The digital doctor

the long version

For the past few decades, technology has been touted as the cure for all of healthcare's ills, yet medicine stubbornly resisted computerization-- until now. Thanks largely to billions of dollars in federal incentives, healthcare has finally gone digital. Wachter examines healthcare at the dawn of its computer age, and shows how technology is changing care at the bedside. He questions whether government intervention has been useful or destructive-- and does so with clarity, insight, humor, and compassion.