title: Beyond the focus group: understanding physicians' barriers to electronic medical records.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although electronic medical records (EMRs) have potential to improve quality of care, physician adoption remains low. Rhode Island physicians' perceptions of barriers to EMRs and the association between these barriers and physician characteristics were examined. It was hypothesized that physicians with and without EMRs would differ in the types and magnitude of barriers identified.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were drawn from the Rhode Island Department of Health's mandatory 2009 Physician Health Information Technology (HIT) survey of physicians licensed and in active practice in Rhode Island or an adjacent state. Some 1,888 (58.1% of the target population of 3,248 physicians) responded. Respondents, who were invited to provide open-ended comments, were asked to consider 11 issues as barriers to EMR use: Access to technical support, lack of computer skills, availability of a computer in the appropriate location, impact of a computer on doctor-patient interaction, lack of interoperability, privacy or security concerns, start-up financial costs, ongoing financial costs, technic limitations of systems, training and productivity impact, and lack of uniform industry standards.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Respondents with EMRs consistently perceived significantly fewer barriers than those without them (p < .0001). For example, 78.9% of physicians without EMRs viewed start-up financial costs as a major barrier versus only 45.8% of physicians with EMRs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An understanding of physicians' reluctance to use EMRs is critical for developing adoption strategies. Policies to increase EMR adoption should be tailored to different physician groups to achieve maximum effectiveness. Further research into the differences between current EMR users' and nonusers' perceptions of barriers may help elucidate how to facilitate subsequent adoption.
authors.affiliation: Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Rebekah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D003200:Computer User Training; D003219:Confidentiality; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012237:Rhode Island; D014584:User-Computer Interface