Inventing the future of physicians and information technology: methods and results of the 1997 Lafayette Parish Medical Society Information Systems and Information Technology Project.

This paper challenges physicians to consider how to best invent a future in which they can personally leverage emerging information and communication technologies to maximize their effectiveness and efficiency as care givers. One Louisiana State Medical Society component medical society has already posed this challenge to its members. The paper describes the 1997 Lafayette Parish Medical Society Physicians' Information Systems and Information Project, conducted on behalf of the society by faculty of the Healthcare Administration MBA Program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Specific recommendations for application of health care information technologies by physicians and by health care institutions, based on findings and conclusions of the project, are highlighted.