| Title | Computers in Clinical Medicine, A Critical Review |
| Author(s) | Richard Bruce Friedman and David H. Gustafson |
| Source | Computers and Biomedical Research, Vol. 10, Pages 199-204 |
| Publication Date | 1977 |
| Abstract | The overall impact of computers on health care delivery has been less than was expected as recently as 5 years ago. What have been the impediments to a more universal application of computers to medicine? The authors searched four major journals for all articles dealing with computer applications to medicine published during a 5-year period. They found 32 articles that presented applications of computers to medical problems, and sent a 1-page questionnaire requesting follow-up data to the principal authors of each article. For 51% of the projects reviewed, the work detailed in the article had been either abandoned or temporarily stalled. In only 19% of the cases was the program now in routine use at the author's medical center. In almost every case where the project had been abandoned, the authors indicated that this had occurred because the project never became cost-effective and when research funding ran out the hospital would not assume the funding. For those projects that the authors indicated were successful and were now funded from patient or hospital fees, the authors uniformly reported that they had begun with a limited well-defined goal and that the project had consistently remained cost-effective. |