For a long time, family physician Mary Jo Welker, MD, hated computers. "My brother can make a computer do anything, and I always figured, 'Let those people do it,'" she says.
Now, however, she's a convert--not quite loving computers, but at least working with them. "Computers are here to stay. I realized there's no way around them," says Dr. Welker.
She uses them every day--for example, to ob-tain the results of lab work she's ordered or to check a patient's ER report. As a residency faculty member of Rardin Family Practice Center at Ohio State University, Columbus, Dr. Welker can retrieve many records in the OSU hospital system.
The information sharing is extensive: "If I send a patient to see one of several hundred OSU-affiliated physicians, the doctor can access reports on all the blood work, X-rays, or stress tests I've ordered for the patient," she says.
Physicians should hire consultants as guides in computerizing their offices and training their staffs, Dr. Welker suggests. "We need help making decisions about computerizing. It's hard enough to know how to practice medicine, let alone how to do all this computer stuff."
You may be one of about 24 percent of AAFP active members whose offices are not computerized, even for billing. If so, there are ways to ease into computer use.
Family physician Gilbert Solomon, MD, of Canoga Park, CA, suggests: Find something that's easier to do with a computer than with what you use now.
For example:
Fortunately, says Dr. Solomon, most physicians who are using computers extensively are somewhat evangelistic about it. In any hospital lunchroom, there's likely to be a group of people talking about their CD-ROMs. "They'll be glad to give you demonstrations," Dr. Solomon says.
He and Dr. Welker served on AAFP's Technical Panel on Office Computerization, which has recommended ways to encourage family physicians to adopt computer technology. One way is this FP Report special section, filled with tips for the computer-challenged and success stories about computer use.
According to Dr. Solomon, family physicians' prognosis for overcoming computerphobia is good.
"Family physicians are not technology-adverse," he says. "When the flexible sigmoidoscope came out, family physicians embraced it. Ultrasound, the CT scan--when these came out, family physicians didn't say, 'I don't want to do it.' We use technology when we see it improves patient care."
"Computers and Family Practice" contents
FP Report, July 1996 headlines
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