Development and validation of a rule-based algorithm to identify periodontal diagnosis using structured electronic health record data.

Our findings suggest that a rule-based algorithm for suggesting a periodontal diagnosis using EHR data can be implemented with moderate accuracy in support of chairside clinical diagnostic decision making, especially for inexperienced clinicians. Grey-zone cases still exist, where clinical judgement will be required. Future applications of similar algorithms with improved performance will depend upon the quality (completeness/accuracy) of EHR data.