Study Says Clinical IT Adoption Varies

While practice setting and size are the strongest predictors of physicians' access to clinical information technology (IT) in their practices, significant variation in IT adoption exists across specialties, according to a national study released today by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).

HSC, a nonpartisan policy research organization located in Washington, the study examined whether physicians had access to information technology in their practices for the following five clinical activities:

- Obtaining information about treatment alternatives or recommended guidelines

- Accessing patient notes, medication lists or problem lists

- Writing prescriptions

- Exchanging clinical data and images with other physicians

- Exchanging clinical data and images with hospitals

According to the study, across primary care, medical and surgical specialties, significant variation in access to IT exists.