Science: Lean and Hungry after a Visit to the Doctor: GPs Spell Squeezed Profits for Software Firms, Says Lynne Curry

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The seduction of general practitioners by the grey keys and green lights of office computers was initiated by a Midlands software company, Meditel, whose intentions, at least at first, were not to corner the market.

Department of Health figures suggest that today 80 per cent of the 10,000 general practices in the UK have installed computer systems, a sharp rise from the figure of 30 per cent only three years ago. 'The general practices in the UK lead the world in terms of usage of computers by GPs,' says Dr Simon Jenkins, a GP in Bury, Lancashire.

Meditel began by offering free computer systems in exchange for access to data which could then be sold to drug and …