Perspectives in Primary Care: Knowing the Patient as a Person in the Precision Medicine Era

The patient-physician interaction has changed. Physicians spend much of their time at the computer, examining radiographic images and laboratory test results and documenting in the electronic health record. While most patients express satisfaction with the use of computers in the clinical setting, a recent study noted that, “Patients also cited poor screen positioning, body positioning and eye contact as factors contributing to perceptions of decreased quality of care and unbalanced focus, with the physician appearing more focused on the computer than the patient.”