Abstract

A year ago in this journal, I wrote a commentary about how to move ahead with clinical computer systems in the face of physician resistance to computerization. I recommended that the planners of these programs move past the small but vocal number of physicians who opposed computerization. I felt then, and still do now, that system planners should not expend too much energy trying to convince the doubters and the "computer-phobes" of the benefits inherent in computerization. Development and innovation move at a much faster rate than do physicians' attitudes to new and somewhat difficult changes in their method of day-to-day practice, even when these changes promise to make their work more efficient and cost-effective.