Experience and Satisfaction of Genetic Clinicians With Electronic Health Records (EHR)

The objective of this study was to evaluate the EHR user experience and satisfaction of clinicians in the medical genetics and genomics field. An anonymous survey was sent through genetic related listservs and LinkedIn to a broad range of genetics clinicians including physicians, advanced practice providers, and genetic counselors. Results showed a wide range of satisfaction levels among all types of genetic clinicians, reflecting the need for improved genetic EHR functionalities. Despite available EHR training being reported as helpful by most individuals who had completed some, the utilization was low. There was a striking difference between internally and externally sent test results regarding how difficult they are to find and import into clinical documentation. Despite available EHR tools, a high manual labor burden occurs for most during the documentation process. There is demand for more genetic functionalities, some which exist but institutions may not have implemented these features. Genomics EHR modules can improve EHR user experiences. Key themes for EHR usability include institutional support, interoperability and integration, ease of data access, streamlined documentation, centralized workflows, and clinical decision support. Future evaluation is needed to determine how to improve the interoperability of genetic testing with EHRs and increase accessibility to genetic related EHR functionalities.