Creating Forms From Templates

Templates offer a quick way to create structured, clinically relevant forms without starting from a blank page. They help practices save time, maintain consistency across intake and screening workflows, and incorporate widely used clinical questionnaires with minimal setup.

What Templates Are

Templates are pre-built forms that include ready-to-use questions, scoring logic (when applicable), and the overall structure of well-known clinical tools. Each template opens as a fully structured form so clinicians can review it before sending it to patients.

Templates are intended as a convenience, they may not meet all legal, compliance, or clinical needs in your state or practice. It is the clinic’s responsibility to validate and modify templates as necessary.

Where Templates Come From

The template gallery groups templates by who wrote them, and a source filter narrows the list to one or the other:

SigmaMD templates — written and maintained by SigmaMD
Community templates — shared by other practices using SigmaMD

Forms your own practice shares are not listed in the gallery, since they are already in your forms list.

The distinction is worth checking before you copy: a SigmaMD template is the standard version of a questionnaire, while a community template is one practice’s adaptation of it, so wording and scope vary. Read the preview in full before committing to a community template.

How to Create a Form from a Template

To create a new form from a template, open the Forms screen and select Add Form → Use a template.

This opens the template gallery, where you can browse all available options or use the search bar to quickly find a specific questionnaire. Selecting a template displays a full preview on the right side, including its questions, answer choices, and any scoring rules built into the form. When you’re ready, click Create form to generate a new, editable copy.

Editing Template-Based Forms

When you open a template directly, the editor remains locked. A banner at the top will prompt you to duplicate the template before making any changes. This ensures the original template stays intact for future use.

Templates themselves cannot be edited, but once duplicated, they become fully customizable. After creating your copy, you can adjust the content, scoring, and layout to match your practice’s needs before publishing.

All elements, including text, choices, scoring definitions, and layout, can be modified. Once duplicated, the form behaves like any Regular Form in the builder, supporting the removal or addition of questions, organizing sections, conditional logic, scoring, and patient-facing previews.

The copy is independent from then on: editing it never changes the template it came from, and later changes to that template do not reach forms already created from it.

To offer one of your forms to other practices as a community template, open the form, go to Settings, and turn on Share with other clinics.

On the Forms screen, the Community column shows a Shared badge on every form your practice shares, so you can see at a glance what other clinics can copy.

Publishing Template Forms

Publish the form to make it available for sending to patients or linking to appointment types. Template-based forms follow the same lifecycle as any other form, supporting version control, submissions through secure links, and chart review.

To learn more about our Forms feature, check out this overview article, or explore articles on standard forms, building interactive PDF forms, patient intake form, and the scored forms.