P0025 - Patients’ Facial Pictures in the Electronic Medical Records Enhance Providers’ Information Recall and Connectedness

Background: Most current electronic medical records (EMR) have the ability to upload patients’ facial picture to their profile for identification. However, other advantages of facial pictures in the EMR beyond identification are not well studied.

Objectives: To evaluate the association of providers' information recall and level of connectedness to their patients with the presence of patients' facial pictures in the EMR.

Methods: Healthcare providers were given a non-experimental survey asking about recall and connectedness after direct patient clinical encounters. Outpatient surveys were administered 1 day and 7 days following the clinical encounters. Inpatient surveys were administered 1day post encounters. Comparisons were made between those patients who had their pictures uploaded in the EMR and those who did not have their pictures in the EMR.

Results: Thirty-eight percent (99/258) of patients had their facial pictures in the EMR. The median subjective recall score and recall accuracy score were greater for patients with facial pictures in the EMR both at 1 day post encounter (P = 0.05 and P = 0.02). In the outpatient setting, the median connectedness score was greater for patients with facial pictures in the EMR at 1 day post encounter (P < 0.01) and at 7 days post encounter (P < 0.04).

Conclusion: Having patients' facial pictures in the EMR is a simple way to leverage an already available EMR feature to enhance patient care.