I enjoyed PMR’s editorial and exhortation to do a history and physical [“Back to basics [9],” BCMJ 2007;49:530]. Her des­cription of a “young emergency physician” who did not examine any patients for 3 to 4 hours whilst remaining in front of a computer filled me with envy. I did not know there were any such jobs on the ground floor of hospitals.

This editorial may change the face of emergency medicine and the computerphiles who lazily go about their work in the soothing atmosphere of their local ER. Or shall I say the waiting rooms and hallways of the emergency department?
We do not, at present, have any computers in our waiting room or hallway, nor do we routinely do rectal exams there, but I am sure that techno-loving bureaucrats and graduates of leadership seminars could come up with some cash to fix this problem, after, of course, the requisite extensive and lengthy study of the issue.

—Michael Dettman, MD
Emergency physician, VGH