The Center for Biomedical Informatics
State University of Campinas, Brazil

Research Abstracts

A survey based on a sample of 10,000 private medical practicioners in Brazil, was carried out with the aim of evaluating the current profile of interest on computer applications to health care, and the degree of personal contact and use of this equipment in professionally-related activities. A short questionnaire was distributed on a person-to-person basis by field representatives of a large multinational pharmaceutical company. Ca. 6,500 questionnaires were returned. The sample represented approximately the distribution of physicians across the Brazilian states, with roughly 70 % located in the East/Southern region. The most important results of a preliminary analysis were: only 10.7% of the physicians state no interest whatsoever on computers, while 78,7 % are interested, but do not use computers currently. Only 10.8 % are computer users. Of these, 13.2 % know how to program computers, i.e., are able to develop applications. Concerning the size of equipment, the survey has shown the widespread useof microcomputers, with 68.7 % of the sample of users, while only 4.8 % of the users have regular contact with mainframes. The MS- DOS, 16-bit PC's are the most frequently used microcomputers (38.5 % of users), closely followed by 8-bit machines (with 30%). The survey also indicated a high number of users who own the computers (70.8 %), while only 17.2 % of the physicians use comp- uters owned by the institution. Finally, the high degree of interest of practicioners on Health Informatics was shown by the percentage of 85 % expressing the desire to subscribe to a journal devoted to the area, while 35 % declared their interest in attending to specialized meetings/congresses. In conclusion, the survey (which was carried out in the second quarter of 1986) has shown a highly significant interest of practicioners in computers as professional tools in a developing country where microcomp-uters are widely disseminated, and where there is a large, autonomous computer industry. At the same time, it evidences the wide gap which exists between interest and usage. This could be ac-counted for a low degree of training of physicians in the util- ization of computers, as well as for the relative high cost of professional hardware and software in our country.

* Research partly supported by Hoechst Brasil/Pharma Div.

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Last Updated: March 2, 1996

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