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I nformation technology (IT) is everywhere, ever present. IT is now at the very center of our lives and it's here to stay. No one but a fool would argue to the contrary or suggest that it will go the way of the dodo bird (at least not any time soon). The internet (along with countless computer applications) and the personal computer (PC) are the hardware and software which allow each and every one of us (who is willing) to gain access to and add to the human knowledge storehouse.
What does any of this have to do with Canadian healthcare?
Look around you. Look at the people you work with, the people you interact with (while you're at it why not look in a mirror). Ask yourself this: Which of these people looks on information technology - the internet - and their computer as one of their most precious assets? Or, on the contrary, do they look on all this as something short of a necessary evil? Or, do they look on these things as nothing more than after-thoughts, toys and gadgets to be played with in their spare time?
I know many professionals and executives (at least more than I would care to count), boomers mostly (and I'm a boomer), who - actively seek to avoid using their computer. All of them own computers, but owning a computer does not mean that they necessarily use it. In fact, some do not even know where the power button is (or even the press any key !!!). Surprisingly, these are often people on the very highest end of the education / knowledge ladder including professionals who work in healthcare.
How many Canadian healthcare professionals, regardless of their area of work or expertise, say (or can say) that their computer and the internet are one of their most valuable tools? How many hours a day, yes hours, do they (do you) spend every day on their (your) computer, surfing the internet, interacting online with other healthcare professionals, adding to their (your) knowledge of healthcare?
Is there is any truth to this picture I'm painting? Well, if the internet, personal computers and information technology are not at the center of every healthcare professional's life... then it is time to sound the alarm! Alarm? Why? Because, as happens periodically in human history, new technologies revolutionize the world around us (the printing press, the steam engine, the automobile) and the internet, personal computers and information technology are nothing more than the greatest revolutionary force of all times. And while few will dispute this, the price we stand to pay individually or collectively as a nation for failing to embrace, use and apply information technology every second, minute and hour of every day is going up. The time for early adoption has come and gone and those who did have been rewarded accordingly. And while there is little incentive to follow there is a penalty for not following and that is that laggards are left in the dinosaur camp, condemned to extinction in their own lifetime!
Are the people you work and interact with: On the cutting edge? Are you? Has information technology changed the way they, and you, work? Is information technology the source of seemingly limitless knowledge by which you, and they, can now realize yours, and their, true potential?
Some seem to think, or act-as-if we are free to choose whether to embrace information technology, or not? But I would argue that the choice is NOT ours, not any more than accepting the horseless carriage was a matter of choice! We have but one choice and that is to embrace it; to use it every day; to make it ours just like we do breathing, eating and sleeping. In this way we still have a chance of being “on the cutting edge.
A well known and influential American (a citizen of San Francisco) used to say: If you're not on the (cutting) edge you're taking up space!
Going to the edge and being on the edge can be a scary proposition but the reward for going there is that the vistas are the most beautiful and remarkable there. We can go there of our own accord and claim the treasures as ours or we can follow the others in which case to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln: Good things come to those who wait but only those things left over by those who went ahead.
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