The Digital Doctor

Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age

By: Robert Wachter

Narrated by: Benjamin Wachter

While modern medicine produces miracles, it also delivers care that is too often unsafe, unreliable, unsatisfying, and impossibly expensive. For the past few decades, technology has been touted as the cure for all of healthcare's ills. But medicine stubbornly resisted computerization - until now. Over the past five years, thanks largely to billions of dollars in federal incentives, health care has finally gone digital.

Yet once clinicians started using computers to actually deliver care, it dawned on them that something was deeply wrong. Why were doctors no longer making eye contact with their patients? How could one of America's leading hospitals give a teenager a 39-fold overdose of a common antibiotic, despite a state-of-the-art computerized prescribing system? How could a recruiting ad for physicians tout the absence of an electronic medical record as a major selling point?

Logically enough, we've pinned the problems on clunky software, flawed implementations, absurd regulations, and bad karma. It was all of those things, but it was also something far more complicated...and far more interesting.

The Digital Doctor examines health care at the dawn of its computer age. It tackles the hard questions, from how technology is changing care at the bedside to whether government intervention has been useful or destructive, and it does so with clarity, insight, humor, and compassion.

"We need to recognize that computers in health care don't simply replace my doctor's scrawl with Helvetica 12", writes the author Dr. Robert Wachter. "Instead, they transform the work, the people who do it, and their relationships with each other and with patients.... Sure, we should have thought of this sooner. But it's not too late to get it right."

This riveting audiobook offers the prescription for getting it right.

©2015 Robert Wachter (P)2015 Robert Wachter

Nailed it

I currently work as a Chief Medical Informatics Officer at a community health system, and I can tell you that Robert Wachter absolutely nailed it with this book. Very engaging, well written, and he gives a full voice to all aspects of the challenges healthcare is now facing. I usually have difficulty explaining what I do for a living to people not in healthcare, but now I can point them to The Digital Doctor and explain to them ... It's way worse than you think!

Still relevant!

Years after the adoption of electronic medical records it still amazes me as to relevantcy of a book on technology, like this one is, can be. If flying cars are still not an everyday day occurrence as predicted a half a century ago, I can only imagine much of the content contained in these pages will be with us continuing to ponder for a very long time. Worth the time invested to listen to this book, especially as some of our perspective is now based on driving ahead while looking at the rear view mirror.

This book probably going to change my career

Dr. Wachter is a visionary. Future of healthIT is amazing. Every chapter is well written and very well narrated. It's a must read book for modern era physicians.

Spot on

An honest Doctor POV about the current climate & trajectory of healthcare. A must read for anyone working on healthcare transformation.

confirmed my thoughts on the digitalhealthcare wor

I love the different people interviewed in the story whom offered their Insight on the digital world of healthcare.

An excellent and understandable review of the current state of the digital revolution in medicine

Bob Wachter's deep understanding of the subject and insightful prose make this book a must read for those trying to understand or impact the current changes produced by the digital revolution in the healthcare system. Having spent over 25 years as a practicing physician and Informaticist, I can say that this book is accurate and quite complete. It is also suffused with humanism and caring, making it an engaging and entertaining read.

Genial

Muy buen libro para quien le interese las nuevas tecnologías en Salud. Me encantó la parte de histirías clinicas

Great, and balanced view

Great, balanced look at the past, present and future of healthcare's relationship with technology. Recommended

A Fantastic Journey. Thought-Provoking!

If you could sum up The Digital Doctor in three words, what would they be?

A must buy.

Who was your favorite character and why?

As a Family Practice Physician deeply concerned about the interposition of technology between my profession and the patients I care for, I found Robert Wachter's, "The Digital Doctor," highly informative and thought-provoking. We stand on the cusp of a new age in medicine, one that is both exciting and dangerous. Mr. Wachter did a fantastic job of showing both sides of this growing debate in a way that allowed the reader to develop their own bias and provided supporting evidence for each argument he discussed. This book is superbly written, engaging, and, if you buy the audio version, narrated. If you've noticed that your doctor spends more time data entry than they do listening to you, the book begins to explain why. As a fellow author, D.C. Lozar, I know how hard it is to keep an audience informed, engaged, and actively thinking and would happily recommend this book to anyone willing to learn something new while being entertained. Well done.

Which character – as performed by Benjamin Wachter – was your favorite?

See above

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

see above

Any additional comments?

Great Job

Important

For all of us in medicine, this is an important book to frame our current challenges. Not too upbeat or pessimistic. Well done!