Scanned Paper and Microform Records One of the most difficult computerization problems facing any hospital is the mountain of existing paper records. Physicians and other caregivers need historical patient data that's stored in paper files and microform. This is an on-going problem as well. Vital paper documents are often signed by the patient, hand-written by the physician, sent in by outside agencies, clinics, etc. Without indexing, a pile of scanned paper simply becomes a pile of electronic images.
Indexing is essential for rapid retrieval.
This means that people must manually index each scanned image. This typically drives the cost of scanning through the roof. It's the key reason that per-copy scanning costs have been so much higher than microfilm. This has blocked scanning at all but a few large medical centers. AI is essential for document identification, which enables indexing and the OCR process.