(Frankfurt am Main, August 25, 2026) Do you have any known allergies and/or medication intolerances? Who hasn’t heard this question during a doctor’s visit or a hospital stay? In clinical practice, however, such information is often recorded only as free-text entries in doctors’ letters, admission records, or progress notes. As a result, it remains invisible to digital warning systems. Dr. Julian Friedrich and his team set out to close precisely this gap. After all, such a gap in documentation can lead to potentially critical medications being prescribed without triggering a corresponding warning.
Automatic Alerts for Potential Patient Risks
The Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Guard is an AI-powered assistance system that analyzes newly created medical notes and progress documentation for indications of allergies and compares them with pre-structured allergy data. If the EMR Guard detects that an allergy documented in free text is not included in the official allergy list, the system notifies the responsible healthcare providers. “Information about allergies and drug intolerances is among the most important prerequisites for safe patient care. While modern hospital information systems can automatically warn of potentially dangerous medications—they can only do so if the relevant allergies are documented in a structured manner,” says Friedrich, explaining the application scenario for the EMR Guard. Friedrich works at the Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine at Essen University Hospital. There, he developed the Guard with the support of Prof. Felix Nensa, Prof. Jens Kleesiek, Prof. Joachim Dissemond, and Dr. Ruth Hecker.
Initial findings from clinical use in two wards at the hospital show that the EMR Guard can improve the quality of allergy documentation. By improving the availability of safety-related information, the system supports existing clinical warning mechanisms and helps identify risks in drug therapy at an early stage. In the long term, more complete and consistent documentation can help reduce allergy-related medication errors and thereby increase patient safety.
Award for Young Scientists and Engineers
The VDE DGBMT Patient Safety Award is sponsored by Dr. Hans Haindl, M.D., who, as a publicly appointed expert on medical devices, has investigated damage to medical devices for over 25 years. The award is intended to promote the goal of ensuring patient safety and the quality of treatment at all times and minimizing the likelihood of errors. The award is intended for emerging scientists and engineers in research institutions, hospitals, and industry, as well as for hospital operators who are responsible for ensuring that medical devices are integrated into reliable processes.
