Check-in kiosk for clinics. Dr. Gonzales has been experimenting with a computer kiosk to speed-up patient screening at an urgent care clinic of UCSF, since 2005. Called the UTI Self-Management Kiosk, it screens women with urinary tract infection symptoms (a condition which makes long waits especially undesirable), using interactive video, a touch pad, and a series of standardized questions to identify those patients who needed a see a doctor, and those who don't. The kiosk prints a report for each patient to explain symptoms, a medication, or treatment options. If a script is warranted, the kiosk prints it and the patient is referred to a doctor for signature, only. Only women who need examinations are required to stick around. In Gonzales' 2005 trial, 30 percent of women processed and diagnosed by the Kiosk left the clinic without waiting. Patient feedback was positive, and an audio feature was especially helpful for the literacy-impaired. The kiosk is now fully integrated into the clinic workflow, and Dr. Gonzales is recruiting for a supplementary trial. The hope: his kiosks can be programmed to screen multiple conditions for broader use. Dr. Gonzales has also been awarded two grants from RWJF to study the overuse of antibiotics. 

Speaking to RWJF: "I feel like I'm very tuned-in to the quality of health care delivery from the consumer perspective," Gonzales says. "I think that comes from growing up in an environment where your entire livelihood depends on delivering a high quality product and service. A lot of that has been lost in medicine. We're not as customer-oriented as we need to be."