Although electronic health records have been considered the "Next Big Thing in health care" for the past two decades, 90% of U.S. physicians and more than two-thirds of U.S. hospitals continue to opt for paper records, the Baltimore Sun reports. David Merritt, director of the Center for Health Transformation, said, "Health care is at least a generation behind the rest of society in terms of technology," adding, "Doctors and hospitals don't use the technology we take for granted everywhere else."

The Sun attributes this "lag" to a "colossal, inertia-filled health care system, a paucity of good software, no incentives to adopt new technology and a lack of government leadership." Merritt said the U.S. health care system is "such a convoluted system" that when people "think about changing that kind of behemoth, it's daunting." There are also some concerns about the privacy of EHRs.

However, "almost everyone agrees that moving from paper to bits will improve health care," because, overall, they "reduce medical errors, save lives" and have the potential to save "hundreds of billions of dollars," according to the Sun. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who has pushed for the adoption of EHRs, said, "It's hard to believe that America lags behind the world in adoption of the information technology that can save lives and make health care more affordable -- yet that's exactly the case today," adding, "Congress and the administration should make a commitment to bringing the nation's health system into the information age."

According to the Sun, several large companies, including Microsoft and Google, recently have announced plans to offer online personal health records, which "will likely spur digitization" efforts (Kohn, Baltimore Sun, 3/2).

Editorial
"The obvious perils" of programs such as Google Health are "twofold: the loss of privacy and the fact that the average patient isn't a medical professional, which means he could enter incorrect information that could pose health risks," according to a Washington Times editorial. The editorial continues that while the "upside is that patients themselves will decide whom they wish to share their medical information with, the cautionary side is that Google could potentially use the data sets to attract traffic for its online advertisements, which has slumped in recent months." The editorial concludes that patients "deserve access to the latest medical treatments and their accompanying administrative mechanisms, but the risks of privacy loss and error are also clear" (Washington Times, 3/3).

Opinion Piece
"Making medical records available electronically has the potential to reduce medical costs and save lives through the elimination of errors," columnist Mike King writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He adds that while "hospitals have recently begun to purchase the technology to enhance patient records and safety, physicians have been alarmingly slow to embrace the concept." According to King, EHRs "will eventually make their way into all facets of medicine," and the "sooner we get there, the better" (King, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/3).