ArticleBMC surgery2025
The gender gap in academic surgery: the electronic health record.
Article in BMC surgery, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Gender and Perceived Racial Diversity in Academic Otolaryngology.Laryngoscope investigative otolaryngology · 2026Article
- Surgery as a greedy job: The valorization of the worker's professionalism for women in surgery.Surgery open science · 2026Review
- Higher electronic health record burden among women physicians in academic ambulatory medicine.JAMIA open · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe electronic health record (EHR) contributes to burnout, and excessive EHR work impedes productivity. The scope of potential gender discrepancies in EHR burden among surgeons is unclear. Because clinical operations and workflow vary by institution, EHR research must be conducted at multiple centers. Identifying modifiable factors that influence how surgeons use the EHR would support strategies that mitigate gender discrepancies. We hypothesized that gender differences in EHR use would be related to EHR support from clinical team members, patient message volume, and documentation length.
methodsWe retrospectively evaluated EHR use by surgeons from multiple specialties in eight departments at a large academic center from January to December 2023. Data about clinical and EHR workload were collected using a provider efficiency tracking tool. These data included the amount of time surgeons spent working in the EHR outside of regular work hours overall and on individual tasks such as responding to messages, clinical review, and orders; the number of messages received and their source; proficiency with documenting in the EHR; and receipt of assistance with EHR documentation and orders from clinical team members.
resultsEHR use was analyzed from 323 surgeons (32% women). After adjusting for specialty, women spent more time than men working in the EHR outside of scheduled clinical hours (mean difference: 7.8 min/day; p = 0.001) and 7 AM to 7 PM (3.8 min/day; p = 0.007) despite no difference in clinical workload. Women spent more time on notes (1.8 min/appointment; p < 0.001), messages (0.7 min/appointment; p = 0.004), and clinical review (0.6 min/appointment; p = 0.032) than men. However, there were no surgeon gender differences in clinical support for EHR work, number of patient messages, note length, or proficiency with the EHR.
conclusionWomen surgeons had a greater EHR burden than men at our institution. Assuming 16 clinical days/month, 8 min/day of additional EHR work outside of scheduled clinical hours for women translates to approximately 26 h/year of lost time relative to men. Unequal EHR work may increase the gender gap in career advancement and exacerbate burnout for women. Future research should include prospective multi-center trials to clarify the extent of the surgical EHR gender gap.
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