Doctors outpace consumers in embracing e-technologies

Physicians' use of handhelds and high-speed Internet access could set the stage for a greater role for electronic medical records.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Oct. 6, 2003.

Although widely perceived to be technophobes, physicians are adopting technology at a significantly higher rate than the general public, according to a survey by Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge, Mass.

The survey found that 40% of physicians own a handheld device compared with 8% of consumers, said Eric Brown, an analyst at the market research company. Doctors also have embraced high-speed Internet connections -- commonly referred to as broadband -- at nearly twice the rate of consumers. About 43% of physicians have high-speed Internet access at work with 40% having access at home. The comparable figures for consumers are 26% and 23%.

"Historically, people have looked at doctors' adoption of institutional technologies such as electronic medical records and e-prescribing and have been somewhat critical of them because they were not aggressive adopters," Brown said. "But most of the information technology that has been put forward to doctors over the last 20 years has been designed to improve the efficiency of the rest of the health care system a little bit at the expense of the doctor."

When technology offers "a clear business value" to physicians, however, they adopt it, he added.

R. Eugene Bailey, MD, a family physician in Syracuse, N.Y., is not surprised by the survey's conclusion.