FAQ
Answers to the questions physicians most often ask before trying Mari. If you don't find what you need here, email us.
Mari is a pre-visit clinical interview tool. Before an appointment, patients receive a link and complete a structured clinical interview on their phone. By the time the physician walks into the exam room, they have a complete history of present illness and a differential diagnosis ready to review.
Mari does not diagnose patients, make clinical decisions, or replace the physician's judgment. It conducts the structured interview that typically happens in the first 5–8 minutes of a visit — before the visit begins.
Mari is not a diagnostic tool. It does not produce a final diagnosis and does not make clinical recommendations. Every output is a structured summary for the physician to review, edit, and act on based on their clinical judgment.
Mari is not an ambient scribe. Ambient scribes (like Abridge, Nabla, and Suki) capture what happens during the visit. Mari works before the visit begins. These are different tools solving different problems.
Mari is not a general-purpose AI chatbot. It follows fixed, physician-designed question pathways. It cannot deviate from those pathways or improvise clinical logic.
Before the appointment, the patient receives a link via text or email. They open it on their phone and complete a conversational interview — no app download required. Mari asks structured questions based on their chief complaint. The interaction typically takes 5–8 minutes.
The completed summary — including history of present illness and differential diagnosis — is sent to the physician before the visit begins.
Patients see a mobile-friendly conversation interface. The questions are written in plain language, specific to their chief complaint. The experience is designed to feel like a thoughtful interview — not a form or a questionnaire.
If a patient doesn't complete the Mari interview before the visit, the appointment proceeds as usual. Mari is additive — it does not replace in-visit history-taking. Incomplete interviews are flagged so the physician knows to conduct the full interview themselves.
No. Mari generates a structured differential diagnosis as a starting point for the physician's review — not a final diagnosis. The differential is based on the patient's reported symptoms and follows the same clinical reasoning a physician would apply, but the physician makes all clinical decisions.
Every Mari output is reviewable and editable by the clinician before it enters the visit workflow or the medical record.
No — Mari is not a black-box system. It uses fixed, physician-designed question pathways for all clinical reasoning. AI is used only for natural language generation (how the questions are phrased), not for clinical logic.
Every question Mari asks is traceable to a specific pathway step. Every item in the differential has a documented clinical basis. If you want to understand why Mari surfaced a particular finding, the reasoning is explainable.
Mari is a structured interview tool, not a safety net. It is designed to reduce the chance of missing a key finding during the pre-visit history — but it does not replace physician examination, clinical judgment, or the physician's responsibility for the patient's care.
The physician reviews and approves every output. If something appears missing from the Mari summary, the physician raises it during the visit, as they would with any incomplete interview.
All of Mari's clinical question pathways were designed by physicians — specifically by Sara Rotner MD (Co-Founder & CMO, 15 years internal medicine) and Leslea Brickner MD FACP (Founding Clinical Fellow, 30 years internal medicine). The pathways are reviewed and updated as clinical guidelines evolve.
Yes. Mari is designed and operated in compliance with HIPAA requirements. Hekavor acts as a Business Associate when handling protected health information on behalf of your practice. We sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with every practice as part of trial onboarding.
Yes — a BAA is required before any protected health information is exchanged. It is included in the standard trial setup and is not a separate procurement process. If you need the BAA in advance for compliance review, email us at contact@hekavor.com and we'll send it within 24 hours.
Patient interview responses are used only to generate the pre-visit summary for the physician. They are not used to train AI models, shared with third parties, or retained indefinitely. See our security page for specific data retention details.
If SOC 2 is part of your evaluation, reach out — we're happy to discuss our security roadmap and timeline directly. Email us at contact@hekavor.com.
Today, Mari is operated under HIPAA with a signed Business Associate Agreement, encryption in transit and at rest, and role-based access controls. See our security page for the full picture.
Mari integrates with major EHR systems through a secure, standards-based integration layer. Supported systems include Epic, Cerner, Athenahealth, Elation, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, and others.
EHR integration is not required to start your trial. Mari delivers summaries via email or another channel of your choice until you're ready to connect.
No. The 60-day trial requires no IT involvement. Your trial link, onboarding materials, and setup instructions are delivered within 24 hours of your request. If you later choose to enable EHR integration, we'll walk you through that process during onboarding.
Mari has been evaluated on 1,000+ physician-developed clinical cases covering common, uncommon, and rare presentations across multiple chief complaints. These cases were created and reviewed by physicians to assess differential diagnosis accuracy.
Important: these are synthetic clinical cases — structured scenarios created by physicians — not real patient encounters. Mari has not yet been evaluated in a prospective clinical trial with real patients. We are transparent about this distinction because it matters for how you interpret the validation.
No. Mari is not FDA-cleared. It is a clinical interview and decision-support tool, not a diagnostic device. We do not make regulatory claims we are not entitled to make.
Submit a trial request on the trial page. Tell us your practice type and how to reach you. Within 24 hours, you'll receive your trial access link, onboarding materials, and a patient communication template you can use immediately.
We'll discuss pricing at the end of your trial based on your practice's size and usage. There is no automatic charge at the end of the 60 days. If you'd like to continue, we'll reach out to discuss options before the trial ends.
Yes. You can reach us at contact@hekavor.com with any questions during your trial. For practices that want it, we also offer a 20-minute live setup walkthrough at the start of the trial — request it in your onboarding email or reach out directly.
No EHR required. No long-term commitment.
Trial link and onboarding guide delivered within 24 hours.