OPINIONKeep in mind the healing power of inkCommentary. By Michael Greenberg, MD, amednews contributor. July 2, 2001. During my residency years, I moonlighted in various doctors' offices. In one, notes were dictated into a central system in the presence of the patients and typed on the charts. A nurse sitting at the doctor's side wrote prescriptions that had been preprinted with the physician's signature. The doctor had to lift his pen only to sign referral letters or doodle on his desk blotter during a phone call. I felt odd not writing anything in front of the patients. Although the doctor for whom I worked was kind and compassionate, and the system left more time to talk with patients, I sensed something missing. A second office in which I occasionally covered the doctor's vacation time did not have a sophisticated dictation system, but in the hallway connecting the examination rooms was a huge rack filled with preprinted prescription pads. Just about any medication or combination I could think to offer a dermatology patient was available. Once again, the system saved time -- and, therefore, money -- but I perceived something cold and unfeeling in those printed forms. I'm not damning things dictated or preprinted and, as a writer, I admit my prejudice, but I believe there is something special and sacred about the handwritten word. No matter how efficient e-mail is, an electronic thank-you lacks the emotional power of a hand-written note expressing the same sentiment -- preferably when it is executed with a fountain pen on watermarked bond paper. There is something mystical about words penned by hand in real ink.
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