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Monday, March 15, 2010

Paperless Medicine?

by Emily Ramshaw
January 28, 2010  |  3

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Electronic medical records that follow patients from doctor to doctor. Hospitals with instantaneous online access to lab results and health histories. Disease researchers with a state’s worth of field data at their fingertips. It all hinges on a single question: Can Texas physicians go paperless?

Some doctors are embracing e-records technology on their own. Others are being brought around to it, through a combination of federal requirements and the promise of tens of thousands of stimulus dollars. They’ve got a powerful coalition of software and communications giants, insurance companies, and cancer researchers urging them on — and laying the ...

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Comments (3)

  • Korboi wrote on 1/28/2010 10:15 a.m.

    The Healthcare Reform Process Offers this Nation, a National Investment Opportuniity.

    Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, we Must Used HIT Solutions to Contained our SkyRocketing Healthcare Spending.

    We must Used some of the Stimulus Funds, to Build Smart Infrastructure Services for: Smart Transportation Systems, Smartr Grids, Braodband, and Healthcare IT. This Investment will Enabled New Jobs Creation and Economic Recovery.

    Proper Deployment of HIT Solutions and Training will Increased Productivity (i, e, medical data mining/warehousing, risks treatment, service delivery), Efficiency (9i, e, medical errors, redundant and inappropriate care), and Provide a Cost Savings of around 20-30% of of around 20-30% of our Annual National Healthcare Expenditure Expenditures (2008, $2.3 Trillions).

    Please See: www.gkquoquoi.blogspot.com for The Summary Deployment Plan, for the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN).

    Gadema Korboi Quoquoi
    President & CEO
    COMPULINE INTERNATIONAL, INC.

  • Ouija wrote on 1/28/2010 1:11 p.m.

    Several years ago, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle charges of illegally testing workers for genetic defects in the government's first case against workplace DNA discrimination. Since that time, the struggle between a person's right to medical privacy and a company's pursuit of profit has only grown. E-health records are the holy grail for insurance companies, and government's social engineers, and that makes most average citizens nervous. On the other hand the lucrative over-testing done by docs today is threatened by e-health records too, so one could argue e-health records would lower medical inflation.

  • Phil53 wrote on 2/4/2010 11:28 a.m.

    Good article overall, but the statement is made,"While there’s no doubt e-records can save lives and improve health care." While it may be that they "can," the truth is that they have not yet shown an improvement. A Harvard medical study came to this conclusion as referenced in this article: amjmed.com/webfiles/images/journals/ajm/AJM10662S200.pdf

    Most of the hype is just that.

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