TAMPA, FL – As many CIOs and practice managers know, training physicians at a large group practice to accept and use electronic medical records can be a daunting experience. But the challenge can be made easier, says a medical school administrator.

Stephen Klasko, MD, the dean of the University of South Florida College of Medicine and vice president of USF Health, says that understanding physician biases is critical to transforming a paper-based practice and building a new business environment.

“When physicians encounter conflict, they usually become either hyper-competitive or try to avoid the situation,” said Klasko. “We wanted to shift our physicians toward collaboration and accommodation.”

Klasko described how USF’s research into physician biases helped design a high-tech academic group practice built around an EMR system.

The USF Physicians Group, a multi-specialty group practice, includes 394 physicians and 69 nurse practitioners who see patients throughout the Tampa Bay area.

“We did a six year study looking at how physicians negotiate, communicate and handle change,” said Klasko. “We took a ‘history of the future’ approach. We wanted to know what we would need to succeed in 2018.”