Abstract
The modern digital age has fostered a myth that multitasking equates to efficiency; multitasking is in fact the diametric opposite of mindfulness and focus. The human mind is incapable of focusing fully on more than one critical dataset at a time. The lack of focus is recognized to result in slips, lapses, omissions, and procedural violations. The fiduciary duty of a physician is to dedicate his or her education, training, and skill to the care of a patient’s medical care, in accordance with generally accepted standards. Where there is a conscious choice to engage in distractions during the patient-provider encounter, the expectations and rights of patients are violated; and errors, when they occur and are discovered, become difficult to defend in a court of law.
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Szalados, J.E. (2017). Digital Distraction and Legal Risk. In: Papadakos, P., Bertman, S. (eds) Distracted Doctoring. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48707-6_15
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