Glossary of Terms

A list of key technical terms, acronyms, and product-specific names used throughout the Suki developer documentation.

Overview

This glossary defines key technical terms, acronyms, and product-specific names used throughout the Suki developer documentation.

A

Term	Definition
ABORT	A WebSocket streaming event that terminates the current audio stream due to interruption while keeping the session active for later resumption. Note generation continues with audio received before interruption.
ACO	Accountable Care Organizations. Healthcare entities that coordinate care for a patient population and are accountable for costs and quality outcomes.
AES-256	Advanced Encryption Standard with 256-bit key length. A symmetric encryption algorithm used by Suki to encrypt data at rest.
Ambient API	The specific set of APIs used to create clinical notes from conversations.
Ambient Session	A single, time-bound instance of an ambient recording for a specific patient encounter that captures clinical conversations.
API	Application Programming Interface. A set of rules and tools for building software and applications.
ASR	Automatic Speech Recognition. Technology that converts spoken language into written text, used by Suki for transcribing clinical conversations.
Assessment	A clinical note section (LOINC: 51848-0) containing the clinician’s medical assessment of the patient’s condition.
Assessment and Plan	A clinical note section (LOINC: 51847-2) combining the clinician’s assessment with the treatment plan. Often used as the default PBN section.
Audio Chunking	The process of dividing continuous audio streams into smaller segments. Suki requires 100ms audio packets for optimal performance and latency balance.

B

Term	Definition
Background Processing	The capability of SDK features to run passively during consultations without disrupting the provider’s workflow, such as ambient note generation.
BAA	Business Associate Agreement. A contract between Suki and healthcare customers that defines how patient data is handled in compliance with HIPAA requirements.
Base64 Encoding	A method of encoding binary data (like audio) into ASCII text format for transmission over text-based protocols like WebSocket.
Bearer Token	An authentication token format where the token holder (“bearer”) is granted access to resources. Used in HTTP Authorization headers.
Bitrate	The amount of data processed per unit of time in audio streaming. Suki requires 768kbps bitrate for optimal performance.

C

Term	Definition
Chief Complaint	A clinical note section (LOINC: 10154-3) describing the primary reason for the patient’s visit in their own words.
Clinic	A healthcare facility where patients receive outpatient care, often part of a larger organization in the partner structure.
Clinical Note	The final structured medical documentation generated from a patient encounter, organized into standardized sections using LOINC codes.
Clinical Workflows	Standardized processes and procedures used in healthcare settings to manage patient care and documentation.
Clinician	A healthcare professional who provides direct patient care, including doctors, nurses, and other medical practitioners who use Suki’s documentation services.
Context-Aware Processing	AI technology that intelligently organizes medical conversations into appropriate clinical sections based on the context and content of the discussion.

D

Term	Definition
De-identification	The process of removing personally identifiable information (PII) from data. Suki de-identifies audio by chunking files and removes PII from transcripts for model training purposes.
Diarization	The process of distinguishing different speakers in audio recordings without identifying who they are, used to separate patient and clinician voices in ambient sessions.
Dictation	The process of speaking aloud to create written text, often used by clinicians to create medical documentation using voice input.

E

Term	Definition
Early Access	A phase where new features or APIs are available to select partners before general availability, such as the Ambient Clinician Note Generation API.
EHR	Electronic Health Record. A digital version of a patient’s paper chart containing comprehensive health information.
EMR	Electronic Medical Record. Digital version of patient medical records maintained by healthcare providers.
Encounter	A single interaction between a patient and healthcare provider, typically corresponding to one visit or appointment.
Encounter ID	A unique identifier for a specific patient encounter, used to group multiple ambient sessions that belong to the same visit.
Encryption at Rest	The protection of stored data by encrypting it when saved on disk or in databases. Suki uses AES-256 encryption for data at rest.
Encryption in Transit	The protection of data while it moves between systems over networks. Suki uses TLS 1.2 for data transmission encryption.
EOF	End of File. A WebSocket streaming event that indicates the closure or completion of an audio stream.
ES6	ECMAScript 2015, a version of JavaScript that includes modern features like arrow functions, classes, and modules. Required for browser compatibility with Suki Web SDK.

F

Term	Definition
Federated Authentication	An authentication model where multiple systems trust a single identity provider, allowing users to access multiple services with one set of credentials.
Form Filling	AI-powered capability that automatically populates clinical forms and templates based on conversation content and structured data extraction.

H

Term	Definition
Headed SDK	An SDK that includes pre-built User Interface (UI) components. Our Web SDK is headed.
Headless SDK	An SDK that does not include pre-built UI components, allowing developers to create their own UI. Our Mobile SDK is headless.
HIPAA	Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. U.S. legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.
Hospital	A healthcare institution that provides patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment.
HPI	History of Present Illness. A clinical note section (LOINC: 10164-2) describing the chronological development of the patient’s current health issue.
HTTPS	HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. An extension of HTTP that uses encryption for secure communication over a network.

I

Term	Definition
IDP	Identity Provider. An acronym for a system that manages user identities and authenticates users. Examples include Okta, Auth0, Azure AD, and custom authentication systems.

J

Term	Definition
JWT	JSON Web Token. A compact, URL-safe means of representing claims to be transferred between two parties, commonly used for authentication and information exchange.
JWKS	JSON Web Key Set. A set of keys containing the public keys used to verify any JWT issued by the authorization server.
JWKS Endpoint	A publicly accessible HTTPS endpoint that hosts cryptographic public keys for JWT token verification.

K

Term	Definition
Keep Alive	A WebSocket streaming event sent every 5 seconds during paused states to maintain connection and prevent timeout disconnection.

