Information and communication literacy for general practitioners

General practice is now reliant on information technology to function. Moreover it is assumed that general practitioners (GPs) have appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) literacy to utilise the required technology. Furthermore, online learning programs offer the opportunity to provide continuing medical education (CME) to GPs, and although it is implicit in the online approach to CME, it is not clear that ICT literacy suitable for online study will translate into appropriate ICT literacy for professional practice. We examine these propositions by reviewing the computer skills of incoming medical students and practising GPs, by identifying tasks requiring use of ICT in general practice, and by exploring the level of ICT literacy suggested by those tasks. We recommend that ICT literacy be addressed specifically within the medical undergraduate curriculum focusing on how ICT is deployed in general practice with CME courses to supplement and extend that basic ICT literacy.