Chart Search - from Cerner.com

As mentioned previously, BH's EHR, CIS, underwent a code upgrade that will enable the incremental addition of tools designed to enhance the user's experience.  I've been piloting Chart Search for the past few months and have discussed its utility with CMIOs at other Cerner sites.  My goal is to deliver this tool to you before the end of the calendar year.
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From cerner.com:

Harnessing the power of semantics to improve care

By: David McCallie, Jr., MD, Vice President, Medical Informatics

In this data-driven age, the ability to quickly search and find pertinent information is invaluable. The fact that more than 50 percent of Internet users begin with a search gives a hint of the role that search can play in navigating the clinical record. Within health care, where clinicians collect information over a patient’s lifetime, the ability to quickly search through the patient’s record is imperative. New techniques, like performing a semantic search using Cerner’s Chart Search, are making it easier for clinicians to quickly find the information they need.

Because Cerner’s Chart Search uses semantic technology, it can understand the contextual use of each indexed clinical concept, and can intelligently match and rank the documents so that that the most important and useful documents will move to the top of the result list, reducing the time it takes to locate key pieces of clinical data. This allows clinicians to spend more time providing the best care for their patients.

A physician clinic note on heart disease management displays as the most relevant document following a Chart Search.

Chart Search was announced at the 2010 Cerner Health Conference. Dr. Karl Kochendorfer, director of clinical informatics at University of Missouri Health Care, captivated the audience with speed and accuracy as he searched for patient data. Fast forward to today—Dr. Kochendorfer is using Chart Search to make a difference in his practice. Here is a recent example from Dr. Kochendorfer:

“I recently saw a patient who was describing dizziness over the past two years while seeing another provider. The patient was very frustrated about these symptoms but couldn’t recall all of the details associated with his previous care. I was able to use Chart Search to find all instances of when he had it, when it started, what the specific symptoms were and what meds were changed because of them. It helped me to get an entire picture of the patient’s symptoms over the past two years within a matter of seconds, and then assisted me in providing the best care for the patient.”

David McCallie, Jr., MD, Vice President, Medical Informatics, is director of the Cerner Medical Informatics Institute. He is responsible for a research and development team focused on developing innovations at the intersection of computer science and clinical medicine. Prior to joining Cerner in 1991, McCallie was director of research computing at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., and an instructor in neurology at Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. McCallie earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Duke University. He earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. McCallie has published numerous articles and presented frequently on the subject of healthcare informatics. He is a member of the American Medical Informatics Association.