Technology valued, but implementing it into practice is slow

Cost and time are cited as reasons computer technology has not been quick to catch on with physicians.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Jan. 19, 2004.

Two recent surveys found that few doctors are using information technology in the clinical setting, even though one of the surveys found that a majority of physicians believes computers are becoming a necessity in clinical practice.

A majority of the 423 physicians who responded to a survey by the Massachusetts Medical Society agreed that technology is becoming an essential part of clinical care but do not intend to adopt it in such a fashion at this time despite believing it can significantly improve patient care.

A different survey found that fewer than 10% of American hospitals have made computerized physician order entry completely available to physicians throughout their facilities. "CPOE has not been adopted at the rate most of us would expect even though the signs are encouraging," said Joan Ash, PhD, who led the team of researchers that conducted the survey and who is an associate professor of medical informatics at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine in Portland.

Although MMS found that doctors are quick to adopt technology for business operations such as billing (71%), scheduling (71%) and payroll (62%), they are slow to do so on the clinical side.

For example, the survey found that 85% believe that doctors should computerize prescribing but 49% say they do not intend to do so. The survey also found that 89% of physician respondents believe doctors should record patient summaries electronically and yet 48.5% do not intend to do so.