E-Medicine - The Role of Informatics in Continuing Professional Development and Quality Improvement in Primary Care

The General Practice consultation is a busy and sometime stressful environment, within which the computer is playing an increasing role. Given these realities, the consultation is hardly the time or place during which a physician can learn about new ways of managing a patient's problems,^1,2 from the computer. It is true that computers help in rapid retrieval of information and make automation possible saving time required for scheduling appointments and for doing repetitive work such as repeat prescriptions. However, when used for prevention and patient education, they generally tend to lengthen the consultation. They help prevent prescribing errors but as yet, there is no evidence that they promote physician learning.³