Frequently asked questions
Data, AI limitations, and patient identifiers — what UK optometrists ask us most.
What data does Iris Clinical collect when I use it?
Iris Clinical collects account information (your email, name, and optionally your GOC number) and the clinical text you submit to generate a referral or chat response. We also store the referral letters Iris Clinical produces so you can revisit them in your history. We log basic technical metadata (timestamps, request IDs, error traces) needed to run the service securely.
Is the clinical information I enter used to train AI models?
Iris Clinical does not use your clinical inputs or generated letters to train or fine-tune its own models.
Where is my data stored?
Data is stored on managed cloud infrastructure. Clinical inputs and generated letters are transmitted over TLS.
How accurate is the AI output? Can I rely on it clinically?
Iris Clinical drafts referral letters and clinical summaries from the information you provide. It is a drafting assistant, not a clinical decision-maker. Every letter must be read, edited, and signed off by a registered optometrist before it is sent. Clinical judgement and responsibility remain entirely with you.
What are the limitations of the AI?
The model has no access to the patient record, no live access to the internet, and does not see imaging or test data unless you describe it in text. It can be confidently wrong, can miss red flags you have not mentioned, and may follow generic referral conventions that don't match your local pathway. Treat the output as a first draft to review, never as a final clinical document.
What should I do if the AI output seems unsafe or incorrect?
Treat the draft as wrong until you've verified it. Do not send, sign, or paste the output into a patient record or referral system until you've corrected the issue. If a patient could be harmed by acting on the draft, fall back to your normal clinical workflow immediately and contact us so we can investigate.
Escalation checklist
- 1Stop — do not send, sign, or forward the draft.
- 2Discard the draft in Iris Clinical and rewrite the relevant section yourself from your clinical notes.
- 3Cross-check any clinical claim (drug name, dose, pathway, urgency, anatomy) against your usual source of truth before reusing it.
- 4If a patient was already referred or advised based on the draft, follow your practice's clinical incident / safeguarding process as you normally would.
- 5Report the issue via the in-app Help centre with the date, time, and a description of what went wrong (do not include patient identifiers). We triage safety reports first.
- 6If you believe a serious patient-safety incident occurred, also report it through your practice and, where appropriate, MHRA Yellow Card or your local NHS incident reporting route.
Should I enter patient-identifying information?
Avoid entering direct identifiers (full name, full date of birth, NHS number, address, phone number, email) into Iris Clinical. You can include the clinical information needed to draft a useful letter — age band, sex, presenting complaint, history, findings — and add identifiers locally when you transfer the draft into your practice record or referral system.
What happens if I paste in patient identifiers by mistake?
If you realise identifiers have been entered, delete the conversation or referral from your history. You can also submit a request via the in-app Help centre to ask for removal of the affected records from our systems.
Who is the data controller for patient information?
You (or your practice) are the data controller for any patient information you enter into Iris Clinical. Iris Clinical acts as a data processor on your behalf for that information. See the Privacy Policy for the full breakdown.
Can I delete my data?
Yes. You can delete individual referrals and chat threads from your history at any time. To delete your account and all associated data, use the account-deletion request in your settings; the request is scheduled and processed automatically, and you'll receive email confirmation when it completes.
Does Iris Clinical share my data with third parties?
Iris Clinical uses third-party sub-processors to run the service (cloud hosting, the underlying AI model providers, and email delivery for transactional messages). We do not sell your data or share it for advertising.
Still need help?
Sign in and submit a request from the in-app Help centre. Our team replies to support, privacy, and patient-safety queries from there — no email needed.