Technology use by physicians and their impersonators

摘要

A nurse first became suspicious of Ernest Addo, who had impersonated a physician while caring for more than 500 patients, when he had to use the website Ask.com to verify a management plan. Had Mr. Addo been a fully qualified physician, he would have just Googled it. This case illustrates how difficult it is to distinguish fake doctors from real ones based on their use of information resources. Before doctors had rapid access to medical information using modern technology, they used Palm Pilots. And before that dark period (the "lost stylus" era), doctors had to read books. It was easier then to spot the fakes. An impersonator would have a hard time keeping up pleasant banter with a patient while thumbing through a medical dictionary for "eczema," especially if he didn't know how to spell it. Because it was impossible to keep all of the necessary books in the office, fakes had to think up increasingly implausible excuses for running to a library while a patient waited. Pulling the fire alarm worked only when done infrequently. The same went for actually setting fires.