Accessing and Analyzing Clinical Data in EMRs

There is so much important and actionable clinical data found in clinicians' notes in electronic medical records (EMRs). However, since it is in an unstructured and narrative form, it is often difficult to be technologically extracted and analyzed, explained Andrew Norden, MD, chief medical officer of COTA Healthcare.

Norden explained that there are two options to better access this information moving forward. The first is to modify EMRs to include structural fields where clinicians can enter important clinical data. Additionally, providers can work with organizations, such as COTA, that can access the data, using both technology and clinically trained experts to put it into structured form and make it usable.