September 1, 2004 10:47 PM
Technology and Medicine: is the patient a loser ?
I was just reading some forums online, and some thoughts came to mind about all the IT stuff that we physicians are using.
Let's try to put it into context. 10 years ago, we sat down with a patient, took maybe 40 minutes for a consult. Most time would be devoted to the interview, exam and counselling. Today, for almost every patient with a reasonably complicated problem it takes at least 10 minutes to review all tests, reports and information before getting to the patient.
We all understand that patient care is improved given the better support, better clinical systems etc. But is the patient feeling less well taken care of, when we spend less and less time talking, examining and counselling ? With this massive amount of information coming from all sides, should we be seeing the patient on a different date, after all the data is properly reviewed ? I sometimes find it hard to be able to quickly summarize everything and formulate a decent plan when people have had an extensive evaluation.
Your thoughts ?
Posted by leo at September 1, 2004 10:47 PM
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