Claude for physios: digest a 200-page guideline in one go

Keeping a clinic's protocols current means reading the guidance behind them. If the lead physio prepares one in-service session a month from a 200-page guideline and three or four research papers, and the reading and note-making take 8 hours, that's 8 hours a month away from paid appointments or done in the evening.

Claude reads long documents whole: PDFs of up to 1,000 pages and up to 20 files in one chat, on every plan. The lead physio uploads the guideline, the papers and the clinic's current protocol, and asks for a digest: what each source recommends, where they agree, and where the clinic's protocol differs, with the page or section number for every point. The physio then reads the sections the digest points to and decides what changes. No patient details go in, so the personal Pro plan is enough, and Pro's unlimited Projects keep each protocol's sources together for the next review. The physio stays responsible for the protocol under their HCPC registration.

A four-physio clinic in Leeds runs a monthly in-service session. The lead physio is reviewing the clinic's low back pain protocol against a 200-page national guideline and four recent trials, and uses Claude Pro to draft the digest before reading the referenced sections.

About $299£225€268A$432C$423 a month in time saved, against about $17£13€15A$25C$24 to $20£15€18A$29C$28 for Claude Pro. The lead physio saves 5 hours a month (8 hours down to 3), valued at an assumed $60£45€54A$86C$85 an hour.

1. 1Sign up for Claude Pro, $17 (about $17£13€15A$25C$24) a month billed annually or $20 (about $20£15€18A$29C$28) billed monthly, and create a Project for the protocol under review.
2. 2Upload the guideline, the papers you have the right to use and the clinic's current protocol as text PDFs. Leave out anything that names a patient.
3. 3Ask for a digest that gives the page or section number for every recommendation and marks where the clinic's protocol differs.
4. 4Open each source at the referenced page and check it says what the digest claims. Delete any point you can't find.
5. 5Decide the protocol changes yourself, record the sources in the protocol and present them at the in-service session.

• Claude can misstate a finding or a dose of exercise, or credit it to the wrong paper. The page references are there so the physio checks every point before it changes treatment.
• In PDFs over 100 pages Claude reads the text only, not images, so recommendation tables or flowcharts printed as images in a 200-page guideline can be missed. Check those pages by eye.
• The free plan takes the same long documents but has tighter usage limits and only 5 Projects, so a long session can stop partway. Usage limits apply on Pro too.
• Never upload patient notes or anything that identifies a patient. Pro is a personal plan where training on chats is opt-out; health records belong in the clinic's own system.