How Health IT Can Reduce Anticipated Physician Shortage

Adoption of health information technology (IT) could reduce the demand for primary care providers by anywhere from 10% to 45%, depending on how widespread implementation is, according to an article in the November 2013 Health Affairs. Noting that a shortfall in all types of primary care providers is anticipated by 2020, the authors estimate the impact of health IT on aspects of care such as consumer use of e-health tools, provider workflow changes, and delegation of tasks to more widely available types of providers; estimates were made based on either 30% or 70% adoption of health IT capabilities.