June 2000 Bulletin

Physicians spend 6 hours a week online mostly for personal use, not clinical work

Doctors spend relatively little time online or using their personal computers for clinical work, according to a survey by Harris Interactive. The nationwide survey of 769 practicing physicians found:

• 89 percent of the physicians use the Internet at the office or at home, with the average online physician using it 6 hours per week
• 61 percent of the time physicians spend on the Internet is for personal use, 16 percent for administration and the management of their practices, 15 percent for general clinical information and 8 percent for clinical work relating to their patients
• 83 percent of physicians access the Internet from home
• 51 percent of physicians access the Internet from their personal office areas
• 34 percent of physicians access the Internet in their clinical work areas
• 32 percent of physicians work in practices that have their own web sites, but this is likely to grow to 50 percent within 18 months
• 86 percent of physicians use cell phones, but only 15 percent use handheld devices such as PalmPilots(™)
• Only 28 percent of physicians use a computer to access information about their patients and most of those do it for only a few of their patients
• 52 percent of physicians sometimes use computers to receive the results of laboratory tests.