How far behind the tech curve is health care?

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A long, long way

Healthcare is a long, long way behind the general curve when it comes
to technology. Here's why, though electronic records have the power
to be transformational, the core basics of healthcare don't necessarily
digitize well. Charting is seen as a documentation activity, making a
record about what was done to the patient. And rather than a
valuable informational record of past treatment, it is often viewed as a
prospective inoculation against legal activity. To put it another way,
many healthcare practitioners don't like to do it. Worse, most of the
information recorded and preserved in a chart is unimportant.

When you add technology to this mix, the result can be disastrous.
Many, many healthcare practitioners are afraid of technology and
computers. In fact, among many doctors it is seen as cool to be non-
techy, or unsavvy. Don't believe me, listen to them talk. Quite a few
will volunteer, "I don't get along well with computers."

So, while some aspects of medicine are highly technical and
computerized like cardiac
imaging, many other aspects dread the onset of the information
superhighway and the coming of the machines.

Posted by: Rob Oakes   Posted on: 04/07/09 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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