Technology: Impact on Physician–Patient Dialogue

For the last 30 years, computers have increasingly become part of the daily practice of medicine. An integrated system of technologies, collectively referred to as electronic medical records, has been touted to have many advantages over paper record systems, yet there are many concerns about how they affect physician–patient relationships. While there has been to date relatively little research done on the impact that electronic medical records have had on this relationship, it is known that electronic medical records influence the interaction between physicians and patients in many ways, both cognitively and socially. In the future, it will be important for medical practitioners and social researchers to see electronic medical records not only as a means for collecting and recording data, but also a complex ...