Medical Chronology vs. Narrative Summary: Which Helps You Move Cases Faster

Two formats, one purpose

When you’re buried in stacks of medical records, the real question isn’t whether you need a summary—it’s what format makes the review usable. Attorneys, paralegals, and IME doctors all rely on medical chronologies to turn raw records into something manageable.

There are two main formats:

• A table chronology – the summarized version of the records, laid out in a table.
  
• A narrative chronology – the same sequence of events, written in paragraph form.

Both capture the same facts; the difference is how they’re presented and who uses them.

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Table chronology

A table chronology extracts and organizes the essentials—dates, treatments, diagnoses, and providers—into a clean, fact-driven table. It’s designed for quick reference and connects directly back to the source documents.

Attorneys and litigation teams use this format to:

• Pinpoint gaps, overlaps, or unexplained delays
  
• Align care events with claimed damages
  
• Keep citations handy for discovery and strategy
  

With Dodon.ai: Upload your records once and get a ready-to-review table with page-line citations included.

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Narrative chronology

A narrative chronology covers the same ground but tells the story in paragraph form. Typically this format resembles a Review of Records document that most Independent Medical Examiners currently create manually. In some cases, rules or client requirements even mandate a narrative report.

Physicians and reviewers rely on narratives to:

• Deliver work product in the format they’re expected to submit
  
• Read through the patient’s medical journey without flipping between tables
  
• Keep the context intact when preparing formal opinions
  

With Dodon.ai: The same upload can present a flowing narrative, accurate and shareable, in minutes.

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When you need both

Different roles often need different outputs. Attorneys lean on the table version for clarity and citations, while doctors or insurers may require a narrative format as part of the official record. Some cases demand both in the same workflow.

With Dodon.ai, you don’t have to choose. Upload once and generate both formats automatically with customization to fit your particular need.

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Comparison at a glance

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How Dodon.ai makes both faster

Manual summarization can take hours, sometimes days. Dodon.ai changes that:

• One upload → two outputs. Chronology and narrative, side by side.
  
• Customization. Configure record types, data to extract, and formatting to suit your needs.
  
• Minutes, not hours. Handle 1,000+ pages quickly with AI-powered summarization.
  
• Audit-ready. Every event tied back to the original record with page-line citations.
  
• Secure. HIPAA-compliant by default, with no data used for training.
  

Final word

Medical chronologies, whether table or narrative, are essential for case prep. The table format gives you the Cliff’s Notes view. The narrative format gives you the finished story. Together, they save time, reduce errors, and help you move cases forward with confidence.

Try Dodon.ai today: upload a record set and get both formats, in minutes.

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