Beluga Messaging

Two Separate Channels

Beluga has two completely separate messaging channels. They are often confused. Understanding the difference is critical.

Channel	Direction	Patient sees it?	Used for
Doctor ↔ Patient Chat	Doctor → Patient / Patient → Doctor	Yes	Clinical communication
CS ↔ Beluga Admin	Your CS team → Beluga admin / Beluga admin → Your CS	No	Internal ops, support escalations

Channel 1 — Doctor ↔ Patient Chat (patient-visible)

Incoming: Doctor sends message to patient

Beluga fires a DOCTOR_CHAT webhook to app. App saves it as a BELUGA_DOCTOR_CHAT activity and displays it in the patient portal inbox.

Sample webhook payload from Beluga:

{
  "masterId": "abc123",
  "event": "DOCTOR_CHAT",
  "content": "Hi, I've reviewed your intake and I'm prescribing semaglutide 0.25mg weekly."
}

Outgoing: Patient replies to doctor

App calls Beluga's chat endpoint. Patient must include their name so Beluga knows who sent it.

Endpoint: POST {belugaBaseUrl}/external/chat

Sample payload:

{
  "firstName": "Jane",
  "lastName": "Smith",
  "content": "Thank you, I have a question about the dosage.",
  "isMedia": false,
  "masterId": "abc123"
}

For image/media messages set isMedia: true and put the base64-encoded JPEG in content and sends to Beluga

Channel 2 — CS ↔ Beluga Admin (internal only, patient never sees)

This channel is for back-and-forth between your customer service staff and Beluga's admin team. Examples: escalating a billing issue, asking Beluga to expedite an order, reporting a data problem. The patient has no visibility into any of this.

Outgoing: Your CS team sends a message to Beluga admin

Triggered from the EMR patient profile → Messages tab → send box.

Endpoint: POST {belugaBaseUrl}/external/cs-message

Sample payload:

{
  "content": "Patient is reporting they never received their shipment for order #8821. Can you check on this?",
  "masterId": "abc123"
}

Incoming: Beluga admin replies to your CS team

Beluga fires a CS_MESSAGE webhook to app. App saves it as a BELUGA_CS_MESSAGE activity and shows it in the EMR patient profile Messages tab — visible to staff only, never to the patient.

Sample webhook payload from Beluga:

{
  "masterId": "abc123",
  "event": "CS_MESSAGE",
  "content": "We've located the shipment — it was delayed at the carrier. Expected delivery tomorrow."
}

How it appears in the EMR

The Messages tab in the EMR patient profile shows all four message types together with colour-coded labels:

Message type	Label shown	Tag
`BELUGA_DOCTOR_CHAT`	Doctor → Patient	`Patient sees this` (green)
`PATIENT_CHAT_SENT`	Patient (to Doctor)	`Patient sees this` (green)
`BELUGA_CS_SENT`	Your CS → Beluga Admin	`Internal only` (orange)
`BELUGA_CS_MESSAGE`	Beluga Admin → Your CS	`Internal only` (orange)

The send box at the bottom of the tab only sends CS messages (Channel 2). It goes to Beluga's admin team, not to the patient. A warning banner above the input confirms this.