Assessment of Clinical Informatics Interest and the Impact of Advanced EHR Training on Trainee Proficiency

BACKGROUND: While Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have been almost universally adopted in academic healthcare settings, physician training has lagged in efficient use and application. Especially for trainees, EHR training is often confined to basic EHR onboarding, with few opportunities to develop advanced skills. Moreover, literature on advanced EHR training is sparse, and curricula remain largely unstandardized Objectives: This study surveys pediatric fellows and medical students (MS) on their experience, attitude, and interest regarding clinical informatics. Additionally, we assessed the change in trainees reported EHR proficiency after receiving data literacy and self-service EHR data extraction training. METHODS: This cross-sectional study surveyed pediatric trainees at a large tertiary pediatric health care system and first-year MS at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. An electronic survey was distributed between July and November 2022 to trainees and repeated 14 months after Epic® SlicerDicer training. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze responses. RESULTS: In total, 33/57 fellows and 93/419 medical students (26.5% response rate) completed the survey. Interest in clinical informatics was reported by 53% of fellows and 23% of MS. Most respondents agreed informatics is important in clinical care, research, healthcare management, and continuing education. Many reported receiving insufficient advanced EHR training. Before training, 33% of fellows and 8% of MS reported proficiency in basic EHR accessing/navigating/editing skills. None of the fellows reported proficiency in data visualization/extraction. Following training, both MS and fellows reported increased proficiency in data visualization/extraction. CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric MS and fellows recognize the value of informatics in modern healthcare. Opportunities for advanced EHR training are limited for trainees and a single training session demonstrated improve proficiency. Broadening access to advanced EHR training across all stages of training could better equip future clinicians for real-world practice.