Physicians’ Use, Perceptions And Attitude Toward Electronic Medical Record In Iraq

Abstract

Physician acceptance is critical to the widespread adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). The main objective of this research is to explore physicians’ perceptions of EMRs' function importance, anticipated usage, and their attitudes and opinions regarding EMRs in the sole organization that implemented EMRs in Kurdistan, Iraq. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 150 specialist physicians randomly selected from Faruk Medical City in Sulaimani City, Kurdistan, Iraq, using a self-administered questionnaire. The main findings of this study indicate that the greatest important functions were the display of lab results, clinical notes, and reports, as well as the display of time-trended clinical data and physician order entry (tests and medication orders) with a percentage of 100%. while the least important functions were the reporting of medical management & disease management, and nuclear medicine with percentages of (89.3%), and (72.7%) respectively. In addition, the results showed that the respondents used six out of 19 EMR functions at least weekly, agreed on the need for an EMR system implementation, and expressed overall support for EMRs. All the respondents (100%) perceived that EMRs would enhance the quality of care and reduce errors, improve the quality of practice (i.e., work-life), and have a positive impact on the cost and security of patients’ information. Most of the respondents (92.7%) also anticipated an increase in practice productivity with EMRs and recognized the necessity of spending time for training (94%). The study concluded that the respondents had a positive attitude toward EMRs. The main recommendation was to conduct a systematic examination of physician perceptions related to EMRs as both vendors and healthcare organizations can facilitate physician acceptance and ultimately the rate of adoption and utilization. This study would help them to design targeted education to demonstrate the advantages of EMRs and further improve physician perceptions toward EMRs. Keywords: Electronic Medical Records; physician acceptance; Use of medical record; Tertiary referral centers; Kurdistan Iraq.