The EMR built for how a primary care visit actually happens.
Most EMRs are built for billing departments and bolted onto everyone else. Nodal starts with the four people who touch every visit: the patient, the front desk, the medical assistant, and the provider. Each gets exactly what they need, on one connected record.
Now talking with small primary care practices in Arizona, including practices still on paper.
Primary care runs on software nobody would choose
Front desks re-key the same insurance details every visit. Patients call to ask about labs already sitting in a database. Providers finish notes at night. And small practices can’t find a system that fits their size or budget, so some are still on paper.
of EHR time for the average primary care visit, which is scheduled for 30 minutes.
AMA, reporting a JAMA Network Open studyof solo physicians report having no EHR at all, the lowest adoption of any practice size.
ONC data brief, 2024 dataper provider per month for small-practice EMRs, often with setup fees and add-ons on top.
2026 small-practice EMR comparisonOne visit, four people, one record
When the patient checks in on her phone, the front desk sees it. When the MA takes vitals, the provider’s brief updates. When the provider signs, the plan lands in the patient’s pocket. Nothing gets re-typed.
Patients
An app that replaces the phone call.
- One standard health form and practice policies, signed before arriving
- Cost estimate and Apple Pay
- No app? Check in from a text link
- Results, trends, and prescription pickup status
Front desk
One screen for the whole day.
- Schedule opens with every visit’s status
- Chart prep: outside records requested before the visit
- Fix insurance, forms, and copays inline
- No-show fees applied from your own policy
Medical assistants
Rooming without the re-typing.
- Vitals station to room, nothing re-typed
- Intake pre-filled from the patient’s health form
- Follow-up questions suggested for you
- Provider orders like shots land on your screen
Providers
Context before the exam room.
- A brief plus the actual lab reports
- Visit note drafted from the conversation
- Suggestions you approve, never automatic
- E-prescribe to the patient’s pharmacy and see when it’s received
Switching from paper shouldn’t take months
Many small practices put off an EMR because moving years of paper charts means weeks of typing. Nodal reads the charts for you, starting with the patients you’ll see this week.
See Paper → Nodal ↗- Snap the pagesPhotograph intake forms, handwritten notes, and lab slips with a phone or scanner.
- Nodal builds the chartMedications, allergies, problems, labs, and insurance, with every fact linked to the page it came from.
- You check what’s unclearA smudged dose or a “Sulfa?” gets flagged with a suggested answer. Nothing goes in until a person approves it.
- Connect everyone elseLabs, pharmacies, insurance, hospitals, and referral partners come online alongside, so no new paper comes in.
One patient visit in two minutes
Follow Maria from a text on her phone to the bill. Each screen highlights the one thing to click. These are Nodal’s real screens with a made-up patient.
Private preview: enter the password you were given. No password? Request access. Try it yourself opens the full product to click around in, with fictional patients and no real health data.
Patient data is not a feature. It’s a responsibility.
A person approves what AI suggests
Nodal drafts, reads, and suggests. Nothing is diagnosed, prescribed, ordered, or added to a chart until a clinician or staff member approves it.
Built toward HIPAA from day one
Encryption, access controls, audit logs, and signed business associate agreements with every vendor that touches patient data, in place before any real data comes in.
Patients control their records
Sharing records with another practice is the patient’s decision, made in one tap, and they can turn it off anytime. We never sell patient data.
Who’s building Nodal
Angelina Snodgrass
- Based inTucson, Arizona
- Building Nodal sinceFebruary 2025
- Emailangelina.snodgrass05
@gmail.com
My goal is simple: an EMR that’s significantly easier and more efficient to use than anything primary care has today.
Angelina founded Nodal Medical Systems to modernize the software primary care practices run on. Since early 2025 she has been researching where today’s EMRs fail the people who use them, and talking directly with practice owners and staff about what their days actually look like.
Nodal started from the front desk, where the most repetitive, avoidable work happens every day, and grew into one connected system for the whole visit. She’s building it in Arizona, alongside the practices that will use it.
Tell us what’s wrong with it
Especially if you work at a front desk, room patients, or see them. Honest reactions now shape what gets built first.
Become a design partner: try Nodal early, shape what it does, and use it free while we build it together.
Ask for access in the form and we’ll email you the password.