The volume of EHR messages sent to U.S. oncologists increased 19% between 2019 and 2022, according to a study published March 3 in JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
EHR burden is often associated with burnout and a decrease in physician well-being, the study authors wrote.
Here are three things to know from the study:
- Researchers analyzed Epic EHR metadata from 15,653 oncology physicians for 43,228,633 ambulatory visits during the study period.
- In addition to the 19% message volume increase, patient-initiated messages increased 34% during the study period.
The time oncologists spent within the EHR increased 16.2% overall, while the time spent within the EHR outside of working hours increased 12.1% - Of all oncology subspecialties, medical oncologist/hematologists had the highest inbox volume, patient-message volume and EHR time.
Read the full study here.
