Last week, Michelle (our Chief of Staff) and I found ourselves in a setting that’s worlds away from our usual laptop screens: standing in an exam room, watching a Sports Medicine MD at work.

We were shadowing Dr. Gonzalez, a Freed user, to see firsthand how our product fits into his day.

Let me tell you: this man does not stop moving. One minute he’s testing a shoulder’s range of motion, the next he’s palpating a knee — all while keeping up an easy rapport with his patient.

And like Freed, Michelle and I listened in the background.

Dr. Gonzalez’ workflow: pre- and post-visit

As you know, a lot goes down in a 15-minute visit. Here’s how Freed fits in:

• Dr. Gonzalez knocks and walks in.
• He has Freed ready on his phone — once he gets patient permission, he turns it on.
• He sets his phone down and gets fully hands-on.
• He talks through next steps with the patient, often saying them aloud.

After the visit, we followed him to his workstation. With two monitors and a few fast clicks, he completed his first note:

• On his phone, he added the patient’s name.
• On his desktop, the Freed note popped up.
• Then, he began his flow: reading from the Freed note while dictating into Dragon, using an Epic template he’s refined over time.

Paired with his Epic template, Freed makes the process feel smoother: less blank-page syndrome, more plug-and-play.

‎Why it works for him

Dr. Gonzalez is tech-savvy, busy, and efficient. He’s not trying to automate everything — he’s streamlining the parts that eat up energy without adding value.

That’s why Freed is a perfect fit for his first-visit patients. These visits are longer, more complex, and harder to document from scratch. With Freed, he can stay present during the visit and wrap up afterward without starting from zero.

For follow-ups, he sticks with his dictation-first flow — but even there, Freed plays a supporting role. When he needs to reference prior documentation or revisit a patient’s history, it’s all there, captured and organized.

‎A one-clinician island (for now)

Dr. Gonzalez is the only person in his medium-sized practice using Freed. 

But watching him work, the takeaway was clear: he didn’t change how he practices to fit the tool. He shaped the tool around how he practices — and that’s exactly how it should be.

What I took away

Spending a day with Dr. Gonzalez reminded me what real support looks like.

Freed didn’t replace the systems he already trusts. It met him where he was. It gave him a strong starting point, let him stay hands-on with patients, and made documentation feel less like a task and more like a step in the flow.

In a specialty that’s all about movement, touch, and presence, that matters.

And it reminded me: when we build tools that flex to fit real workflows — not the other way around — we don’t just make charting easier. We make space for clinicians to show up exactly as they are.