An EHR log analysis showed that clinicians engage with unsolicited genetic test results only 1 percent of the time, suggesting that most clinicians don't use genetic data in medical decision-making, a March 1 report published in JAMA Network Open found.
Researchers genetically screened 109 clinically relevant genes in participants. In total, 1,021 participants had negative results, while 50 participants had positive results for genetic variants.
The 1,071 participants enrolled at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Irving Medical Center, both based in New York City. Genetic PDF results were entered into the genetics section of the EHR.
The study looked at access logs of clinician users and found that 30 clinicians accessed the EHR's genetics section, but only 13 clinicians opened at least one of the genetic test result documents. This represents only 1 percent of the 1,071 study results uploaded in EHRs.