"I need to order meds for a patient. I need to order imaging studies. I need to call a consultant about a patient," the ER doctor at UVM Medical Center described. "And on that task list is (that) I need to write a note about this patient."

"To some extent, that task is a bigger task than everything else," Peters said of writing a medical note. The note is a simple yet major part of doctoring that most patients hardly ever see. But for physicians, it looms large.

"I need to write a note that summarizes why this patient was here, what we did and what we thought about what's going on or what wasn't going on," Peters said.