Health care experts say that having a "physician champion" is critical to the success of technology implementation efforts, American Medical News reports.
Acting as a physician champion is "being the doctor who is convinced the product is a good idea and needs to convince others that it is," James Slawson, a family and community medicine doctor at the Medical College of Wisconsin, said. Slawson said he served as the physician champion when his practice implemented charge-capture software.
Physician champions also often take on the role of liaison between the medical staff and the technology vendor.
Selecting Physician Champions
Slawson said that physicians are better suited to serve in the IT advocate role than an IT professional or high-level administrator because they can better anticipate questions from their colleagues.
Rosemarie Nelson, a consultant for the MGMA Health Care Consulting Group, said that physicians often assume the unofficial champion role because they are the ones who already are using the technology or excited about the technology.
However, Nelson recommends having two physician champions -- one who is tech savvy and one who is not. She explains that technology-reluctant physicians are more likely to be convinced to use a product by someone who also is just learning to use it, while a more technology-savvy physician likely will have a better understanding of the product and be able to answer questions (Dolan, American Medical News, 12/8).