TRENDS
Breaking The Rules of Healthcare: Selecting The Best Technology Several modern technologies could positively and powerfully transform patient care. So why aren’t physicians using them as much as they could? By Dr. Robert Pearl
In the 21st century, all but one U.S. industry has used information technology (IT)
to cut costs, increase access to products and services, and improve quality. Healthcare is the lone exception. For decades, medical costs have risen faster than inflation – with spending now above $4 trillion annually. For patients, accessing medical care is both time consuming and burdensome. Meanwhile, U.S. healthcare lags other wealthy nations in nearly all measures of quality, including life expectancy and childhood mortality. Modern technologies could help solve these problems. So, why haven’t they? 42
April 2022
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One answer involves the technology, itself. Take the electronic health record (EHR), which has become a symbol of what’s wrong with tech in medicine. Though EHRs can improve collaboration among doctors, give patients fuller access to their medical data and reduce clinical errors, they rarely do. Instead, these systems are cumbersome and clunky, and they sit (literally) between doctors and patients. Year after year, the Medical Economics survey of “things ruining medicine for physicians” rates EHR usability at or near the top of the list. But form and function aren’t the only barriers to widespread tech adoption in healthcare. Also standing in the way is an unwritten rule that governs the relationship between doctors and technology – a rule that has held firm for centuries.
