Teaching computers to read health records is helping fight COVID-19 – here's how

Medical records are a rich source of health data. When combined, the information they contain can help researchers better understand diseases and treat them more effectively. But to unlock this rich resource, researchers first need to read it. We may have moved on from the days of handwritten medical notes, but the information recorded in modern electronic health records can be just as hard to access and interpret. It's an old joke that doctors' handwriting is illegible, but it turns out their typing isn't much better.