Towards Understanding Apparent South Australian GP Resistance to Adopting Health Informatics Systems

This paper reports on a qualitative study of the attitudes of 23 South Australian practitioners in General Practice (GP) towards adopting an unspecified data amalgamating Health Informatics (HI) system. Findings suggest key areas of concern are associated with the potential for diminution of control over change and adoption was primarily influenced by a perceived need to protect the role and value of GPs. If change was seen as involuntary, uncertain or without demonstrable benefit to relevant patient outcomes, the prospect of change tended to manifest as passive or active GP resistance. Findings suggest increased exposure to use of HI systems influences GP perception of both the importance and certainty of potential implementation outcomes. It was concluded that discrete attitudes towards the use of HIS technology could be identified. Determined by contextual GP perceptions of competing managerial, technological and political factors, they are not mutually exclusive and more appropriately seen as a series of developmental and co-existing perspectives.