The One Topic That Enrages Every Doctor
What was designed to make physicians’ lives easier have caused major frustration. Bob Wachter, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) talked with MD Magazine about the issues surrounding electronic health records (EHRs).
Three words: electronic health records (EHRs).
What was designed to make physicians’ lives easier have caused major frustration. Bob Wachter, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) talked with MD Magazine about the issues surrounding EHRs and reassured us that physicians do not have a problem with technology.
“In a cocktail party or coffee house conversation, if you want to see doctors get enraged, ask them about their electronic health records,” Wachter said during an interview at the American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting (ACP 2017) in San Diego, California.
Many physicians have been disappointed in the technology that was supposed to make things safer, quicker, and easier. Health care has a long history of technology, but nothing quite like EHRs, Wachter explained. While EHRs could be better, he said, a large part of the problem is that it hasn’t been thought about how the technology would change medical practice.
