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Emoji Use in the Electronic Health Record is Increasing

102 points by giuliomagnifico

by anonlinc77

7 subcomments

Emoji use was stable from 2020-2024, then spiked in 2025. The authors don't attempt to explain it, but I bet AI is to blame. Anyone who has had to clean up AI comments riddled with stupid emojis from their code will understand this.

by jawns

2 subcomments

I wonder if some portion of these come from templates. Maybe there's a patient communication template that includes a telephone emoji, and it gets reused.
Health care workers are in a hurry when writing notes, so I doubt they're consulting their emoji pickers just to make their notes more interesting.

by TazeTSchnitzel

0 subcomment

> Emojis are shown using the open-source Noto Color Emoji font due to copyright restrictions on other versions.
They say below a chart using the Apple Color Emoji font ^^;

by Escapade5160

0 subcomment

Almost no one knows the shortcut to open the emoji menu on their computer. AI is why there is an increase. Even if someone does know the shortcut, the menu is annoying to use and it slows down your workflow too much for most people to go through the effort.

by iancmceachern

3 subcomments

I've noticed the same thing for LinkedIn, etc corporate communications. All of a sudden every CEO and marketing leader is packing them in.

by pingou

2 subcomments

Why is the maple leaf so commonly used? To mean autumn? Leaves in general? Canadians?

by fpauser

3 subcomments

by i_love_retros

1 subcomments

So healthcare workers are using chatgpt to write messages for patients and to summarize appointment notes?
Given what I see at my workplace I can completely believe this.

0 subcomment

by kingkawn

0 subcomment

by wormius

0 subcomment

OK, looking at the actual link and not just bloviating my opinion this seems less offensive. These aren't Health Records in the sense of official documentation by doctors but communications with patient. I see some of it is initiated by patients, but it seems the majority is the provider using it in communication with patients/family... I can slightly understand that, but man I'd be annoyed if it was more than a smiley face once or twice. Maybe it's for patients who are children and parents can show to kids. I was thinking patients using it may be typing on a phone where this shit is much easier. But if it's from professionals, it's likely shitty AI autoresponses, i bet. IDK.

by tamimio

0 subcomment

AI is to be blamed, you can tell a content was mostly written by an AI when every category had emojis all over. The concerning part however, now we have a strong indicator that healthcare is relying on AI slop, and I don’t know why do we still pay them high wages or at least, why there’s a “shortage” of the workers.

by coldtea

0 subcomment

by Simulacra

4 subcomments

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I don't think emojis should be used at all in health records… It reminds me of stories my mum would tell me about when she would get a résumé pre-digital, and there would be a mark/symbol on it, and it might meant the person is fat, black, wears glasses, etc...