More Royal College Fellows, and more Canadian doctors overall, are using information technology in their practice.
Seventy-five percent of Canadian physicians now report using electronic records to enter or retrieve clinical patient notes on a laptop or desktop, according to the recently released 2014 National Physician Survey (NPS) findings. This number has tripled from the 26 per cent reported in 2007.
“A huge growth in the use of information technology is taking place across Canada,” said Royal College President Cecil Rorabeck, MD, OC, FRCSC. “Doctors are not only using information technology more, but finding it enhances their ability to provide high-quality care.”
Adoption occurring across specialties and regions
Overall, the three disciplines most likely to have gone completely electronic were Diagnostic Radiology (51%), Anatomical Pathology (45%) and Family Medicine (42%).
Notably, cancer specialists reported very high rates of using electronic records to enter or retrieve clinical patient notes — 96 per cent of radiation oncologists and 97 per cent of medical oncologists surveyed.
Physicians in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario were most likely to report using electronic records, at close to 81 per cent of respondents from each province according to the NPS findings.
Nearly two-thirds report better quality of care
Sixty-five percent of physicians reported seeing better or much better quality of care since the implementation of electronic records, a rise of nine percentage points from last year. The most frequent benefits that were quoted include
- identifying lab results,
- ability to access a patient’s chart remotely, and
- being alerted to critical test results or to potential medication warnings.
Diagnostic radiologists were the most likely group to cite improved productivity, with 75 per cent reporting improved quality of care.
Electronic tools used by physicians, other than electronic medical records, are also on the rise. The most frequent use of electronic tools is the access to lab/diagnostic test results — 80 per cent compared to 38 per cent in 2010.
Significant challenges remain
Information technology is not a uniform success. Canada’s physicians reported several challenges in accessing information, with
- 52% reporting technical glitches,
- 46% experiencing compatibility issues with other systems, and
- 26% complaining about firewall or security issues.
The 2014 national physician survey builds on the previous surveys with a focus on use of information technology by physicians of Canada. This year, more than 10,000 licensed physicians from across the country completed the online electronic survey.
