Summarization of clinical information: a conceptual model

Area of Science:

• Clinical informatics
• Medical informatics
• Health information science

Background:

• High-quality patient care relies on effective information management by clinicians.
• Limited research exists on clinical summarization despite advances in text summarization.
• Clinical summarization involves complex data gathering, organization, and presentation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a conceptual model for clinical summarization.
• To understand summarization in both manual and computer-assisted clinical tasks.
• To establish a foundation for research on clinician workflow and automated summarization.

Main Methods:

• Extensive literature review and clinical input were utilized.
• A conceptual model for clinical summarization was developed.
• The model serves as a basis for future research using electronic health records (EHRs).

Main Results:

• The AORTIS model identifies five stages: Aggregation, Organization, Reduction/Transformation, Interpretation, and Synthesis.
• This model facilitates the creation of task-specific clinical summaries.
• It offers a framework for analyzing clinical workflows and directing research.

Conclusions:

• A structured method is needed for developing, studying, and evaluating clinical summaries.
• The proposed AORTIS model can advance knowledge in clinical summarization.
• The model highlights key directions for future research in clinical informatics.