Cost, Usability Keep Many Docs Skeptical of Health IT

About half of physicians responding to a Wolters Kluwer survey said their practices had embraced health information technology, including clinical decision support tools. But 44 percent of the respondents said they still had a long way to go in health IT.

Among the obstacles to greater adoption of IT, the physicians said, were the expense of the technology (40 percent); too much data and not enough actionable information (32 percent); the fact that HIT is too hard to learn/takes too much time to learn (27 percent); and the fact that IT can be too hard to use at the point of care (24 percent).

The latter issue might be even more widespread, judging by the fact that 90 percent of the respondents wished they had more time to spend with patients. The majority of respondents viewed this factor as the greatest impediment to doctor-patient communications...