Which physicians have access to electronic prescribing and which ones end up using it?
OBJECTIVE
This study examines the availability of electronic prescription and the utilization of e-prescribing by physicians in the US.


METHODS
Nationally representative data from the 2004-2005 Community Tracking Study Physician Survey were used to identify which subgroups of physicians have access to e-prescribing technology and which subgroups are using this technology more or less intensively. Exhaustive Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection (CHAID) was employed for statistical data segmentation.


RESULTS
Results indicate that the rapidly increasing adoption of electronic prescription is diminished by relatively low physician utilization. E-prescription utilization was segmented among practice size and type. There were also differences in e-prescription use by age, gender, and ethnicity/race in some subgroups. Actual use of e-prescription was very low for female physicians in surgical specialties, psychiatry, and obstetrics/gynecology, and for Hispanic physicians in pediatrics, internal medicine, and family/general practice in solo/two physician practices, medical schools, and hospitals.


CONCLUSIONS
Insights from segmentation analyses could be used to identify adoption barriers and to develop targeted interventions to accelerate the implementation of e-prescription systems in physician practices.
Pagán
José A
JA
Institute for Population Health Policy and Department of Economics and Finance, College of Business Administration, University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, TX, United States. jpagan@utpa.edu
Pratt
William R
WR
Sun
Jun
J
D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D055695:Electronic Prescribing; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors; D008875:Middle Aged; D010820:Physicians; D014481:United States