Speech recognition could help. In fact some doctors already make (very quick) voice-recording notes and have an assistant transcribe them. But... we already ha

Speech recognition could help. In fact some doctors already make (very quick) voice-recording notes and have an assistant transcribe them. But... we already have much more advanced technology than we had 30, 20, or even 15 years ago. And the problem has only gotten worse. > “Our notes could be shorter back then,” was his reply. (Insurance, regulations and electronic health records weren’t issues back then.) This quote in passing just assumes everyone is familiar with the fact that "electronic health records" are something that makes things harder. That doesn't make sense, does it? Shouldn't electronic records make things easier? They should. But they don't, due to adverse incentives in the medical system, and in the political organizations which constitute it. My point is, the pressing need is not for more advanced technology. We have the technology, we have had it for years. We just need to somehow reduce the crazyness. Medical software is like enterprise software but worse - it's the crappiest, most expensive software you've ever seen in your life. There are all sorts of reasons for this. It's not chosen by the people who use it, checkbox feature lists are more important than what works, regulations, political deals, "high touch" sales, etc. The result is often "I have to sign in three times, then wait 5 minutes for it to load the patient, and hope it doesn't crash in the middle". It has to be seen to be believed.