BARRIERS TO MEDICAL COMPUTING: HISTORY, DIAGNOSIS, AND THERAPY FOR THE MEDICAL COMPUTING 'LAG'.

Abstract Widespread concern that computer use in medicine lags behind its potential, and its use in other fields, often is coupled with discussion of physician resistance to computers. A historical study of these phenomena indicates that concern with the medical computing lag dates to the early days of the field. This paper analyzes the lag and questions whether physicians are, or have been, resistant to computers in medicine. The analysis indicates that a fear of physician resistance may be counter-productive, and itself contribute to the lag in medical computing. Then, a discussion of the differential adoption of medical computer applications suggests some ways of overcoming the lag due to physician resistance.