No one was more surprised than the physician himself. The drawing was unmistakable. It showed the artist—a 7-year-old girl—on the examining table. Her older sister was seated nearby in a chair, as was her mother, cradling her baby sister. The physician sat staring at the computer, his back to the patient—and everyone else. All were smiling. The picture was carefully drawn with beautiful colors and details, and you couldn’t miss the message. When he saw the drawing, the physician wrote a caption for it: “The economic stimulus bill has directed $20 billion to health care information technology, largely funding electronic medical record incentives. I wonder how much this technology will really cost?”

Why was the physician so surprised? Let me tell you about this guy. He joined our pediatrics residency with the rest of the new interns after a two-year stint as the medical officer aboard an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, a position he had assumed after a single year of general internship in the navy. During the assignment, he had seen this floating city of more than 2500 through every conceivable medical problem from homesickness to pre-eclampsia, traumatic amputation, and myocardial infarction. He learned to make decisions as significant as diverting an entire aircraft carrier in order to get a patient to a tertiary-care hospital in Bahrain. When you spend a moment with this young physician, you sense innate kindness, humility, and connection to a larger purpose, be this family, country, patients, or hospital. He also has charisma. Students, colleagues, faculty, parents, and kids of every age connect with him. The enjoyment seems mutual. You find him crouching down to mee his young patients at eye level. Evidence of his love for children has grown outside the hospital as well. He and his wife have had three kids during his residency. He was an obvious choice for chief resident and is now in that position. This is a physician’s physician, a doctor who delivers humanity and competence throughout the day, although if you asked him about these attributes, I’ll bet he’d say they are some of his aspirations, not accomplishments.

So it came as a stunning piece of feedback—not surprisingly out of the crayon of a babe—that his patients might be seeing him in a new way since the rollout of the electronic medical record. From my perspective of 20 years practicing primary care pediatrics and internal medicine and more than two years into juggling the needs of patients with those of the computer, this child’s drawing powerfully expressed the deep frustration and concern of many physicians, including me.

没有人比医生本人更惊讶了。这幅画是明白无误的。它展示了检查台上的艺术家——一个 7 岁的女孩。她的姐姐和她的母亲坐在附近的椅子上，抱着她的小妹妹。医生坐着盯着电脑，背对着病人——还有其他人。所有人都在微笑。图片是用美丽的色彩和细节精心绘制的，你不能错过信息。当他看到这幅画时，医生为它写了一个标题：“经济刺激法案已将 200 亿美元用于医疗保健信息技术，主要用于资助电子病历激励措施。我想知道这项技术的真正成本是多少？”

医生为何如此惊讶？让我告诉你关于这个人的事。在波斯湾的一艘航空母舰上担任了两年的医疗官后，他与其他新实习生一起加入了我们的儿科住院医师，这是他在海军实习一年后担任的职位。在任务期间，他看到了这座拥有 2500 多人的漂浮城市，经历了从乡愁到先兆子痫、外伤性截肢和心肌梗塞等每一个可以想象的医疗问题。他学会了做出重要的决定，就像让整艘航空母舰改航，以便将病人送到巴林的一家三级医院。当您与这位年轻的医生共度片刻时，您会感受到与生俱来的善良、谦逊以及与更大目标的联系，无论是这个家庭、国家、患者还是医院。他也有魅力。各个年龄段的学生、同事、教师、父母和孩子都与他联系在一起。这种享受似乎是相互的。你会发现他蹲下来在视线水平上与他的年轻患者会面。他对孩子的爱的证据也在医院之外增长。在他居住期间，他和他的妻子生了三个孩子。他是首席居民的明显选择，现在担任该职位。这是一位医生的医生，一位全天提供人性和能力的医生，尽管如果你问他这些属性，我敢打赌他会说这是他的一些愿望，而不是成就。在他居住期间，他和他的妻子生了三个孩子。他是首席居民的明显选择，现在担任该职位。这是一位医生的医生，一位全天提供人性和能力的医生，尽管如果你问他这些属性，我敢打赌他会说这是他的一些愿望，而不是成就。在他居住期间，他和他的妻子生了三个孩子。他是首席居民的明显选择，现在担任该职位。这是一位医生的医生，一位全天提供人性和能力的医生，尽管如果你问他这些属性，我敢打赌他会说这是他的一些愿望，而不是成就。

因此，自电子病历推出以来，他的患者可能会以一种新的方式看到他，这作为一个惊人的反馈——毫不奇怪，来自婴儿的蜡笔。从我从事初级保健儿科和内科 20 年的经验，以及两年多来兼顾患者和计算机的需求的角度来看，这个孩子的绘画有力地表达了包括我在内的许多医生的深深的沮丧和担忧。