The impact of adopting EHRs: how losing connectivity affects clinical reasoning

Abstract

Understanding how patient data are interconnected is essential to clinical reasoning. The use of EHRs supports this goal because the EHR is a tool for collecting dispersed data; however, these collections often deconstruct data interconnections. Where the paper flowsheet emphasises chronology and interconnectedness, the EHR flowsheet emphasises individual data values that are largely independent of time and other patient data. To prepare trainees to work with EHRs, the ways of thinking and acting that were implicitly learned through the use of paper charts must be made explicit. To support clinical reasoning, medical educators should provide lessons in connectivity – the chronologically framed data interconnections upon which clinicians rely to provide patient care.