User Reaction to PROMIS: Issues Related to Acceptability of Medical Innovations

Issues that emerged during a demonstration of PROMIS are presented here. Physicians perceived the system to be more time consuming than its manual counterpart and feared that it would compromise patient care and disrupt traditional staff relations. Negative attitudes were reflected in uncooperativeness in learning the new system and invention of circumventing strategies. Adaptation of PROMIS was achieved more smoothly among nurses and ancillary personnel because it more fully allowed them to realize their professional expertise. The user education program was ineffective both in content and compliance. Users felt coerced rather than attracted into using the system but were expected to adapt to the system. Our findings support the need to incorporate features which will make computerized medical education systems acceptable to users in order to facilitate compliance.