Individuals now buy drugs on the Internet and Tweet about their latest visit to the physician office. They can rate their doctors on healthgrades.com. They can research their own illnesses through websites such as WebMD.com and MDAdvice.com.* The recent development of Health Information Technology (HIT) such as Electronic Medical Records (EMR) could help prevent medical errors and exchange patient information among healthcare providers. Moreover, during the current pandemic, the use telemedicine has been expanded to ensure access to essential health services. (See CDC guideline for telehealth services during COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/telehealth.html (Links to an external site.)
How might you harness modern technology to transform the role of the primary care physician, creating a “Marcus Welby for the 21st Century”? (I.e., how does technology such as telemedicine, healthgrades.com and WebMD.com change the role of primary care physicians?) Specifically, how does modern technology affect demand inducement (i.e., the extent to which physicians could potentially induce demand)?
