TY  - EJOU
AU  - Chen, Katherina Y. 
AU  - Stempel, Max 
AU  - Miranda, Luis Gonzalez 
AU  - Kazeem, Aisha 
AU  - Ortiz,, Nicolas M. 

TI  - Quantifying the excess: evaluating the superfluous data burden in outside medical records
T2  - Canadian Journal of Urology

PY  - 
VL  - 
IS  - 
SN  - 1488-5581

AB  -  <b>Background:</b> Outside medical records (OMR), while necessary for tertiary referral care, often contain irrelevant or redundant information due to poor electronic medical record usability, which has been reported as a large contributor to physician burnout. This study aims to quantify and classify the superfluous portions of OMR received by urologists at an academic referral center. <b>Methods:</b> All initial adult visits seen by five urologists over a six-month period were reviewed by two independent reviewers. The number of pages of the OMR relevant to the consultation question was recorded. Superfluous content was classified as clinical-but-not-relevant/duplicate or administrative. Referral source (urologist versus non-urologist) was also noted. <b>Results:</b> 299 patients met the inclusion criteria: 122 (40.8%) from urologists, 177 (59.2%) from non-urologists. The median length of OMR was 16.0 pages (Interquartile Range (IQR) 9.0–28.5). Pages containing relevant information constituted a median of 50.0% (IQR 33.3%–65.2%) of the OMR, clinical-but-not-relevant/duplicate pages accounted for 18.2% (IQR 0–37.5%), and administrative pages made up 25.0% (IQR 15.6%–36.4%). Urologist referrals included more pages on average (33.4 vs. 19.2, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01) and contained a higher proportion of relevant content (57.7% vs. 43.9%, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01), with fewer pages of non-relevant clinical data (15.5% vs. 27.7%, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01). <b>Conclusions:</b> Only half of the OMR content in urologic referrals is clinically relevant. While specialty-matched providers submit more and better-targeted records, a significant portion remains superfluous. Improving how OMRs are processed presents an opportunity to increase clinical efficiency and decrease provider burnout.
KW  - electronic health records; physician burnout; health information management

DO  - 10.32604/cju.2026.075344