The American Psychiatric Association (APA) published a resource about AI scribe tools used in psychiatric practice. Berries was included as one of the tools in the resource, which shares information about areas such as privacy, security, and product capabilities.

Key Takeaways

• The APA's Committee on Mental Health IT sent a standardized inquiry to 31 AI scribe developers in July 2025; Berries responded with detailed answers covering privacy, clinical accuracy, EHR integration, and pricing.

• The evaluation framework itself - covering HIPAA compliance, human oversight, and clinical customization - gives clinicians a structured way to assess AI scribes.

• Berries was built specifically for behavioral health, with customizable templates, automatic deletion of session recordings, and a clinician-review-first approach to every generated note.

What the APA's AI Scribe Review Actually Is

The APA’s Committee on Mental Health IT developed a standardized set of evaluation questions to help psychiatric clinicians make more informed decisions when considering AI documentation tools for their practice.

The resource provides clinicians with a consistent framework for evaluating AI scribe tools and understanding the types of questions they should consider before adopting one. Topics include HIPAA compliance, data retention, EHR integration, human oversight, pricing, and whether there is any research supporting the tool’s effectiveness.

Berries Highlights from the Review (July 2025)

How Berries Handles Behavioral Health Documentation

Berries is designed specifically for behavioral health, not adapted from a general medical scribe. Clinicians can generate notes through live session recording, uploaded transcripts, text summaries, or post-session dictation - depending on what works best for their clinical setting.

Standard templates like SOAP, DAP, and BIRP are available, but the platform places a strong emphasis on personalization. Clinicians can fully customize note formats to match their preferred language and structure. Every note generated is a draft - clinicians review, edit, and approve before anything is finalized. Magic Edit and Quick Edit features allow fast AI-assisted revisions during that review process.

Privacy and HIPAA Compliance

Berries' response to the APA covered several layers of its compliance infrastructure:

• All data is encrypted in transit and at rest

• Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) are signed with all customers and vendors handling protected health information

• Session recordings are automatically deleted in real time - they are not retained on servers

• Session notes and transcripts can be manually deleted at any time or are set to auto-delete after 30 days

• PHI is never used to train AI models

• Access is restricted to the authorized clinician with two-factor authentication and activity logs in place

• Data is stored on servers located in the United States

• Berries is in the process of completing SOC 2 certification

Human Oversight and Clinical Accuracy

The APA's evaluation framework pays close attention to how much autonomy AI tools are given in clinical documentation. Berries was explicit in its response: clinicians remain in full control.

No note is finalized without clinician review and approval. Berries does not make clinical decisions or recommendations - all clinical reasoning stays with the provider. The platform includes a feedback loop where clinicians can flag errors or suggest improvements, which feeds into ongoing refinement of AI performance.

The AI is designed to distinguish between structured medical terminology - diagnoses, interventions, symptoms - and the narrative elements of psychotherapy, like emotional tone and therapeutic context. While nonverbal cues cannot be captured from audio, clinicians can add those observations during the review process.

EHR Integration and Customization

Berries does not require a specific EHR. A "Copy note" feature allows finalized notes to be transferred to any system. Clinicians can also create and save personalized note formats, and group practices can share templates across their team while still allowing individual customization. An Intervention Bank lets clinicians save frequently used interventions to speed up future documentation.

Pricing

The annual plan is $79 per month (billed annually). The standard monthly plan is $99 per clinician. Both include unlimited monthly notes and access to all features - no tiered feature restrictions. Discounts are available for students, part-time clinicians, and early-career professionals. Custom pricing is available for group practices and larger organizations.

Evidence and Outcomes

Berries acknowledged in its APA response that it is a relatively new tool. Early internal data shows average time savings of 10–15 minutes per session, with user-submitted note ratings averaging around 4 out of 5 across accuracy, ease of use, and workflow improvement. Berries expressed openness to collaboration with the APA or academic partners for independent validation studies.

Beyond Documentation: What Berries Includes

The APA submission also covered several features that extend beyond note generation:

• Berries Assistant tracks patient progress over time and offers suggestions for treatment goals, interventions, and medication follow-ups, with access to coding guidance and diagnostic criteria references built into the platform

• Treatment Plan generation and updates, aligned with therapeutic goals and tracking progress across sessions

• Smart Diagnosis suggests potential ICD-10 diagnoses based on session content for clinician review; once approved, the diagnosis updates the patient profile automatically

• Session Preparation pulls together follow-up topics and a summary of the previous session before each appointment

• Automated Patient Instructions generates clear post-session instructions that clinicians can email directly to clients

• Patient Consent Forms are accessible within the platform

• Multilingual support for both note generation and session transcription

How to Use the APA's Resource in Your Own Evaluation

The APA's AI scribe tool page is a starting point, not a final answer. The questions the APA developed represent a useful checklist for any clinician evaluating documentation technology:

• Is the platform HIPPA compliant and does the platform provide a BAA?

• Are session recordings deleted automatically, or retained on a server?

• Is the clinician reviewing and approving every note before it's finalized?

• Does the platform use PHI to train its AI models?

• Can the note format be customized to match your documentation style and clinical requirements?

• Is pricing transparent, and what's included?

These kinds of questions matter regardless of which tool you're evaluating. The APA's resource makes it easier to ask them systematically.

Using Berries in Your Practice

Documentation is one of the most time-consuming parts of clinical work. Berries was built to reduce that burden without removing the clinician from the process. Every note generated is a draft that requires your review - the goal is to give you a strong starting point, not to replace your clinical judgment.

If you're a behavioral health clinician exploring AI documentation tools, the APA's resource at psychiatry.org/AIScribeTools is a good place to orient yourself. Berries' full response to the APA inquiry is available there as a PDF.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Berries different from a general medical AI scribe? A lot of AI scribes were built for primary care or hospital medicine. Berries was designed from the ground up for behavioral health clinicians - which means the templates, the language processing, and the workflow are built around the specific demands of therapy and psychiatric documentation.

Does Berries use session content to train its AI? No. Berries does not use protected health information (PHI) to train its AI models. Session recordings are processed in real time and deleted immediately after processing, and are not retained.

What happens if the AI generates an inaccurate note? Every Berries-generated note is a draft. Clinicians should review, edit, and approve all content before it is finalized. No note should be transferred to an EHR without clinician review.

Can Berries work with my current EHR? Yes. Berries includes a "Copy note" feature that allows finalized notes to be transferred to any EHR system. It does not require a specific integration to function.

Is there a Business Associate Agreement available? Yes. Berries automatically enters into a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with all customers upon signup to the platform.

Sources

1. American Psychiatric Association. (n.d.). AI scribe tools. https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/artificial-intelligence/ai-scribe-tools

2. American Psychiatric Association. (n.d.). Artificial intelligence in psychiatric care. https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/artificial-intelligence

3. American Psychiatric Association. (n.d.). Patient privacy and security. https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/artificial-intelligence/patient-privacy-and-security

4. Berries. (July 2025). APA Mental Health IT Committee inquiry response. https://www.psychiatry.org/getmedia/ce4d7efe-6191-42bc-a4c2-27c34584f18f/APA-MentalHealthIT-Berries-Inquiry.pdf

5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). HIPAA for professionals: Privacy. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/index.html

6. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Business associate contracts. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/covered-entities/sample-business-associate-agreement-provisions/index.html

7. National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Technology and the future of mental health treatment. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/technology-and-the-future-of-mental-health-treatment

8. American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code

This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional clinical judgment, supervision, or continuing education. Therapists should consult current clinical guidelines and use their professional discretion when applying this information to individual client cases.