If you walked into a bank and asked to open an account, and they opened a huge ledger book and began paging to your letter in the alphabet, you'd gape for a second, walk out, and call your friends. Or maybe you'd Twitter the experience. It is the 21st Century, after all. What you wouldn't do is use that bank.But what we'd never allow with our money is constantly endured with our health. Most of us know our medical records sit in manila envelopes in some doctor's filing cabinets somewhere. Our health information -- information that could save us, or if misunderstood, kill us -- is scrawled in a human being's haphazard penmanship, and stuffed in a paper folder. It's insane.The evidence is clear on this score: Electronic health records not only save money, they save lives. The remarkable achievements of the Veteran's Health Administration are largely the work of VISTA, their electronic health records architecture. Indeed, the Commonwealth Fund found that the savings from EHRs are considerable:
Those are real world savings, with real world implementation that, according to the Commonwealth Fund, underutilizes possible safety and care gains. But the problem is the upfront costs are quite high. Around $50,000 per physician. And that's not to include the time it takes to learn the system, or a doctor's preference for the way he's always done things. Which is why fewer than 20 percent of physicians have adopted the technology. At this point, it's clear you'd need some coordinating authority to help pay some of the upfront cost, and ensure standards and interoperability among systems. An authority like...the government. Even Kevin MD, as free market as they comes, agrees. "The ball is in the government's court. If universal electronic records are the happen, they have the ability to make it so." And now the government, under Obama, is planning to make it so, including real money for health information technology in the stimulus package. This is how the stimulus should be used: To make necessary and needed investments that will have lasting beneifts.
Those are real world savings, with real world implementation that, according to the Commonwealth Fund, underutilizes possible safety and care gains. But the problem is the upfront costs are quite high. Around $50,000 per physician. And that's not to include the time it takes to learn the system, or a doctor's preference for the way he's always done things. Which is why fewer than 20 percent of physicians have adopted the technology. At this point, it's clear you'd need some coordinating authority to help pay some of the upfront cost, and ensure standards and interoperability among systems. An authority like...the government. Even Kevin MD, as free market as they comes, agrees. "The ball is in the government's court. If universal electronic records are the happen, they have the ability to make it so." And now the government, under Obama, is planning to make it so, including real money for health information technology in the stimulus package. This is how the stimulus should be used: To make necessary and needed investments that will have lasting beneifts. 
