UMLS errors

I frequently find errors in the UMLS.  The most recent one was this past week (version 2015AB).  The atom ID was 'A23834045';--a MTHSPL atom--and had the title:

 Phenytoin 50 g ORAL TABLET, CHEWABLE

"50 g" (ie 50,000 mg) is probably a fatal dose (for most horses).  This obviously was meant to be "mg".  And if someone were entering this by hand, then this mistake would be a little more acceptable (although in that case, they should have an algorithm that parses the strings and throws out warning signs if it does not appear to be valid.  And why are they doing it by hand?)  I'm not sure that this was hand entered.   I went and downloaded some DailyMed data that these entries are derived from, but this data did not have the error.  (It was released a few days ago, so it may have been corrected since then).  So how did the error make it into UMLS?  Perhaps I'll never know.


  

Intro

This is an informal blog dedicated to the topic of electronic medical records (EMRs).  While the title of this blog has EHR (electronic health record) in it, note that I (like most of the people I know in the industry) do not differentiate between the terms EHR and EMR.  The fact that the ONC (Office of National Coordinator) DOES differentiate between these suggests to me that these government officials are out of touch with reality.  Probably victims of vendor-speak...

As far as my background goes, I am a computer programmer as well as an internal medicine physician.  I am currently developing a prototype for my own EHR.  In medical school, I never thought I would want to pursue medical software professionally, but my experiences with EHRs in the second half of medical school as well as residency drove me to this.  In short, I feel that almost all medical record software is pretty lousy.  If the computer programmers who designed the software were forced to use the software they created, it would not be this bad. They would immediately notice the flaws and fix them.

A good EHR will:

1. Not be terrible.  This means it will present a user interface that supports efficient record retrieval and entry.  It should not take 5 minutes to find the patient's endoscopy reports.  
2. Go above and beyond and make the physician's life easier.  When a provider pulls up an outpatient's chart before the visit, it should alert the provider to all health maintenance items needed.  It should also make recommendations regarding what to do.  In other words, it should save the provider time. 

These are pretty broad objectives, but I am not aware of any existing EHR that accomplishes these successfully.

More to follow...