It's a rare occasion when my worlds of biomedical informatics and serialized lesbian melodrama fandom collide.
But that's exactly what happened earlier this summer when two of my favorite actresses appeared on a popular podcast. I was excited to hear them talk about their new book and their history of working together, so I was confused but delighted when their conversation took a turn toward my area of expertise -- electronic health records.
One actress noted that on a recent trip to the optometrist, she was asked about her ethnicity. "And I was like, what difference does it make?" she said.
The host chimed in with her experience of being asked similarly personal questions before a mammogram. "Like, it doesn't matter if I'm married or not. It doesn't matter if I'm white or Asian, you know?" she remarked.
Listening to the host and actresses question a process that, to me, seems straightforward and purposeful served as a stark reminder of the chasm that often exists between how researchers like me use patient data and a patient's actual experience of clinical data collection.
