source: http://www.meaningfulusenetwork.com/clinical-language-understanding-the-future-of-electronic-medical-record-software/

Clinical Language Understanding: the Future of Electronic Medical Record Software

BY AMANDA GUERRERO ON MARCH 22, 2012 IN EMR, TECHNOLOGY

As EMR vendors aim to entice doctors with more functional electronic medical record features, voice recognition technology has gained tremendous importance. Though voice recognition programs generally identify human speech and transform it into free text, their shortfall in the EMR world has been their inability to translate free text to fit into many systems’ check box and drop down menu components.

With natural language processing (NLP), however, relevant information is extracted from narrative text and populated into corresponding fields. NLP, when applied to the medical domain, is referred to as clinical language understanding (CLU). The CLU engine, for example is able to identify that “cancer” is a “disease” and can relay this to the natural language processor.

Using these technologies, EMR vendors like Nuance are developing platforms to help doctors chart more accurately and efficiently. The Dragon medical 360/M.D. Assist software uses CLU to detect missing details and unclear associations between findings, and it can also prompt doctors to identify more specific diagnoses (i.e. chronic versus acute). The MModal tool, meanwhile, can alert clinicians, while dictating, if they are overlooking any vital information that’s already in the patient’s chart. This can include labs or other tests in the patient’s electronic medical record that may be relevant to what the clinician is currently charting. Similarly, ChartLogic uses dictation and NLP capabilities in a product it calls Stella (similar to Apple’s Siri), which is compatible with many leading EMR software.

Electronic medical records in general are headed in the direction of technologies, like CLU, that have the ability to help providers increase input speed and improve workflow. Over time, we are likely to see a growing trend in more advanced voice recognition functions being incorporated into EMR software, which will benefit both physicians and patients alike.