But am I in the foolhardy, spiky minority, am I taking risks?
The debate I follow, and the related ongoing subject of these postings, is the progress in GP practice on-line interaction with patients. And it seems to have been a noisey week in the press and social media!
On one side of the carriage-way are the articulate 'nay-sayers', expounding the risks of a free-for-all with sensitive information, mushrooming workload and a security nightmare. On the opposite side are the proponents of progress at any cost, predicting doom, gloom and revolution if all the barriers to information access are not unceremoniously torn down immediately....
And so, I 'dither' in the middle of the road, looking both ways, but not really drawn to, or convinced by either camp of the rights and wrongs.
Like many of my GP colleagues, I have rapidly become a user of IT to access services and information that make my life easier and more convenient. I expect to check balances and transfer money on-line, to browse and shop in the evening for presents I have forgotten, to communicate with friends and colleagues and to plan my family schedule.
But also recognise that I wish to be private and secure with my information, I shred documents and take care of passwords, I update anti-virus software and try to remain alert for security threats and 'scams'. I have been caught out before, and will be again, but on balance I still choose to 'take the risk'.
So am I on my own, in the middle-of-the-road'?
It would appear not! The majority of my colleagues, and quite probably of my patients, can see benefits and risks, but will increasingly try out on-line interaction in health as they do in other areas of their lives. Every practice and every patient will have different reasons and experience - all equally valid.
So it turns out that MOST of us are 'in the road', those shouting from the sides may well be the oddities with entrenched views and less grasp of reality. There really are NO cars or lorries bearing down on us, threatening instant oblivion - there are challenges to face, mistakes to make, evidence be gathered and lessons to be learnt, but not by sitting on the edge lecturing to others.
Being in the 'middle-of-the-road' may turn out to be the cool place to be!
Peter S.
