Though many physicians have reported that chiropractic EHR has direct benefits for patient care and the adoption of this technology is rising from year to year, there are still some medical practitioners who are wary of the road ahead. We've discussed many of the benefits of chiropractic EHR on this blog, but there is another factor worth considering: How your current and prospective patients perceive your practice.

Recently, Olga Khazan of The Atlantic explored this issue and explained the pervasive and — from an outside perspective — perplexing reluctance of various medical practices to embrace online booking, EHR and other advancements in health IT. Khazan shared the frustrations she has experienced as a patient, including the notoriously cumbersome task of transferring medical files from one doctor to the next.

"The biggest nuisances occur when there's any sort of communication required with or among doctors outside of the appointment," wrote Khazan. "In the past 10 years, I've moved from Texas to Washington to California and back to Washington, but each time, I dragged along a filing cabinet packed with phlebotomy results and shot records."

Khazan recognized sources of hesitation, including cost, conceived difficulty of adoption and concerns about the safety of patient data. However, these concerns can be alleviated by selecting intuitive chiropractic management software that is backed by the training and ongoing technical support of its provider.

In an age when the use of smartphones is actually affecting the way we walk, physicians must be willing to embrace innovation and efficiency — particularly when it overlaps with their primary priority: patient care. Furthermore, your willingness to embrace the new on behalf of your patience could come to play a role in future chiropractic marketing efforts as well.