOfBirth>>

Inside a square bracket instruction, to give PracSuite AI real data to work with when generating content, rather than leaving it to infer details from the notes:

[Summarise <<FirstName>>'s progress since their appointment on <<PreviousAppointment1Date>>.]

Merge fields inside an instruction aren't resolved by the AI itself. PracSuite AI writes the instruction's content first, and the merge field is merged into that generated content afterwards, so the field value stays accurate rather than something the AI has composed on its own.

Just like AI instructions, merge fields are highlighted while you're editing a template, in blue rather than green, so you can tell patient data apart from AI-generated content. This highlighting is also removed once the template is saved, and doesn't appear on the letter when printed, emailed, or exported as a PDF.

Use pronoun merge fields rather than letting the AI guess. The AI doesn't reliably know a patient's pronouns from clinical notes alone, so give it merge fields to use instead. This works well as a context-only instruction near the top of your template:

[Context only: the output contains merge fields that will be post-merged after the AI output.

When referring to the patient by name, insert <<PreferredName>>

When using subject pronouns mid-sentence, use <<heshe>>

When using subject pronouns at the beginning of a sentence, use <<HeSheCap>>

When using object pronouns mid-sentence, use <<himher>>

When using object pronouns at the beginning of a sentence, use <<HimHerCap>>

When using possessive pronouns mid-sentence, use <<hisher>>

When using possessive pronouns at the beginning of a sentence, use <<HisHersCap>>

When using possessive determiners mid-sentence, use <<hisher>>

When using possessive determiners at the beginning of a sentence, use <<HisHerCap>>]

If you're new to writing prompts for AI letter templates, here are some tips.

Use specific instructions. Point the AI to exactly what you want pulled from the notes.

[Summarise the patient's progress since their last appointment, focusing on any improvements in their condition.]

[Include the results of any tests or assessments conducted since the previous visit.]

Build in flexibility for different scenarios. The same template is often used across patients with different conditions or histories. Use conditional phrasing like "if applicable" or "if available" so the AI doesn't fabricate or force in information that isn't there.

[Summarise the patient's medical history, including relevant tests, injuries, or diagnoses, if applicable.]

Give clear instructions per section, rather than asking questions of the AI.

[Summarise the patient's response to treatment since their initial visit.]

[Highlight key milestones in the patient's treatment that should be shared with the recipient.]

Set the tone for the recipient. A letter to a colleague and a summary for a patient call for different tone of voice.

[Use a professional tone to summarise the patient's history and progress.]

[Use a friendly, supportive tone and explain their treatment plan in simpler terms.]

Letter templates support two document views, set in the template's document settings.

Pages view is the recommended option for most clinics. It behaves like a typical word processor, page orientation, margins, and headers/footers are all set from document settings and apply per page, so you have full control over how the letter looks when printed or exported.

Continuous view doesn't paginate the same way, which makes it better suited to templates with long or tall tables (assessment grids, progress tables) that would otherwise split awkwardly across a page break. The trade-off is that continuous view uses a fixed header, pulled from your business's invoice/report header under Settings > Businesses, rather than a header you set per template.

If you're not sure which to use, start with pages view unless your template relies on a long table, in which case continuous view will give a cleaner result.

In pages view, document settings are split across two tabs.

Document tab:

Headers & footers tab:

Tools like ChatGPT or Claude can do more than help you word a single instruction, they can write a whole template for you from a description of what you need, or take a template you've already built and improve it.

Writing a new template. Describe the letter you want (who it's for, what sections it needs, the tone), and ask the tool to draft the full template using PracSuite's format, square bracket instructions, merge fields, and static headings included.

Improving an existing template. Paste your current template in and ask the tool to review it. This works well for exactly the kind of cleanup covered earlier in this article, splitting one large bracket into smaller, per-section instructions, moving headings and labels out of the brackets, and converting background information into context-only instructions rather than generated sentences.

Because ChatGPT and Claude don't know PracSuite's template conventions by default, it helps to explain them up front. It's also worth pasting in the full list of merge fields alongside the prompt below, so the AI tool uses real merge field names rather than inventing plausible-looking ones.

Here's a prompt you can copy, paste, and fill in with your own template or letter description:

Review whatever the AI tool produces before pasting it into PracSuite, adjust tone, section order, and merge fields to match your practice's own letterhead and workflow.