How to Prepare a Medical Chronology That’s Ready for Primetime: A Lawyer’s Guide

In personal injury, malpractice, and insurance defense, the strength of your case often hinges on a single question: can you clearly prove the timeline?

A medical chronology gives attorneys, insurers, and medical experts a clear, reliable roadmap of a patient’s care. It compiles records into a clear sequence of events, helping teams spot gaps, inconsistencies, and key turning points. Ultimately, a good “med chron” aids a litigation team in constructing a case for or against a plaintiff’s claim to damages.

Traditionally, building chronologies is slow, manual, and error-prone. This guide walks you through the process and shows how document automation software can dramatically simplify each step, speeding up and improving discovery so your team has reliable timelines ready when it matters most.

Step 1: Gather All Relevant Records

Every chronology begins with the “Medical Records Request,” typically a written request to each of the healthcare providers that serviced the subject. The records may include:

• Hospital records, physician notes, and discharge summaries
• Lab reports, imaging, and prescriptions
• ER visits, surgeries, and follow-ups

‍Pro Tip: Incomplete records = incomplete chronology. Ask for full disclosures early to avoid gaps. When reviewing records, keep an eye out for other providers mentioned that were not part of those disclosures. A good medical chronology software like Dodon.ai will automatically flag such providers.

 👉 Note: Requesting medical records often involves regulated processes that vary by state. Many firms specialize in this. Be aware of those constraints when planning timelines. 

With Dodon.ai: Instead of manually sorting scans or mixed PDFs, upload entire files. Our technology processes text, handwriting, images, and messy PDFs out of the box without requiring extra formatting.

Step 2: Organize for Review

Raw records often arrive as unstructured PDFs, scans, or EMR exports. Before building your chronology:

• Remove duplicates
• Ensure pages are in order
• Label files by provider and date range

This upfront prep ensures nothing critical gets lost.

With Dodon.ai: Dodon.ai does all of “Step 2”. Bulk uploads and OCR extraction are automated, so the platform effectively handles these prep steps for you.

Step 3: Extract the Timeline

Once files are organized, the core work begins: converting records into a structured timeline. This usually means:

• Extracting dates, events, and treatments
• Summarizing diagnoses and physician notes
• Highlighting key incidents tied to claims
• Citations to the original record‍

With Dodon.ai: The software identifies dates, procedures, and providers, presenting you with a ready-to-review chronology that can be exported for collaboration or client prep.

Step 4: Analyze for Case Strategy

A chronology isn’t just a list of events; it’s a lens into case strengths and weaknesses. Attorneys and experts use it to:

• Spot gaps in treatment or unexplained delays
• Pinpoint causation links between incidents and outcomes
• Align medical facts with the legal theory of the case‍

With Dodon.ai: Instead of flipping through hundreds of pages, you can search and filter chronologies instantly - by provider, date, or event type - making strategic analysis faster.

Step 5: Share With the Team

Finally, chronologies should be easy to share with partners, clients, or experts. Formats may include:

• Summaries or PDFs for insurers or adjusters
• Editable timelines for attorneys and paralegals
• Highlighted reports for medical experts‍

With Dodon.ai: Export timelines directly in shareable formats without hours of manual rework.

Final Word

Medical chronologies are all about clarity, efficiency, and accuracy. When prepared carefully, they give attorneys and case teams the insight needed to strategize and respond confidently.

Automating the time-consuming parts of document review allows your team to spend more time on what counts: analyzing the facts and building a winning case. 

Try out Dodon.ai to automate your preparation. Free 7-day trial.