Computerized knowledge bases in primary health care: a curse or a blessing for health promotion, prevention and patient quality?

This paper presents a future scenario analysis of how the introduction of computerized knowledge bases (KBs) can come to affect primary care practice. For the collection and analysis of data, a two-level video method was applied. First, four consultations where a computerized KB was used were video-recorded. A search workshop was then carried out by letting a multi-disciplinary panel comment on the video recordings. The comments were categorized with regard to content and perspective. Analyses of the comments showed a concern for a disregard of patients' health beliefs and for difficulties in portioning out the acquired medical knowledge to the patient during the consultation. Furthermore, the computerized KB was found to easily break the natural flow of the consultation and be perceived as a third party. The conclusion is that the most critical aspects for using computerized KBs in a reformed primary health care concern the integration of the systems into the consultation process. Health promotion, prevention, and patient quality are central here, and the introduction of KB technology must not lead the consultation away from these issues.