I had my regular annual physical today – mostly because my insurance premiums go up if I don’t see my primary care doctor at least one time per year.

No big news, but it hit me while sitting in the room how impersonal it all seemed.

Which isn’t a comment on my doctor or the health system he works for – more about the way that healthcare has become a data collection driven enterprise. My doctor came in, washed his hands, looked in my ears, eyes, and felt my thyroid and ankles in less than a minute, then made small talk for the 10 minutes while he entered data into the systems electronic health record (which happens to be Epic).

Again, no ding on Epic – but I sat there as my doctor filled out whatever the computer mandated – but he only spent a minute with me.

I guess I’m old enough to remember when the doctor spent more time with their patient, scribbled things like mad, and went to the next room.

Hopefully all this electronic data means they will help us all live longer at some point.