What Doctors Really Want from the Latest Medical Technology - The Experts - WSJ

GURPREET DHALIWAL: Technology has much to offer doctors, but it is not the health-care technology agenda you hear about in the news. Big data, the electronic medical record, and the connected patient are frequently hyped as remedies to medicine’s ills. But improving and restoring health is a messy business that requires investment in human capital more than physical capital.

Here’s a modest technology agenda from the perspective of the front-line clinician who hopes to master their craft and continually improve the care they provide to their patients.

Big data. Correlations that massive data sets churn out seldom change practice. Those associations are no different than any preliminary research finding: not ready for prime time until they are confirmed, scrutinized and distilled for daily practice. Clinicians need constant exposure to the findings of high-quality studies and synopses that already meet those criteria. Twitter, for example, is a great way to do that. Spare me your big data, send me your good data.

Electronic medical record. The medical record has devolved into a forensic document and billing tool with a subordinate role as a communication tool, but it never has become a learning tool. Doctors only improve with feedback, but workloads make it impossible to quickly answer questions like, “Is that patient I saw last week OK?” or “What did that test result show?” Some electronic medical records allow doctors to create a list of patients to track or set up scheduled reminder emails. But it should be easier and better, such as, “Siri, send me a secure email when Ms. Jain sees her rheumatologist. I want the note and labs from that day.”

The connected patient. I want updates from my patients, but the outdated emphasis on face-to-face visits often makes this impossible. Text, email and videoconferencing should be commonplace for follow-up, even though regulations and reimbursements pose formidable barriers. Many doctors already communicate electronically because it is the right thing to do—and because we believe it is more important to be connected to your health-care provider than it is to be connected to your Fitbit.

Dr. Gurpreet Dhaliwal is a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a staff physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

courtesy of the Wall Street Journal

What Doctors Really Want from the Latest Medical Technology - The Experts - WSJ