The role electronic health records may play in clinician workload – and, in turn, in clinician burnout – has garnered growing attention, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In response, researchers and organizations have floated several solutions, such as using scribes and getting physicians onboard with digital health approaches.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto launched its own strategy a few years back.   

In 2019, the team at the academic teaching mental health hospital developed and implemented a physician engagement initiative, focusing on collaborative work with end users and stakeholders to improve the user experience and use of the EHR.   

"Physician wellness has been a core priority at CAMH, and as part of our mission to 'bring joy back to medicine,' there has been a natural focus on addressing the inefficiencies of practice in our EHR as the first step," said Brian Lo, doctoral student and CIHR Health Systems Impact Fellow at CAMH, in an interview with Healthcare IT News.  

"Through the physician engagement strategy at CAMH, we hope to inspire a workforce of 'hybrid' physicians who will not just address these inefficiencies of practice, but bring leadership and change to the EHR to reimagine efficient and effective mental health care," Lo added.

Lo, who will be going into more detail about the response with CAMH Chief Medical Information Officer Dr. Tania Tajirian at HIMSS22 next month, explained that as digital health has rapidly evolved, so has the team's strategy.  

"There has been so much interest and discussion from the community about looking at the impact and value of digital health," Lo noted.

At CAMH, said Lo, "we have been shifting our mindset from fixing issues, to building impactful interventions and dashboards to enable better care and decision-making."   

"In addition, evaluation and research has been a key component of the strategy," he said. "We are constantly looking at ways to improve and optimize our interventions."  

At HIMSS22, the team will also share what's worked well so far.   

"If we had to choose one or two success factors, creating direct channels for physicians to provide feedback would definitely be one of our favorites," said Tajirian. "Hint: Think tanks!"   

"Improving communication through newsletters that have targeted, relevant content to physicians would also be another one," she added.  

Given the current high-stress healthcare environment, Tajirian said, it's vital to explore long-term, sustainable solutions for clinicians.  

"As we all know, the pandemic in the last two years has worsened physician burnout," she said. "The need to take action on addressing the root causes has never been greater than before."   

"Tackling the burden related to EHR usage through this strategy is just one of the many ways we are doing so at CAMH," she continued.

At HIMSS22, Tajirian said, "We hope attendees will be able to see the importance of a human-centered approach.  

"Empowering physicians to drive change and transform care through the EHR will pave the way to sustained impact and success," she said.  

Lo and Tajirian will discuss more in their panel, "Journey into an Engagement Strategy for Reducing EHR Burden." It's scheduled for Wednesday, March 16, from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Orange County Convention Center W414C.

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Email: kjercich@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.