Show HN: We built a real-time desktop companion for patient's telehealth visits

Sidekick is a desktop app from OpenHand that joins your telehealth visit in real time to transcribe and annotate the conversation: it explains medical terms as they’re spoken, surfaces questions you might want to ask while there’s still time, and produces a plain‑language recap with visit highlights and next steps. It runs alongside whatever video platform you use on macOS or Windows, requires an invite code for free early access, and is activated by pressing “start” before a visit. Sidekick does not diagnose, treat, or prescribe; its purpose is to help patients organize symptoms, questions, and medications so they can engage more clearly with clinicians. A mobile app for phone and in‑person visits is planned, and existing bill‑review features will return in that mobile release.

Privacy and consent are central to the design: the architecture is described as HIPAA‑aligned, OpenHand signs business associate agreements with partners, and the company promises no ads, no data selling, and user control over sharing and revocation. Identifiable protected health information is not used to train foundation models; any product‑improvement analysis uses de‑identified, aggregated data with an opt‑out. Users are advised to follow local recording consent laws and to tell clinicians at the visit start; clinicians are invited to try Sidekick and are generally reported to accept its patient‑support role.