I was recently talking to a friend, a young GP, who had just spent two hours on the phone figuring out how to help a patient with unusual symptoms. He told me he had been going through his address book of colleagues and physicians in different fields who could help with this particularly difficult referral. In the end, he had five different suggestions, three coming from cardiologists and was left with no idea on how to compare these discordant opinions. It sounded slightly surreal, like Richard Burton broodily looking through a list of old lovers, wondering who to call for advice on true love (something that had always eluded him). The blondes would give different advice than the brunettes. Bemused by this image, I was redrawn to the idea of how collaboration tools could benefit such situations, particularly how they could be used to ease communication between physicians. As we know, hospitals and group practices are very particular organizations, quite traditional in their form, and subject to stringent rules and regulations when it comes to sharing information. Medical knowledge is confined to different areas of expertise, both by professional division and departmental delineations. However, the competence necessary to solve patients’ […]
