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A comment on Emoji Use in the Electronic Health Record is Increasing.

Re:Emoji Use in the Electronic Health Record is Increasing by Simulacra on Friday January 16, 2026 @03:32PM (#46651824)
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...
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Re:Emoji Use in the Electronic Health Record is Increasing by derbOac on Friday January 16, 2026 @04:00PM (#46652143)
In the article they state "We found that emojis were sent in portal messages to patients aged 70 to 79 years at the second highest rate, after those aged 10 to 19 years" which implies some of this at least is in messages to patients.

I can see sending emojis as a way of trying to be friendly and informal in communications with patients, especially if the patients have already used them.

Patients are all different so I can see some of them hating their use, but I can also see some patients appreciating a more lighthearted tone.

Pediatrics in particular is full of this kind of stuff in general.

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Re:Emoji Use in the Electronic Health Record is Increasing by jskrn on Friday January 16, 2026 @04:02PM (#46652169)
Agree with your first part. On the second part, what??
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Re:Emoji Use in the Electronic Health Record is Increasing by stvltvs on Friday January 16, 2026 @04:57PM (#46652772)
Plausible deniability on excluding people for BS reasons I'd guess.
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Re:Emoji Use in the Electronic Health Record is Increasing by SoftTalker on Friday January 16, 2026 @03:46PM (#46651989)
> I don't think emojis should be used at all in health records…

Strike "in health records" and you've nailed it.

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Re:Emoji Use in the Electronic Health Record is Increasing by bpt3 on Friday January 16, 2026 @03:34PM (#46651857)
There's absolutely no benefit to using them, and there are technical and non-technical issues they can cause.

I don't think you're in the minority, and even if you (we) are, you are still correct.

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