Medicine and the Computer: The Promise and Problems of Change

Abstract

Rapid advances in the information sciences, coupled with the political commitment to broad extensions of health care, promise to bring about basic changes in the structure of medical practice. Computing science will probably exert its major effects by augmenting and, in some cases, largely replacing the intellectual functions of the physician. As the “intellectual” use of the computer influences in a fundamental fashion the problems of both physician manpower and quality of medical care, it will also inevitably exact important social costs—psychologic, organizational, legal, economic and technical. Only through consideration of such potential costs will it be possible to introduce the new technology in an effective and acceptable manner. To accomplish this goal will require new interactions among medicine, the information sciences and the management sciences, and the development of new skills and attitudes on the part of policy-makers in the health-care system.