Thursday, November 16, 2006

American Doctors WAY behind in adopting technology

Look at this survey:



"What gives, North America? Only 28% of U.S. primary care physicians and 23% of PCPs in Canada use electronic medical records (EMRs), compared with 98% of physicians in the Netherlands, 92% in New Zealand, 89% in the United Kingdom and 79% of PCPs in Australia, finds a new survey by the Commonwealth Fund and Harris Interactive. According to the study, Canadian and U.S. doctors are also the least likely to have systems that provide decision support, such as computerized alerts about potentially harmful drug doses or interactions."

In America since we have no national health service and private insurers dominate reimbursement for the majority of doctors, physicians are reluctant to adopt the emr due to initial cost, this is the worsening picture for many practices. Hopefully the natural evolution of business and innovation will create new models of medicine for modern practice. The
Personal Pediatrics system of practice is a marriage of platform software technologies and retainer based medicine that takes the pressure of declining reimbursements for physicians off the table so that they may be able to AFFORD to buy the SYSTEM that enables future practice. Many pediatrics practices right now are struggling to get throught the next year on their billings with the collected amounts being such a fraction that this is their top concern! Natalie Hodge MD

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