ARTICLE - 6 ways electronic medical records could make your life safer and easier

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6 Ways Electronic Medical Records Could Make Your Life Safer and Easier

US News & World Report

By Shute

Posted March 10, 2009

We'll all soon have electronic medical records, given the $19 billion

tagged for a big rollout of the long-touted paperless systems in the

economic stimulus plan. Healthcare experts say EMRs will make medicine

safer, more efficient, and more cost effective, and three quarters of

the public say they're all for it. But will the electronic records

really be better than the chaotic paper-based system we've got now?

Here's the latest, gleaned from research on health IT in the current

edition of the policy journal Health Affairs and a meeting of EMR

superstars in Washington, D.C. The bottom line: Electronic medical

records are essential, but they're far from simple. " As a software

guy, I'm really optimistic about what technology can do to improve

healthcare around the world, " said Neupert, a Microsoft vice

president. " And as a software guy, I think: Holy crap, this is really

going to be hard to do. "

Here's what they can do now:

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Read the full article here:

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2009/03/10/6-ways-electronic-medical-re\

cords-could-make-your-life-safer-and-easier.html

Not an MD