High-Tech World Keeps Doctor Current In Small-Town Practice

Dr. Frank Erickson chose to live and work in Pendleton for its small-town charm. If anything keeps him here, it’ll be his high-tech connection with the rest of the world via computer.

“Basically, I’ll be trying to join the global community of radiologists that are on line,” said Erickson, 40, St. Anthony Hospital’s new director of the Medical Imaging Department. “With my Macintosh and modem, I can be with them electronically. I really don’t feel that isolated.”

Erickson is convinced that computers are a valuable tool for rural doctors. Physicians trained in specialty areas such as brain surgery, for example, are being consulted longdistance by general practitioners in outlying areas by satellite links, telephone or even microwave.

Computers take images from scanners, transforming them into digital information that can then be transmitted to remote locations without losing much clarity.

“That is potentially the future. A filmless radiology department is within our grasp,” said Erickson, who will also be nudging the hospital toward the Internet.

The global network of computer networks can help keep staff current on the latest medical trends and allow them to converse with professionals from around the world.

Most recently, Erickson, his wife, Dr. Laura Gordon, and their two kids were living near Bremerton, Wash., where he was in private practice.

“We really wanted a small town. It was really for the kids, the quality of life, the good schools,” he said. “We’re real happy here already.”

For the past 14 months the hospital has had to make do with a series of temporary radiologists who stayed for only weeks at a time.