For decades patients have been making jokes about doctors’ handwriting. Their chicken scratch prescriptions, scribbled notes, and barely readable John Hancock, have long since been filling notepads and medical charts. And while there may be plenty of evidence as to just how bad their handwriting may be, it’s high time we all get past it.
Translating the Unreadable
Taking handwritten notes and putting them into a computer may sound like a great job for an intern, but there’s no guarantee the data can be accurately read. (Or understood.) For doctors whose handwriting is so supremely bad that they’re the only ones that can read it, that may mean extra work. However, by using voice recognition programs or even dictating to a person, medical professionals can make short work out of moving important texts. And once in typed format, the notes can then easily be translated into the software or other program.
Whether on notepads or stored away in a personal computer file, it’s time for doctors notes to be shared. Without placing this data into growing analytics programs, there is a huge chunk of data missing from predicative accessibility. In contrast, there are hundreds of studies to be advanced, along with the patients they represent.
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