Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27028026›Full record

ArticleAcademic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges2016

How Do Residents Spend Their Shift Time? A Time and Motion Study With a Particular Focus on the Use of Computers.

Lena Mamykina, David K Vawdrey, George Hripcsak

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
52citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

52 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Measuring Documentation Burden in Healthcare.Journal of general internal medicine · 2024
    Pooled it
  3. A systematic review of evidence-based practices for clinical education and health care delivery in the clinical teaching unit.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2022
    Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
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  11. A dataset and benchmark for hospital course summarization with adapted large language models.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Lena MamykinaL. Mamykina is assistant professor of biomedical informatics, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, New York. D.K. Vawdrey is assistant professor of clinical biomedical informatics, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, and vice president, Value Institute, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York. G. Hripcsak is chair, Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vivian Beaumont Allen Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, and director, Medical Informatics Services, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York.
David K Vawdrey
George Hripcsak

Funding

Training in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia UniversityT15LM007079 · NLM · COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE · PI NOEMIE ELHADAD, GEORGE M HRIPCSAK · 1992 to 2026
$28.9M
DISCOVERING AND APPLYING KNOWLEDGE IN CLINICAL DATABASESR01LM006910 · NLM · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · PI HRIPCSAK, GEORGE M · 2000 to 2023
$10.6M
NLM NIH HHS R01 LM006910NLM NIH HHS T15 LM007079
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeTo understand how much time residents spend using computers compared with other activities, and what residents use computers for.

methodThis time and motion study was conducted in June and July 2010 at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center with seven residents (first-, second-, and third-year) on the general medicine service. An experienced observer shadowed residents during a single day shift, captured all their activities using an iPad application, and took field notes. The activities were captured using a validated taxonomy of clinical activities, expanded to describe computer-based activities with a greater level of detail.

resultsResidents spent 364.5 minutes (50.6%) of their shift time using computers, compared with 67.8 minutes (9.4%) interacting with patients. In addition, they spent 292.3 minutes (40.6%) talking with others in person, 186.0 minutes (25.8%) handling paper notes, 79.7 minutes (11.1%) in rounds, 80.0 minutes (11.1%) walking or waiting, and 54.0 minutes (7.5%) talking on the phone. Residents spent 685 minutes (59.6%) multitasking. Computer-based documentation activities amounted to 189.9 minutes (52.1%) of all computer-based activities time, with 128.7 minutes (35.3%) spent writing notes and 27.3 minutes (7.5%) reading notes composed by others.

conclusionsThe study showed that residents spent considerably more time interacting with computers (over 50% of their shift time) than in direct contact with patients (less than 10% of their shift time). Some of this may be due to an increasing reliance on computing systems for access to patient data, further exacerbated by inefficiencies in the design of the electronic health record.

Indexed as

Time and Motion StudiesComputersElectronic Health RecordsGeneral PracticeHospitals, TeachingHospitals, UrbanHumansInternship and ResidencyNew YorkPatient Care

Identifiers

PMID27028026
PMCPMC4879085

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.