EAGER: Synthesizing Notes from Electronic Health Records to Make Them Actionable for Heart Failure Patients

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This Early-concept Grant for Exploratory Research aims to help patients and caregivers have increased access to electronic health information. The research focuses on the Electronic Health Record (EHR). In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act entitled patients the right to obtain their medical records on request. With greater patient access, patients may become more invested in the management of their own health care and take better care of themselves. While there have been some advances in communicating EHR content to patients, physicians' and nurses' notes are not easy to convey due to communication intent of clinicians and the social and cultural issues that surround diagnosis and care. Advances from this work will reduce gaps in the care process, potentially impact consumer side patient care, and become the basis for future systems development. The research investigates new and more effective presentations of this information to patients (e.g., graphic, abstracted, actionable). The project includes the following activities: 1) collect patient notes and the communicative intent for both clinicians and patients to reveal the gap between intention and interpretation; 2) iterate on new textual and visual summaries by hand until they achieve the intended communication with patients. The proposal team's expertise will be leveraged in designing abstractions of information to help people make decisions and positively change their behavior under stress or uncertainty to undertake these activities.