Electronic Letters to:
|
|
E-letters: Electronic letters published:
-
![[Read eLetter]](/icons/misc/sectionDOWN.gif)
Patients comfortable with computers
- Wai Sun Chan (24 March 2009)
|
|
|||
|
Wai Sun Chan, Lecturer in General Practice RCSI, Dublin, Ireland
Send e-letter to journal:
|
It is good to see that there continues to be new research in the field of consultation styles in General Practice. The research conducted by Christopher Pearce et al in the June 2008 edition nicely illustrates how consultations styles have evolved with computers now very much an active “third party” in the consultation room[1]. Having conducted a study of similar methodology into GPs’ consulting styles with computers I understand the complexities of analysing multiple video consultations[2]. Computers are very much part of the fabric of GPs’ consulting rooms and one only realises how important they are to our consultations when computers fail. We are now in an era where GPs have not only trained with computers in the room but also that patients expect them in the consultation room to assist information recall. The authors were rightly cautious about the possible implication of demoting patient within the consultation interaction. Research conducted in 2003 involving a random sample of 102 patients questioned following their GP consultation, where GPs used computers during the consultation, revealed that 98% of patients were highly satisfied with their consultations[3]. Only 3% felt the GP was distracted by the computer. Patients also felt that computers saved time, improved efficiency, were good for continuity of care and helped avoid errors. Bill Gates has been quoted to have the vision of having a computer in every home. In 2003 a US census showed that 55% of households had a web connected computer. What would the figure be now? One can argue that computers play a significant part in a lot of people’s lives and the early uncertainties about these machines have passed. I feel patients wouldn’t allow themselves to feel demoted if the situation occurred, and certainly not to a computer. One might be tempted to ask if patients’ expectations of their GPs risen as result of such technology at their finger tips. Wai Sun Chan Department of General Practice, The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Beaux Lane House, Dublin 2. References 1. Pearce, C, Trumble, S, Arnold, M, Dwan, K and Phillips, C, Computers in the new consultation: within the first minute. Fam. Pract., 2008. 25(3): p. 202-208. 2. Chan, W-S, Stevenson, M and McGlade, K, Do general practitioners change how they use the computer during consultations with a significant psychological component? International Journal of Medical Informatics, 2008. 77(8): p. 534. 3. Chan, W and McGlade, K, Patients' attitudes to GPs' use of computers. BJGP, 2003. 53: p. 491. Conflict of Interest:None declared |
|||