The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, passed in 2009, incentivized the meaningful use and expansion of electronic health record (EHR) systems in US health care. While EHRs have been widely adopted and advanced since 2009, surgeons have been reluctant to adapt EHRs to their workflows. Surgeons have always used tools, from laparoscopes to basic clamps, to enhance their abilities in the operating room. Why then do surgeons ignore the potential for EHRs to serve as an additional skill-extending tool? In other specialties, the digital age has reduced mortality with predictive sepsis models, decreased documentation burden with chatbot-assisted note-taking, and improved patient engagement through online communication.1 What prevents similar innovations for surgical care?