Interesting article about the computerization of health care records and some unintended consequences. I've seen some of this myself during doctor visits, when the doctor is looking at the screen more than me. The system isn't ready for prime time yet.
The article is a bit long but I think it is worth the read.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/why-doctors-hate-their-computers
The article is a bit long but I think it is worth the read.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/why-doctors-hate-their-computers
More than ninety per cent of American hospitals have been computerized during the past decade, and more than half of Americans have their health information in the Epic system. Seventy thousand employees of Partners HealthCare—spread across twelve hospitals and hundreds of clinics in New England—were going to have to adopt the new software. I was in the first wave of implementation, along with eighteen thousand other doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab techs, administrators, and the like.
But three years later I’ve come to feel that a system that promised to increase my mastery over my work has, instead, increased my work’s mastery over me. I’m not the only one. A 2016 study found that physicians spent about two hours doing computer work for every hour spent face to face with a patient—whatever the brand of medical software. In the examination room, physicians devoted half of their patient time facing the screen to do electronic tasks. And these tasks were spilling over after hours. The University of Wisconsin found that the average workday for its family physicians had grown to eleven and a half hours. The result has been epidemic levels of burnout among clinicians. Forty per cent screen positive for depression, and seven per cent report suicidal thinking—almost double the rate of the general working population.