eLetters: Computer Use by Canadian Physicians [CMAJ

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eLetters: Computer Use by Canadian Physicians
In response to: Almost all physicians have embraced computer use, survey shows

(John) Barrie McCombs
Email: bmccombs@ucalgary.ca
Affiliation: University of Calgary
Posted on: November 3, 2000

After reading the news item by Shelly Martin about the results of the Physician Resource Questionnaire, and reviewing the additional , I am suspicious that there is bias in the statistics about computer use by Canadian physicians.

In Alberta, the percentage of physicians with a known email address is currently 49.5 percent. This is based on information from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta and the Alberta Medical Association. This is 22.6 percent lower than the 72.1 percent figure quoted in the PRQ "Internet Use" statistics page on the CMA website. I simply do not believe that Alberta physicians are that far below the national average in their use of computers.

I suspect that, as in past surveys, many non-users of computers left the computer questions blank, rather than answering "NO". If such records were not used when calculating the overall percentages, it would result in a falsely high percentage of computer users. This might be due in part to the fact that the computer questions appear at the end of a long questionnaire. I respectfully suggest that the survey analysts compare their e-mail use figures with membership data from each provincial College of Physicians and Medical Association.

Barrie McCombs
Director, Medical Information Service
University of Calgary