Electronic and Internet Health Tools May Decrease In-Person Physician Visits

Will the growing use of health information technology (IT) and electronic-health (e-health) applications impact the future demand for physicians? 

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Commonwealth Fund think so. Based on their analysis of recent trends in digital health care and a review of the scientific literature, the authors conclude that patients’ future use of physician services will change dramatically as electronic health records and consumer e-health “apps” proliferate.

The findings appear in the November issue of the journal Health Affairs.   “The results of our study are important because they provide a forward looking snapshot of how health IT will profoundly impact the American health care workforce over the next decade or two,” said the study's lead author Jonathan Weiner, DrPH, professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School and director of the Center for Population Health Information Technology (CPHIT). 

The impact of health IT on the care delivery environment will be far-reaching.  Weiner and colleagues estimate that when electronic health records and other e-health systems are fully implemented in just 30 percent of community-based physicians’ offices,  U.S. doctors will be able to meet the demands of about 4-9 percent more patients than they can today due to increased efficiency.

The authors reviewed health informatics and health services research literature through June 2013 using MEDLINE, the Cochrane Database and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s database on health IT. 

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