EMR-Driven Medical Education: A Multi-Institutional Study of Clinician Perspectives (S17.006)

Abstract

Objective: To explore physician perspectives about automated electronic medical record (EMR) software designed to support evidence-based decision making and clinical medical education. Background As research rapidly accumulates, clinicians often suffer from information hunger in a sea of plenty. EMR-driven educational software can alleviate this by ensuring the most valuable, evidence-based resources are conveniently available to providers and their patients. Despite EMR technology being rapidly adopted nationwide, little is known about how physicians will interact with such software and how it will impact patients. Design/Methods: We developed software that delivers patient-specific resources (e.g., peer-reviewed publications, practice guidelines, multimedia lectures, patient educational materials, continuity-of-care alerts) based on real-time EMR data. 739 Neurology and Internal Medicine residents and faculty at the Universities of Miami, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, Cornell, and Harvard were invited to complete EMR software simulations based on mock neurology patient encounters. We tracked clickrates of resources identified by the software and collected user preferences via multiple-choice, free text, and Likert ratings. Results: Of 188 respondents, 82% felt that access to this software could improve education and 84% agreed it could improve clinical decision making. Remarkably, 96% identified ≥ 1 educational resource that could change their practice. Resources deemed most valuable (and clicked most frequently) were clinical guidelines and peer-reviewed publications. Barriers to use included: expectation of too many emails, lack of time to read resources, and opinion that too many resources were presented. Conclusions: EMR-driven educational software designed with attention to active learning needs may improve clinical decision making and medical education. The vast majority of Neurology and Internal Medicine residents and faculty at multiple institutions reported that they would utilize this technology, and nearly universally stated that resources presented could change their clinical practice. We will further investigate the effect of EMR-driven education on medical knowledge and clinical outcomes in a randomized, multi-center study. Disclosure: Dr. Seifan has nothing to disclose. Dr. Mandigo has nothing to disclose. Dr. Jozefowicz has received personal compensation in an editorial capacity for The Neurologist. Dr. Price has nothing to disclose. Dr. Galetta has received personal compensation for activities with Biogen Idec Teva, and Novartis as a speaker.Dr. Galetta has received research support from Biogen Idec. Dr. Jaffer has nothing to disclose. Dr. Symes has nothing to disclose. Dr. Safdieh has received personal compensation for activities with Allergan, Inc. and Pfizer Inc as a consultant. Dr. Tarulli has nothing to disclose. Dr. Isaacson has received personal compensation for activities with Novartis and Accera.