Searching Clinical Notes at Keck

Unlock the potential of searching and acquiring clinical notes with EMERSE. Our Keck Data Analysts are available to conduct these queries on your behalf

What is Emerse?

EMERSE, which stands for Electronic Medical Record Search Engine, is a specialized tool crafted to facilitate the search of free-text documents, specifically clinical notes, within medical records. Unlike natural language processing (NLP), EMERSE functions primarily as an information retrieval tool. Its operation involves the ingestion of an extract containing all clinical notes from the Electronic Health Record (EHR), followed by the meticulous indexing of these notes. This indexing process streamlines the search functionality, making retrieving information more straightforward and efficient.

Who can access EMERSE?

Currently, direct access to EMERSE is limited to the research informatics staff due to the nature and sensitivity of the data available through this tool. However, you can request a search be performed on your behalf. IRB approval is required if requesting PHI.

How can I request a search of the clinical notes?

Simply submit our standard data request intake form and ensure you check off yes to the clinical notes field. You will be prompted to enter the terms needed for your query. You can also expand your searches be electing to include the with a broad range of "synonyms", which include variations in phrasing, generic and trade names for drugs, acronyms, abbreviations, technical and consumer-friendly terms, and thousands of common spelling errors that often appear in the clinical notes. You can use our default Synonyms collection or include other datasets of your choosing.

Search Types Available

1. Query the data based off of a term from the clinical notes to define your patient cohort.

2. Add a term from the clinical notes, the results of which will be treated as a data “domain” and the results provided as part of your data request, like procedures and medications.

3. Use i2b2 to search for counts of concepts found in the clinical notes

About the Data

All Cerner clinical notes, from 01/01/2022 to today are queriable using Emerse.

Which Notes Types are Available?