ABSTRACT
Computers are now integral to the consultation process. Any clinicians who learnt most of their consultation skills before the widespread use of computers may well need to adapt them in order to have effective triadic consultations. Like them or loathe them, computers in the consulting room are here to stay. The presence of the computer does, inevitably, have some effect on the consultation and this is a variant on the triadic or three-way consultation. One of the three parties has a fairly passive role and communicates only through the visual medium. This chapter highlights that health professionals must try to pay full attention to the patient whenever they are speaking. This means that they need to stop typing and instead turn to the patient. Practice makes this a lot easier and there is something of an art form in incorporating as many Quality and Outcomes Frameworks (QOF).
