You can buy teflon pans that will take a fairly high heat but the are very expensive given that the teflon will wear over time and the pan will have to be replaced (if you touch it with metal while it's hot you will damage it... plastic or wood only).

I buy the cheap ones and I do NOT use high heat until I have the food in the pan and absorbing heat. At that point I regulate the heat VERY closely until I have a good fry going, at which point you can turn the heat down drastically. It may take a little practice and it depends on what you're cooking.

As well, there may be some foods you will continue to use your steel pan for... like steak. But, if you wanna cook a mess a sausages (yes, I picked sausages on accounta you don't like scrubbing your steel pan) teflon is the way to go... sloooowly. Grilled cheeese sandwich is another example.

The size of the pan with respect to the food is important... eg, if you have a small steak in the middle of a pan that is too big you run the risk of warping a cheap (read "thin metal") pan.

Last night, I got a very distressing phone call and it was only when I smelled the pasta burning that I got off the phone and removed the pan from the stove. The teflon pan... thank goodness!... clean as a whistle in ten seconds.