What a technophobe doctor shows about future of work
Stephen Carter asks if workers who cannot keep up with the internet should be left behind
What if your profession has never required much computer literacy — and then all of a sudden it does. Should you be fired? Should your licence be yanked? That’s the question raised by the bizarre case of Anna Konopka, a doctor who claims that New Hampshire has barred her from the practice of medicine because she does not know how to use the Internet. Konopka, 84, received the bulk of her medical training overseas. She voluntarily surrendered her license this fall after allegations that she was not participating in New Hampshire’s new mandatory system for reporting opioid prescriptions. Why not? Because to do so she would have to go online — something for which she lacks the requisite skill. Konopka has long tried to keep the digital revolution at bay. Here’s the Washington Post on Konopka’s office. Aside from a fax machine and landline telephone, there isn’t much technology. ... Instead, her patients’ records are tucked into two file cabinets, which sit in a tiny office next door to...
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