Messaging

Overview

The Avara Clinical Platform includes secure messaging so your team can coordinate internally, communicate with Connect partner organizations, and — when permitted — exchange direct messages with patients. Messaging is tied to your organization’s access controls and audit trail — the same platform that handles scheduling, referrals, and study sharing handles day-to-day communication without relying on unsecured email or phone tag.

Messages update in real time — new posts, replies, and mentions appear in the workspace as they are sent, without refreshing the page.

Direct Messages

Direct messages (DMs) are one-to-one conversations between users in your organization. Use DMs for quick coordination — scheduling questions, internal handoffs, or sensitive topics that do not need a shared channel.

Internal Channels

Internal channels are team spaces for ongoing discussions — front desk, clinical ops, reading room, or any group that needs a shared thread.

Public and Private Channels

Channels can be public or private:

• Public channels — Visible to your organization; members can join and participate according to your team’s norms
• Private channels — Invite only; only users explicitly added to the channel can see or send messages

Create the visibility that fits the conversation — open coordination for broad teams, private channels for restricted topics or smaller working groups.

Channel Settings and Notifications

Each channel has its own notification preferences in channel settings. Choose how you want to be notified for activity in that channel:

• All — Notify on every new message
• Mentions — Notify only when someone @mentions you
• None — No notifications for channel activity (you can still read messages when you open the channel)

Per-channel controls let heavy users mute low-priority rooms while staying alert on channels where they need to respond quickly.

Leaving a Channel

You can leave a channel at any time — unless you are the last admin of that channel. Channels require at least one admin to manage membership and settings; promote another member to admin before leaving if you are the only one.

Connect Contact Channels

When a Connect contact is accepted, a secure Connect messaging channel is automatically created between the two organizations. There is no separate setup step — the channel exists as soon as the connection is approved.

The first members added to the channel are the admin who sent the contact request and the admin who accepted it. Either side can then add additional users from their organization to the channel as needed.

Connect contact channels default to private visibility. Messaging in these channels cannot be disabled independently — the only way to stop messaging with a contact is to remove the Connect contact entirely.

Why Connect Messaging Matters

A secure Connect channel lets staff across two clinics communicate about patients who have been mutually shared — through referrals, study sharing, or appointment exchange — without leaving the platform.

This removes a common barrier in cross-organization care: providers no longer need to fall back on unsecured email or phone tag to discuss a shared patient. Conversations stay in context, on platform, and alongside the records both organizations already have access to.

Connect contact channels support the same notification preferences (all, mentions, none) and membership rules as internal channels — including leaving the channel when you are not the last admin.

Email Notification Preferences

In-app channel settings control notifications while you are in the platform. Email preferences for messaging notifications are configured separately on your profile page — choose when and how messaging activity reaches your inbox outside the Clinical Platform.

Use profile settings to balance responsiveness with inbox volume; use per-channel settings to fine-tune noise inside the app.

Patient Messaging

Patient messaging is a separate permission from internal and Connect messaging. Users with Can Message Patients can exchange secure direct messages with patients; patients reply through the patient portal.

This permission is typically granted to care coordinators, concierge providers, and front-office or clinical staff who own ongoing patient communication — without giving them full operational or admin access.

When enabled, patient messaging renders a dedicated workspace in the platform where authorized staff send and receive direct messages with patients — distinct from internal team channels and Connect partner channels. Conversations stay tied to the patient relationship and portal access on the patient side.

See Inviting Users — Can Message Patients for permission requirements.

Patient-facing portal behavior — what patients see, how they start threads, and notification paths — is covered in Patient Portal documentation.