An Analysis of Physicians ' Attitudes Randy L. Teach and Edward H. Shortliffe

Effect of the Tutorial The tutorial experience had a small but significant effect on physicians' Demands and also produced a substantial increase in their knowledge about computing concepts. The results from the Demand-scale were of particular interest. Physicians apparently gained new insights from the tutorial into the potential use and capabilities of medical computing and increased their performance Demands accordingly. These opinions regarding the attributes of acceptable computing systems were surprisingly uniform across physician subgroups both before and after the tutorial. Our interpretation of this result is that physicians are serious about these Demands and that consultation systems are not likely to be clinically effective, regardless of the accuracy of their advice, until these capabilities have been incorporated.