The EMERSE system will be unavailable from April 20 through approximately the end of day April 24 as analytics and reporting teams complete a major upgrade to the platform.
EMERSE is a free, self‑service research tool that allows investigators with an approved IRB to search clinical notes quickly and efficiently using their own custom terms and phrases. This upgrade will significantly expand functionality, improve accuracy, and enhance the overall user experience.
What’s New in This Upgrade:
EMERSE will introduce a wide range of improvements, including:
- Enhanced Search Capabilities
- Re‑designed interface for adding and modifying search terms
- Additional search options, including:
- Proximity searching
- Case‑sensitive searching
- Excluding specific phrases
- Excluding specific notes
- Advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP)
- Built‑in NLP will now support annotations such as:
- Negation
- Uncertainty
- Subject identification (patient vs. non‑patient)
- “History of” context
- Automatic mapping of terms to UMLS concepts
- Ability to search using words/phrases, UMLS CUIs, or both
- Concept highlighting based on semantic types (e.g., drugs, diagnoses, procedures)
- Underlined indicators for NLP annotations such as negation and uncertainty
- Support for site‑specific custom NLP annotations
- Improved Quality and Usability:
- Better detection of problematic search terms
- Search terms preserved in their original form
- Interface enhancements for ease of navigation
- Filters allowing searches by document date and/or patient age at time of creation
- Clearer display of logical AND/OR relationships in Query Details
What Users Need to Know
During the downtime window, user access to EMERSE will be fully suspended. Once the upgrade is complete, all existing functionality will return with improved performance and a more intuitive interface.
We appreciate your patience as we deploy these substantial enhancements to support faster, more flexible, and more accurate research workflows. If you have questions or need assistance, please reach out to the Research and Clinical Analytics team at ResearchData@uvahealth.org
Filed Under: Research