In The Age of Health IT, Doctors and Patients Need to Learn How to Communicate

Separately, doctors and patients are facing a steep learning curve as the HIT transition continues. But the biggest problem looming may be the one that the two camps can only solve together.

As this doctor presents it, “the digital age has had a deep and likely permanent effect on the patient-physician relationship.” That, of course, may be the mother of all understatements, as there are so many pieces to the changing patient-physician relationship. And the first challenge is to separate the “good” changes from the “bad.”

After citing just a couple examples in both columns, he suggests “we need to resolve the current tension between the philosophy that idealizes the physician as always being right and patients’ newfound autonomy and access to information. We need to engage in a thoughtful discussion about how the new disruptive digital technologies can help both patients and physicians get what they need. After all, both have the same ultimate goals: good clinical outcomes and a meaningful relationship.”...