L

Term	Definition
Latency	The delay between sending audio data and receiving a response. Suki requires unloaded latency under 50ms and loaded latency under 150ms for optimal performance.
LINEAR16	An uncompressed audio format with 16-bit depth, used for high-quality audio streaming to Suki’s platform at 16KHz sampling rate.
LLM	Large Language Model. Advanced AI models trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like text, used by Suki for clinical note generation.
LOINC	Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes. A standardized vocabulary for identifying clinical sections and medical concepts.

M

Term	Definition
Medically-tuned Dictation	Speech recognition technology specifically optimized for medical terminology and clinical language patterns.
Model Training	The process of using de-identified and anonymized data to improve AI model performance. Suki uses this data to enhance clinical note generation capabilities.
Mono Channel	Single-channel audio format required for Suki’s platform, as opposed to stereo (dual-channel) audio.
Monologue	A single-person speech recording, such as when a clinician dictates notes alone, as opposed to a conversation between clinician and patient.
Multilingual Support	The capability to process clinical conversations in over 80 languages while generating the final clinical note in English.

N

Term	Definition
Natural Language Voice Interaction	Technology that allows users to interact with systems using spoken natural language commands and queries.
NLP	Natural Language Processing. AI technology that helps computers understand, interpret, and generate human language.
Note Archive	A Web SDK component that allows users to view and manage both current and historical clinical notes associated with a patient.
Note Editor	A rich-text editing component in the Web SDK designed specifically for AI-generated clinical content, supporting editing, formatting, and section-level interaction.
Note Generation	The automated process of creating structured clinical documentation from recorded patient encounters using AI technology.

O

Term	Definition
OAuth 2.0	An industry-standard authorization framework that enables secure delegated access to resources without sharing passwords.
Offline Mode	A capability that allows certain SDK features to function without an internet connection, enabling users to work in environments with limited connectivity.
OpenID Connect	An authentication layer built on top of OAuth 2.0, providing identity verification and user information access.
Organization	A healthcare entity or health system that partners with Suki to provide AI-powered documentation services to their providers and clinicians.

P

Term	Definition
Partner	An organization or company that integrates with Suki’s platform to offer AI-powered clinical documentation services to their users.
Partner ID	A unique identifier assigned by Suki during onboarding that links an application to its configuration in the Suki Developer Platform.
Partner Token	A secure, digitally signed JWT issued by a partner’s identity provider after user authentication, passed to Suki SDK for user verification.
PBN	Problem-Based Note. A clinical documentation format that organizes information around specific patient problems or diagnoses rather than traditional SOAP format.
Physical Exam	A clinical note section (LOINC: 29545-1) documenting the physical examination findings during a patient encounter.
Provider	A healthcare professional (such as a doctor or nurse) within an organization who uses Suki’s services to document patient care.

R

Term	Definition
Real-time	Processing and response that occurs immediately or with minimal delay, such as live audio transcription and streaming to Suki’s platform.
Reseller Program	A business program that allows partners to embed Suki Platform’s core technology directly into their own solutions and sell applications powered by Suki’s assistive technology.
REST API	Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface. An architectural style for designing networked applications using standard HTTP methods.
RESUME	A WebSocket streaming event that restarts audio transmission after a pause.
RSA	An asymmetric cryptographic algorithm used for secure data transmission and digital signatures, commonly used in JWT token verification.

S

Term	Definition
Sampling Rate	The number of audio samples captured per second, measured in Hertz. Suki requires 16KHz sampling rate for optimal audio quality.
SDK	Software Development Kit. A collection of tools, libraries, and documentation to help developers build applications for a specific platform.
Service Contract	A formal agreement between Suki and healthcare customers that defines service levels, data retention policies, and compliance requirements.
Session	A single, time-bound instance of an ambient recording for a specific patient encounter.
Session Timeouts	Automatic disconnection that occurs when no audio data is sent for 25 seconds (active state) or 30 minutes during pause with keep-alive events.
SHA-256	Secure Hash Algorithm 256-bit. A cryptographic hash function used for data integrity verification and digital signatures in security protocols.
SOAP Note	Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan. A traditional clinical documentation format that organizes patient information into these four standardized sections.
Speech Recognition	Technology that converts spoken words into written text, enabling voice-to-text functionality for clinical documentation.
Structured Data	Organized medical information extracted from clinical conversations, such as diagnoses, medications, allergies, and vital signs, formatted for integration with EHR systems.
Suki Developer Platform (SDP)	The official name for the entire suite of Suki’s developer tools, including all APIs and SDKs.
Suki Token	The access token returned by Suki’s authentication API, used to authorize subsequent API requests to the Suki platform.

T

Term	Definition
TLS 1.2	Transport Layer Security version 1.2. A cryptographic protocol used to provide secure communication over networks, required by Suki for data transmission.
Transcript	The text version of recorded audio from clinical conversations, generated by automatic speech recognition and used as input for note generation.

U

Term	Definition
Upload Speed	The rate at which data can be transmitted from a client device to Suki’s servers. Suki requires minimum 768kbps upload speed for optimal performance.

V

Term	Definition
Voice Commands	Spoken instructions that trigger specific actions within the Suki platform, enabling hands-free interaction with clinical documentation features.

W

Term	Definition
WAF	Web Application Firewall. A security service that protects web applications by filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic between applications and the internet.
Webhook	A mechanism that allows Suki to send real-time event notifications (like session_summary_generated) to your application’s server.
WebSocket	A communication protocol that provides full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection, used for real-time audio streaming to Suki’s platform.
WebSocket Secure (WSS)	The secure version of WebSocket protocol that uses TLS/SSL encryption for protected data transmission during real-time audio streaming.