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Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2009 Symposium (2010) / Chapter Skim
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Medical Informatics for Detecting Adverse Events--Genevieve B. Melton
Pages 99-102

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
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From page 99...
... can potentially improve AE detection and have been identified as important tools for creating a "culture of safety." Several classes of automated AE detection systems have been described, most of which use numeric or coded data from EHRs, such as codes for diagnoses and procedures, records of medication administration, laboratory values, and vital signs. Substantial progress has been made in detecting and preventing adverse drug events (ADEs)
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From page 100...
... Several promising AE classification systems have been proposed according to setting or discipline, including the JCAHO Patient Safety Event Taxonomy and the Clavien-Dindo Classification of Surgical Complications. Up to now, rule-based heuristic systems based on data from a variety of sources have been primarily used for AE detection.
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From page 101...
... An important trade-off must be made between the clinical indication and relative cost of screening extra patients to find AEs and the cost of missing AEs. Most AE detection systems are designed to minimize false negatives so as to maximize the overall detection rate; adjunct manual screening is usually used to confirm identified AEs.
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From page 102...
... National initiatives for the adoption of universal EHR systems and advances in informatics techniques for AE detection are likely to increase the use of these systems, which are now widely used only for ADE systems in health care. Addressing technical challenges related to AE nomenclature, machine-learning methods, sampling techniques, and NLP will improve system performance and, ultimately, improve patient safety.
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Key Terms

  • adverse events
  • medication administration
  • laboratory values
  • adverse drug
  • informatics association

  • coded data
  • patient safety
  • informatics techniques
  • potentially improve
  • improve detection

  • physical findings
  • clinical reasoning
  • natural language
  • drug events
  • jcaho patient

  • sampling techniques
  • false negatives
  • structured data
  • converting narrative
  • order entry

  • prevent aes
  • renal function
  • discharge summaries
  • provide feedback
  • laboratory results

  • care setting
  • automated techniques
  • conclusion automated
  • found using
  • promising results


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