Deborah Levy, MD, MPH

As my training in mixed-methods evaluations and my clinical experience has taught me, electronic health records (EHR) offers many benefits. But there is a time tradeoff for tasks in the EHR, with more time completing inefficient EHR tasks leaving less time to spend in bedside care. This cumbersome work creates EHR burden, which I define as EHR work that does not add value to patient care, from the perspective of the health professional. EHR burden is a known barrier to high quality clinical care for seasoned health professionals, with negative impacts on clinician wellness and patient care, and with an increased risk of burnout. Little is understood of the impact of EHR burden in particular on trainees’ perceptions of their clinical experience, although it is likely that EHR burden has negative impacts.