Eating disorder screening via electronic medical record

This study examined whether use of an electronic medical record (EMR) to prompt screening of eating disorder risk among a college female population improved identification of risk for the disease. Data were obtained via a convenience sample of patients accessing a university health service gynecology clinic. The SCOFF tool is a well-validated 5-item questionnaire with sensitivity of up to 87.5% and specificity of 95% for bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. Clinicians were prompted by EMR to administer the tool to all gynecology patients seeking care not related to eating disorder symptoms. A comparison of positive identification of eating disorder risk from the previous year, during the same time frame when EMR prompt was not embedded, was conducted via an EMR data search. Results show a relationship between eating disorder risk identification and EMR prompt (p = .0047). The study concludes that ease of use of the SCOFF tool combined with the EMR prompt improves screening for eating disorders in the college health setting.