Physicians and the Internet: understanding where we are and where we are going

The growth of the Internet for both commercial and personal use is the target of much analysis. Within the health care industry, physician use of the Internet has become the wobbly cornerstone upon which many Internet-based health care companies have built their business plans. This article presents the argument that significant physician use of the Internet is dependent on many factors that are not related to the Internet per se but rather to the use of technology in general. Using industry standard nomenclature, the authors have developed a simple taxonomy that categorizes Internet applications relevant to physicians. We review the growth of electronic prescribing and electronic medical records relative to the Internet and the impact of new data entry and retrieval technologies. We discuss the effects of the Internet on workflow and quality of care. Finally, we cast our gaze forward to 2005 and discuss how adoption of the Internet and new technologies may impact physicians and patients in the future.