How will technology change the way physicians manage clinical information in the near future?
Dr. Frisse: Because the medical libraries in most offices are very inadequate, the principle source of medical information for most practitioners is still the telephone. In the short run, information technology will foster communication between colleagues and help eliminate telephone tag. E-mail is a very valuable technology, because it allows clinicians to communicate with one another. While there are unresolved patient privacy and malpractice issues associated with e-mail, it is quite possible to buy systems that can encrypt all communications and allow secure and reliable transmission of information. Q: But can getting a curbside consult via e-mail really help physicians? A: It may actually preserve the way physicians get clinical information. In the 1960s and 1970s, we viewed hospitals as giant information-gathering engines. Patients were often admitted to the hospital not because they required acute intervention, but because it was the most effective way to bring together physicia
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