Validation of electronic student encounter logs in an emergency medicine clerkship

Handheld electronic patient encounter logs offer opportunities to understand and enhance medical students' clinical experiences. Before using the data, the reliability of log entries needs to be verified. We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of handheld patient encounter logs by comparing documented entries with reliable external data sources. During an Emergency Medicine clerkship, medical students voluntarily recorded their patients' diagnoses in an Electronic Student Encounter Log (E-SEL) on handheld computers. We used patient demographics to match anonymous log entries with medical charts. Most students recorded 60% or more of their patient encounters and on average 60% of their patients' medical problems in the log. The false positive rate was 26% for patient encounters and 19% for patient problems. In general, students recorded more diagnoses in more detail than was available in the patient's ED chart. Improvements in the log's interface and documentation incentives should enhance the log's accuracy and utility.