When it comes to clinical workflows, there are a variety of ways providers enter information into electronic health records (EHRs). One frequently leveraged part of the EHR is the notes section – where clinicians can jot free-form text descriptions of a patient’s symptoms and treatment.
But while providers often take advantage of this documentation method due to its ease of use, it comes at a cost. These notes aren’t always easy to standardize, which is critical for other needs like billing and reimbursement. And the unique, nuanced language of healthcare providers makes standardization a challenging task – even when tools like natural language processing (NLP) are used.
So, what types of notes might an NLP solution be tasked with “reading” in healthcare? Here’s an example:
