Usemed, Arild Faxvaags weblog on healthcare computing

I am one of the authors of this paper which was published in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision making today. We present data from interviews with physicians that work in hospitals that no longer keep a paper-based medical record. When physicians are relieved from paper-based information routines, they become more willing to adopt to the Electronic medical record system. As with any other set of clinical skills, they learn how to master the system from their peers. What differs is the inversion of roles: The seniors learn from the juniors. Irrespective of age and seniority, neither physician miss the paper-based medical record. Many routines are however the same, or are changing at a rather slow pace. I do not consider this a bad thing and actually believe that the widespread expectations to EMR systems finally are beginning to be met.