Berlin Questionnaire for OSA

When it activates

Scribeable activates a calculator from the encounter. The Berlin Questionnaire for OSA can activate when the transcript or pasted chart context documents any of these:

• OSA screening
• Sleep apnea risk assessment
• Pre-operative OSA evaluation
• Daytime somnolence workup
• Snoring evaluation

Note-type scope: it activates on notes whose subject resolves to pulmonology, perioperative, hospital medicine. A note that resolves to another subject does not carry it even when the clinician's specialty matches; a note with no resolvable subject (a generic consultation) falls back to the specialty match.

Inputs the note needs

3 inputs. Each is resolved from the transcript, the pasted chart context and charted labs; at this calculator’s tier a missing input is never requested, and a missing required input keeps the score out of the draft.

Scoring

3 categories: Cat 1 (snoring), Cat 2 (daytime somnolence), Cat 3 (BMI >30 or HTN). Each positive or negative. High risk = ≥2 positive categories.

Interpretation

High risk (≥2 categories positive): Sensitivity 86%, specificity 77% for OSA. Refer for polysomnography or home sleep testing. Low risk (<2 positive): Low probability but does not exclude OSA if high clinical suspicion.

Evidence

Sources carried in Scribeable's citation registry for this calculator; guideline version: Netzer NC et al. 1999.

• Netzer NC et al. Using the Berlin Questionnaire to identify patients at risk for the sleep apnea syndromeNetzer et al. (Berlin OSA) 1999 · 1999 · Level I · link last verified 2026-03-28

How Scribeable handles it in the note

When an encounter activates the Berlin Questionnaire for OSA (its highest tier is recommended), Scribeable does not ask you for missing inputs. The score is computed in code from whatever inputs resolve from the transcript, the pasted chart context or charted labs; a computed value is written into the draft only when every required input already resolves.

The score is computed in code from the resolved inputs, not recalled by the language model. A stated Berlin Questionnaire for OSA value is compared against the computed one when the draft's structured summary carries it; a disagreement found there is flagged to the second drafting pass, which is instructed to correct the score and its interpretation, unless Scribeable has supplied the computed value to that pass, in which case the value the draft writes is checked against the supplied one and a detected difference is shown beside the note for you to adjudicate rather than silently rewritten.

Classified as a questionnaire: a patient-reported or clinician-rated instrument, where a spare activation carries low harm.

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Can activate in: Internal Medicine, Primary Care, Pulmonology, Anesthesiology, Hospital Medicine, Sleep Medicine.