Editor—In her first point Shaw misunderstands our methods. We looked at the entire medical record of the consultation whether all electronic, all manual or a combination.
The second point concerns the value of diagrams. We know of no evidence concerning this and can only observe that they are often used as expressive shortcuts, rather than as unique expressions that cannot be replicated in text. However, we would welcome evidence on this issue.
Lastly, Shaw draws attention to the finding that surprised us—namely, that so few general practitioners seemed to remember either the patient or the consultation, rather than just comment on the record entry. The assertion that this was due to an absence of visual cues should mean that the manual record group recalled patients and their consultations more than the electronic record group. However, this was not the case.
Competing interests: None declared.