When collecting information about patient symptoms and creating patient reports, computers proved more effective than physicians, producing more complete, organized and useful reports, according to a study in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles compared the typed or dictated illness histories physicians created to computer-generated reports compiled from an online questionnaire patients later filled out about their conditions. The questionnaire's algorithm translated the answers into patient narratives.
The reports were then evaluated by physicians who had no knowledge of the study and did not know that half of the patient histories were written by a computer.
The physicians reviewing the reports marked the computer-generated patient narratives as higher quality, saying they were better organized, more complete, succinct, comprehensive and useful.
Researchers suggest that such technology doesn't replace physicians; rather, it enhances their efficacy and accuracy while freeing up time spent working on the EHR.
"Our results suggest that computers can help clinicians focus on what they do best — practicing the distinctly human art of medicine," said Brennan Spiegel, MD, an author of the study and director of Health Services Research at Cedars-Sinai. "This study offers initial proof that a computer can create meaningful and relevant patient histories that are useful in the clinical setting."
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