Health IT, EHR and Thoreau
Posted by Michael Klotz on Tue, Jan 31, 2012
At a recent LAVA Healthcare meeting, the discussion inevitably turned to technology and technology-related topics. An eerily familiar discussion to me, one where I find myself feeling about as guilty as productive. Productive, because technology and processes is what I use to make things work; better, faster, etc. Guilty, because I often catch myself thinking technology is the solution to all our problems...
A certain quote always comes to mind during those moments:
'We've become the tools of our tools'
Despite its undeniable effect, the quote is not shocking at a time when we have gadgets for everything and stare at one screen or another, pretty much from the time we check the weather in the morning to streaming Netflix before we fall asleep. What IS shocking is that the quote is from Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862). I try to imagine what he would say if he could see what we are doing to ourselves today with our fancy technology. Many words come to my mind. Throeau, no doubt, would have been more eloquent in stating them.
When we talk about EHR adoption, HIE, ACO, RAPS, medical devices that connect to the Internet, Healthcare apps for our mobile phones and many other things, we have to keep things in perspective. If we do, and the more we do it, the better we will be at tackling our challenges with those fancy technology tools of ours. Let's remember that a physician needs to be attentive to a patient and maintain eye contact. This basic patient contact should not be sacrificed as the physician enters reams of information into the new EHR. Let's aim high and capture that valuable data AND enhance patient encounters.
It's almost gratifying that Thoreau's quote still has a very strong, humbling and yet cleansing effect on me. It's almost like a reset after which I see things a little more clearly. We need clarity, especially if we are to have a meaningful impact. We'll, of course, often arrive at the conclusion that 'less is more', or as Thoreau put it:
'A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.'