ed-informatics.org

One important medical computer application (hereinafter “app”) is a PACS system. PACS stands for “Picture archiving and communication system.” (PACS system is redundant, but so be it.). Wikpedia has a nice explanation at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_archiving_and_communication_system. For emergency physicians, it’s where we usually view X-rays and CT scans, and enter “wet reads” (our preliminary interpretations of X-rays, […]

I have used speech recognition for my medical charting for decades. Not all that long ago, we switched from Dragon Network Enterprise to Dragon Medical One (DMO). Overall it has been a significant improvement. DMO integrates with electronic medical record systems such as Cerner or Epic at the server level. This brings better recognition and […]

I was recently invited to sit in on a meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) ED Health Information Technology Safety Task Force. We were talking about medical error related to technology. (In your mind, substitute “technology” > “the @#$@#$ computer”). We were discussing how to make it easy to report errors and […]

A point-and-click electronic medical record (EMR) can be very fast, at least for simple, uncomplicated cases. However, some point-and-click EMRs try to convert the information from clicked checkboxes into English. The results, just like the corrections applied by a word processor spellchecker, or the misrecognition when you’re using speech-to-text on your phone, can be amusing. […]

Sometimes usability is just typography. Or perhaps common sense. Look at the following demographic section at the top of a LabCorp lab report. (Yes, I like to name names. It’s OK: truth is an absolute defense against claims of slander.) Imagine you’re working in a very busy ED and the follow-up nurse hands you a […]